Brunch with the Bickels

This past Saturday morning we met the Bickels for brunch at Manzana in Lake Oswego. It was our first meeting with the Bickels since we told everyone our news and they took every available opportunity to share their thoughts about parenthood. It is good to know people who have gone through the experience of having a kid recently. It's even better when they are willing to share their hard-earned wisdom with the newbies. (That's us.) What I learned this brunch? That when you use a hand pump on the bulging-with-milk mom boobies, once the process is started more pumping isn't really required. Good to know. Sara also mentioned something about sex but neither Darr nor myself was brave enough to revisit that comment. We can only handle a certain amount of new information at a time.

When we had finished eating and chatting, and Noodle signaled she was ready to go - she did fabulously well during the meal - we headed outside, stopping at the newly opened St. Honoré Boulangerie to get a strawberry pastry for later. (No, we weren't actually hungry but we stopped nonetheless.) Then walked over to the parking lot where we left the Bickels at their Volvo, hopped into the Mini, and headed to Segal's. Our mission, to try out strollers to see which options fit in the boot. What we learned, much to our dismay, is that none of the strollers, including the super cheap models solely used with infant car seats, fit well into the boot of the car. You can forget the Bob stroller, which basically has to be dismantled to sort of almost fit. The Bugaboo wasn't much better, although we were able to close the boot. And you can forget having a passenger in the front seat when we put the infant car seat in the back unless that person has no legs and doesn't mind the up close and personal view of the road one can only get by sitting an inch away from the windshield.

Needless to say, we felt rather dejected when we left. I won't even go into what it was like perusing the aisles for cheaper crib options. Ugh. We are slowly coming to terms with the fact that babies are expensive. I can't begin to imagine how much an Ivy League school is going to cost in 2025. I suggested Darr buy a second Mini, one for him and the dog, and that we could take two Minis whenever we needed to travel as a family but he seemed not fond of this idea. That's why we landed at the Honda dealership next. I left my wallet at home, not anticipating an afternoon of test driving, but Darr was able to take the Element out on the road for a quick drive. In a word (Darr's word), the car is utilitarian. It is cute in an ugly kind of way. The Element is the vehicle currently at the top of our list. A sedan just won't work with a kid and a dog. Other vehicles we'll check out in our quest for the perfect family transportation device - Subaru Outback, Audi A3 wagon, Toyota Matrix, and one member of the Mazda family I can't recall.