My friends at Bugaboo invited me to the Henley Regatta recently and I spent a lovely sunny day with them on the river. I took my Step Mum and sister as well as the children and while we were there my Step Mum told the people at Bugaboo how I had ALWAYS loved buggies! Even as a little girl! I can’t deny it, they have always fascinated me but right from the word go I have had firm ideas about what SORT of buggy I love, even right down to the ones my Mum put me in as a child!

I don’t really remember my pram but my Mum said it was awful. I think from this picture you can see that I didn’t like being in it! It had a massive basket but there the redeeming features stopped! My buggy, which came later, I remember VERY well! It was NOT the buggy I wanted. I wanted one with curly handlebars – I eventually got a toy double buggy which had the handles I so desired but had to be pushed around myself in THIS.

I might have disliked that old buggy, the one with the wrong handles and the one which saw me lose my B (my blanket) on the common, but it did spark my buggy obsession. This has grown, and grown and GROWN! From playing as a little girl right up until now. I guess there must have been a small gap in time where I didn’t think about buggies but I can’t think when it was? I played with baby dolls, probably so that I could push a buggy, until I was 13! You see I just I love buggies. But… Not all of them…

Knowing my own buggy wasn’t for me started me on my buggy journey which has lead me to many brands but one in particular remains my favourite! As well as having a buggy love in general I have had a journey with a particular brand which started before I had children even… I am, if you will, a buggy connoisseur and my buggy brand of choice is the caviar of the buggy world! The brand is Bugaboo (of course) and this is my journey with the brand I love so much!

In 2004 while reading a magazine I saw a picture of Gwyneth Paltrow pushing a ‘Bugaboo Frog’ in New York. I was nowhere near the stage of wanting to have a baby but I knew instantly, like when you meet the man of your dreams, that when I had one, no other buggy would do! My friends and boyfriend (Jonny) thought I was crazy mad to have this on my radar already but when you know, you know!

I thought about that buggy lots, the reasons why it appealed and how I would look pushing it. Whenever I saw a celebrity with one I would note it down. If I saw one in real life then I got even more excited! Despite having been first noticed on a celebrity it wasn’t her or any subsequent ones which made me so interested, it was all the buggy!

By late 2007 when on holiday in Portugal, Jonny and I had decided to try for a baby soon and I pointed out every ‘Bugaboo’ I saw. By now it was the ‘Bugaboo Cameleon’ that most people were sporting and I loved it! I wanted it!

Back then and until 2008 we lived in a luxury block of flats on Old Ford Lock just by the Big Brother house. Don’t ask me how we managed that one it’s a long story but we were definitely not the regular inhabitants of The Iron Works; celebrities even lived there – seriously! One family had a Bugaboo. It was bright orange and I stared at it whenever the Mum walked past. Often I had to pretend I was admiring her baby but you know what? I couldn’t even tell you what her baby looked like? I think it might have been a girl? It was the buggy I was interested in!

Then…

Having moved and bought our own (small) flat in East London and I was pregnant by April 2009. Of course I immediately started researching which, where and when to buy my ‘Bugaboo’. I needed no trials or tests for other brands; I had seen and read enough! Now I just had to decide which one and I eventually, after much deliberation decided on my Bee! My lovely Bugaboo Bee! I chose Khaki and everything matching to go with it from the coccon and footmuff to the bag! I was ecstatic!

10 weeks before she was born my ‘Bugaboo’ arrived and on 1st January 2010 the day after she was born I pushed my buggy for the first time with pride! 

2011 saw a new style Bee launched, the Bee Plus. I was slightly jealous but knew it would be silly to buy a new one… When the ‘Bugaboo Donkey hit the market howver and I knew, if I had another baby, that would be the buggy of my dreams! 

Guess what?

I had Jimmy in May 2012 and have been using my beautiful Donkey ever since… You can read all about my Donkey Days here on my blog under my ‘Donkey Watch’ page. We still use the Bee too by the way, a girl can never have too many buggies! I will be taking my Bee (and Jimmy) round the Monopoly board of London soon and will be using every form of public transport London has to offer while using it. The Bee will have her own page too!

My obsession with buggies continues to grow as does the Bugaboo family and I love writing about them. I love the different canopies, I have the ‘Jazz Up for Summer’ here on my Donkey! I also love the newest member and have even had a push with it myself! The Bugaboo Buffalo will soon be available to buy and LOOK how amazing it is!

Jonny asks what I will do when the children are bigger and I have no need for a buggy any more? Don’t know I tell him? Use one anyway?

I have not been paid to write this post.