Traveling with baby

We just put Baby Stewgler's west coast grandparents on a plane for home after a five day visit. We love playing tourist when they visit and this trip was no exception -- a Circle Line cruise around Manhattan, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge (happy 125th BB!), a lovely afternoon in the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. Traveling by boat, train & automobile with the bambina adds an extra little wrinkle, but is certainly not a reason to stay home and miss the fun. Here are a few things that made our daily junkets a little easier.

• A good stroller: I did massive stroller research during my pregnancy and finally settled on the Micralite Toro. I'll be the first to admit that it isn't perfect (why does it take only one hand to fold it closed but takes two to unfold it? And why don't they tell you that on the website?), but it comes close. Mr. Stewgler is a major stroller hater and even he admitted that our travels around the city were aided by the Toro. Big air-filled wheels make it easy to get up over curbs & drivable over cobblestones and bumpy Brooklyn sidewalks. It's light enough to get it up and down subway stairs. And it's damn cool looking.
• Formula "sticks": These pre-measured packets of formula make on-the-go bottle mixing a breeze. I'd pack the diaper bag with a couple of bottles filled with the correct amount of water and when we needed one it would only take a few seconds to add the formula powder. No fuss, no muss.
  
• Skip-Hop Pronto diaper zone: It's just good to have all your diapering necessities well organized and well contained within your diaper bag. Added bonus to have a cool-looking pad to put between the little one's naked bum and, say, the bird poop encrusted benches at the botanical gardens.
• Extra hands: Grandparents are the greatest!

For the record, I still hate the car seat.