Tristan and I went to the local mall via train. This was his second trip, and the first one since the one we had to leave due to his screaminess. We walked around to the train station, about half a mile away from here. We rarely do this even still, but he was in his front-facing stroller and I packed the sling (in this case, the Mei Tai – all baby carriers are collectively referred to as “the sling” here) in the diaper bag.

The trip to the mall was fairly uneventful – we slathered on baby sunblock, got strapped into the stroller with an attached toy, got to the station, bought the ticket, got on and had to sit in the bike section because assholes felt the need to sit in the facing-out seats, cursed the stroller, baby was asleep by the time we got there, and the main elevator from the station was out so we had to walk a block out of the way, complete with obnoxious pedestrian signals. I took the sleepyhead through Sports Authority, where I looked at baby bike seats and trailers. I looked for cheap baby stuff at Burlington Coat Factory (we need a couple pair of cheapo dark pants; I will find them in the next couple of days, most likely), and when Tristan woke up I took him out of the stroller and sat with him in a rocking chair (we are considering getting one after all, but most likely once we move). After finding nothing in BCF, I took him out to the main mall hallway and put him in the sling. We met a 3-month-old in a stroller who looked almost as big as Tristan (and Tristan’s no slacker, even though he’s levelled off quite a bit) in another baby store. We walked for a while, got to Gamestop, picked up Wii remote rechargey thingies, and headed out.. me walking with a baby in a carrier and pushing a stroller.

I tried to get to another store, but then Tristan started screaming his little head off, which in the carrier means only one thing: “Feed. Me. NOW!” I tried to plead with him to let me wait until we were closer to the train station, and we ended up compromising and stopping at the bus station that was a good 5 minute walk from the train station. I’d packed a mixable bottle since he ate sort of scantily this morning, and when we were sitting down I mixed it up and he ate about 2/3 of it. Punkass. If you’re hungry enough to scream in the carrier, why are you only taking a snack? After he decided he was done, we tied up the carrier and worked our way toward the correct station. Sleepy baby wanted to fall asleep on me but saw too many interesting things.

After a 20 minute wait in deceptively chilly weather (I swear, it LOOKS like summer out there, and it occasionally FEELS like summer.. but it’s chilly and windy) the train came, I managed to get a side-facing seat this time, Tristan enjoyed watching scenery go by and then finally started passing out on me. Half a mile of walking after we got off the train, we were home, and I actually managed to get him from the Mei Tai to the crib without incident. And he’s still asleep two hours later.