that's a nice stroller you have there

It's funny how having a baby will get you to have conversations with total strangers.

Recently, we were at the Seattle Outlet Mall (in Marysville, which is at least a 30 minute drive from Seattle in good karmic traffic). On those trips, I always go Carters and Osh Kosh to shop for clothes for Aidan who is growing like a weed. I usually have Aidan in the stroller and he is usually still asleep from the car ride. The stroller is a Graco and it has a nice turning radius, but it's a little tricky to open the store doors which usually open out towards you (and you have to be far enough away from the door to give clearance, but not so far away that you can't reach the door.) I have short arms-- that's my problem.

So my first brush with niceness was a woman who held the door open for me so I could get the stroller over the threshold "bump" and into the store. The wierd/nice thing was she wasn't even going into the store-- she just helped me out as she was walking by. Talk about your random acts of kindess. I told her "thank you" and mentally sent her good vibes for the rest of her day.

Then, when I was in the Osh Kosh store, a sales gal complimented me on our stroller. Turned out that she had the same one for her 5 month old son. This led to a nice 10-minute conversation about how her baby didn't seem to like being in the stroller at all and how Aidan seemed to be pretty comfy in it. She was a little embarrassed and apologized for taking up my shopping time, but I could have talked to her all afternoon; she was really nice.

At Safeway the other day, Paul, Aidan and I were in the baby food aisle selecting next week's new food introduction. There was a petite blonde with her adorable baby girl who was lounging in the cart. The cart had one of those snuggly coverings that protect babies from germy carts. She was looking at Aidan as she lay crosswise in the lap of luxury. We struck up conversation with her mom, exchanging the "s/he is so cute, how old is s/he" opening lines. Turns out that her daughter is a month younger than Aidan, but 22 pounds-- at least 6 pounds more than Aidan and a month younger! The mom jokingly called her baby a little monster, but she felt bad because her baby wanted to be picked up all the time but she was so big it was difficult to do so for long periods of time. It seems that all the baby girls I've met are bigger than the baby boys I know-- well, at least bigger than Aidan. I'm pretty sure that this will all even out around puberty. And if the last month of successful solid food introductions are any indication, Aidan could be at 22 pounds in a couple of months. In any case, we were "shopping buddies" for the rest of our shopping trip because we kept running into each other in the aisles and ended up checking out at the same cashier line.

At least once during a shopping trip or errand, we can count on conversations and shared observations with other parents of babies or well wishers. I like to think of these interactions as God's/Mother Nature's/Karma's way of letting us know we're doing okay.