The Great Stroller Search

Little Lia's turning one month next week and soon she'll be out and about. Both of her ate's baby and toddler strollers were already passed on to her cousins in the Philippines so we need to get a new one.

I thought it would be easy to choose this time around (since it's the second time) but I was wrong. With so many choices and so many cool buggies nowadays, it hasn't been an easy task for me to decide which one to get. It's just like buying a new car (not that I have one)!

You can easily enumerate the big ones- Maclaren, Graco, Combi, Peg Perego, Aprica, Silver Cross, Quinny, Babyzen, Capella, Stokke, and Bugaboo just to name a few.

I have a mental list of what I want and not for a stroller and here they are: I want a lightweight stroller. I don't want an umbrella-type buggy. I want a pram that can stand while it is folded. I want one that is suitable to use from baby's birth up to at least her third year. And lastly, I want a trendy-looking stroller with a nice color and cool features.

So after browsing through websites and their distributors here in Singapore, I came up with three options which I viewed personally to get a good look and feel before finally buying.

Here are my three favorites: Stokke Scoot, Aprica Ria and Babyhome Emotion.

STOKKE SCOOT. Released just last year, it's the compact and more practical version of the Stokke Xplory. Who would not fall in love with this? The luxury stroller has brilliant design, good quality, reversible seat, and a high seat that promotes child-parent bonding (think a rolling highchair which would be useful in dining out). It took me days to convince my wife about this because it is really pricey. It's Stokke after all!

In the end I changed my mind. Not that it doesn't have a bumper bar, or it cost a limb, the biggest turn-off for me was its weight and size. It weighs almost 11 kg! Even if it has a one-hand fold, its dimensions is a bummer. Oh well.

APRICA AIR RIA. Talk about lightweight! This puppy weighs around 5 kg only. It's perfect for newborn because it reclines well and has a generous and beautiful canopy! 

And lastly, the one I did not let go. 

BABYHOME EMOTION. Wanna makes you sing the Bee Gees song right? And all for the right reasons. This stroller is practical, lightweight, folds upright, perfect for newborns (because of the car seat), and has good looks! It also comes with optional accessories to jazz it all up and can accommodate up to 25 kg, all in the color that I want. Weighing 6 kg only, to me this lightweight stroller has the best of both worlds.

Have I told you that it is also cheaper than my first two choices? And because of that I'm able to get the car seat as well! Below is the color or non-color that we've picked.

Now that's a good buy!

*Update (30 June 2014)

The shipment has been delivered on time by the local distributor but to my surprise, and not so pleasant at that, they gave me the black with silver frame. I tried to have it exchanged to my original order but unfortunately they cannot send the two units in the same color I wanted. A lot of calls (and a lot of patience) later, I gave up and accepted this color with a matching car seat as we urgently need one and waiting for a replacement would be frustrating.

It still pretty though and looks perfectly-matched with the Nuna Sena Mini-Travel Cot I got last week.