Another review: Phil & Teds Double Stroller

Wren was born in the start of winter. We didn't rush out to buy a stroller because unless we were in a shopping mall, we couldn't see ourselves using one right away. I researched for a long time and found the Phil and Teds stroller.

I was looking for a stroller that was sporty for outdoor trails, but also small enough to take into a mall.
I also hoped it could fit another child one day. Though you can't plan everything in life, we did hope to have two kids relatively close in age, which meant when the second one came, we would want both to be able to ride in the stroller at the same time.

(We did buy a $20 stroller from Costco initially. Wren is about 3 months old here and going out for a walk on a mild winters day. I think I bundled her so much just to keep here from flopping around!)

I was happily surprised to find that the Phil and Teds has it all. It's also the price of a small, used car. Kidding. But it doesn't come cheap either.

However, we have LOVED using it with Wren.  It's been worth the price and then some...

on river valley trails...

parks...

and it's basically all-terrain!

Then there were two:

We bought the second seat for the stroller off Kijiji for half the retail price of a new one and it works just great. Since Ellie is a Spring baby and Wren has a love for the outdoors, we've been using the double stroller non-stop on these beautiful summer days.

I love the car seat adapter for the first few months when you don't want to wake the baby when pulling them from the car to the stroller, or if you want extra support and protection for them on a walk. With the extra seat on the bottom, Wren can sit down there and I can have two in the stroller without disrupting either. Because they are not side by side or directly sitting one in front of the other, we fit nicely through doorways and the stroller isn't super long. Basically, nothing changes about the size of the stroller, you just added another kid! And my knees don't hit the second seat when walking either. 

If you don't want to put the baby's car seat into the stroller, you can unclip and unzip and down comes the back which turns into a spot for baby to lay down in. Then you bring the second seat up on top...

Here is Wren in the top seat and you can just barely see Ellie's little head peeking out of the bottom section that is laying down...

Comfy and cozy. 

Technically Wren is too big to sit in the second seat when it's down on the bottom so she has to be up here now. But once Ellie is able to hold her head up well on her own, she can sit underneath in the second seat. Very convenient!

Okay, I know, the stroller isn't perfect. And I haven't tried any other ones either. But we love the concept of two kids in one stroller and options to move them around depending on their sizes and needs.

Some things I would change:

- The two back wheels are quite wide and often get caught on corners or trying to manoeuvre in tight spots in stores or markets. However, lo and behold they created the new Dot Buggy which solves that problem! It's 15% smaller than the original stroller. 

- I wish the second seat could hold more weight on the bottom so that Wren could sit down there and I could keep Ellie in her car seat up top.

- It would be nice if even just a couple of accessories came with the stroller...say, the cup holder? After I spend my life savings on a stroller, you would think they could throw in a holder for my Starbucks lattes. 

- If you have your heavier child in the bottom second seat and very little weight on the top, the stroller can easily tip backwards if you're not careful. So, make sure you take out the bottom child first and then the one on top! Think see-saws at the playground, we've all been there.

- The stroller is a bit heavy, but I expect that if it's going to be durable enough to hold two kids and blaze the trails. I can fold and unfold it without much trouble and lift in into the trunk by myself. It was a tad heavy while I was pregnant with Ellie but I managed. 

- My only major complaint is that it's very difficult to do up the buckles on the back of the seat when it's only Wren in the stroller. (See second picture from top). When we don't need the back of the seat laying down for Ellie, I actually can't get the buckles done up on my own and Kenton has to do them, and even that takes him a lot of effort. 

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Those are my thoughts on our stroller. Since strollers can be such a huge purchase these days (the baby gear you can buy is crazy expensive over time!) I thought it might be nice to show off a good stroller in case anyone was curious about it's performance before they take that pricey plunge. 

I'm super happy that we went for it, and we will be continuing to use it for a long time.