Citi Mini vs. Phil n Teds Thingy

Twice now I’ve had people tell me that I’m stupid for buying the pram I have.  Ok so they didn’t exactly say stupid but they were extremely rude and professed that their beloved Phil and Ted’s doubledeckersqueezethebabyunderneath pram is far superior to mine for a toddler/baby combo.  Their argument is that you can’t go anywhere or do anything with a side by side pram like mine because it doesn’t fit through a door or ....well anywhere really.  Ummm....it is the width of a standard door (and a wheelchair!) and most shops in this day and age allow people into wheelchairs into their shops!

Best. Pram. Ever

Thingy.

My pram is super light, super sturdy and super easy to fold.  It is fantastic for twins or a baby/toddler combo.  It has heaps of storage and you can balance two of those little red shopping baskets on top.  You can fit 12L of milk in the storage underneath!  You can steer it one handed while holding a child on your hip with no problems (essential!!!).  Yes, it is wider than the Phil and Teds thingy.  The Citi Mini is 76cm wide and the Phil n Teds is 64cm wide. But, the Citi Mini is only 12.1kgs and the Phil and Teds is around 13.8.  The Citi Mini is much easier to fold (so I've read, I’ve never folded a Phil n Teds) and has two wheels at the front which makes it much sturdier.  I know neither of my children would’ve been happy to be one stuck in that space down the bottom of the Phil n Teds from ummm...probably 5 months old! Also – I would’ve further aggravated my already painful back injury trying to get them in and out.  

Here ends my completely biased comparison of the Citi Mini vs. Phil n Ted’s thingy.  Now, the Baby Jogger Citi Select and Bugaboo Donkey didn’t exist when I bought my pram so I would seriously look into that those ones if you are a mum looking for a double pram but....just by looking at them they don't seem to be as leightweight and easy to fold as my beloved pram :).  

I guess what really upset me was just how rude these mums with the Phil n Teds pram were....seriously people – get over yourselves – it’s just a pram!

Stubborn Self Feeders

I think there are two ways to present food to babies. 

1. Over protective mum approach.  You sit with them the entire meal and put tiny pieces of food in their mouth and freak out if they look like they are going to choke.
2. Lazy mum approach.  Load up the highchair with a bunch of different finger foods and walk away to do the washing up.

There are two ways babies like to be fed

1. Lazy but smart baby approach.  Baby absolutely refuses to pick up anything for himself.
2. Stubbornly independent baby approach.  Baby absolutely refuses to be fed.  Baby must feed themselves.

I started out as being the over protective mum trying to feed two stubbornly independent babies.  The closer I was to the highchair the less they ate.  I changed to being a lazy mum.  It was hard to convince other carers that the lazy approach really was the best way, especially considering the mess it created (and therefore, it really isn’t a lazy approach!).  I swear the more mess they had created, the more food they had eaten so mess was a good thing!  

My messy 13 month olds!