Gametes In Love

My grandfather passed away Wednesday 6/10. He battled cancer and an ailing body for over a year now. I’m saddened that his last days were not the peaceful ones I wished for him, but I take solace in knowing that he will no longer be in pain and that he passed away in the company of those that loved him most: his wife and daughter.

I’ll post on the events that followed in another story, but I wanted this to be about him. The picture above is how I want to remember him: vibrant, loving and dedicated to his family.

The house certainly feels empty without him, even though he spent much of his last year resting quietly in his bed.

You will be missed, Grandpa! Sending you much love from us all. Always.

You know what I wish baby stores did? Test-drive programs for baby gear.

I want to be able to rent a different stroller each week and test-drive it around my ‘hood to see how it fits in my lifestyle. Sure, a stroll around the baby store is fine, but my kid might not like sleeping in that stroller; or it might not fit in my car; or go up and down stair quite right. Sure, I can spend a grand on a fancy Bugaboo, but is it $900 better than a Graco for how I live my life? I tell you rental programs could be a hit!

Second up — baby carriers. These little items can be the difference between graying hair within baby’s first birthday, or not. A carrier that baby likes is a God-send. We went through 4 before we found one G likes, we like and is easy to put on. I’m thankful that two of them were hand-me-downs from friends so that I didn’t spend any money on them. The soft-sided carriers can be expensive, running around $100 for the Ergo’s or Beccos. I’ll happily spend $40 on a trial rental program, if it saved me $200 in the end from buying stuff my kid won’t stand to be in.

Thirdly, diaper sample packs! (This is an S idea!) JilliansDrawers does an awesome job with doing starter kids for cloth diapers, but how about disposables? You don’t know if your kid fits better in a Huggies, a Pampers a 7th gen or the Target generics. Why not buy a sample pack that has a week’s worth of each?

That’s my business idea inspiration for the day. Sigh… if I only had the capital 🙂