Today was another busy day for me and the baby.  It worked as hoped last night with putting him to bed an hour earlier and waking up an hour earlier today, so we had more time to have some fun this morning, read a few books by Kenneth Andersson, and generally enjoy our time together.  Then it was off to lunch, this time with the baby strapped into the baby bjorn.

We were almost there, standing on the street corner, and I felt a little vibration in the area of the baby’s butt.  Now, this could be gas, or it could be something a bit more messy (upon inspection later it was thankfully gas).  That moment of insecurity really got me thinking:  By taking the baby bjorn and no other bags (instead of the stroller and diaper bag), we are both very vulnerable.  You can barely go anywhere without a pack full of “what if” baby gear.

If I don’t want to carry the baby bag around, what am I supposed to do?  Load up a backpack with every possible thing that we might need?  That will weigh 10 kg!  Even if I did this, I have “double” shoulder straps (baby bjorn and backpack), which we did at the airport but is not the best option.  Then it came to me: if only there were a small bag that could fit around my waist, that I could put the essentials in (my wallet, my phone, 2 diapers, some wipes, and an extra onesie).  Does something like this really exist?  Could I be that fortunate?  Luckily and unluckily it does exist: I know them as fanny packs (throwback to the 90’s and American amusement parks), and now they are reinvented as “hip packs” or “waist packs”.  I swore I would never wear one, but that is now my new weekend project.

After lunch it was off to pick up a 2nd hand Baby Bjorn Bouncer.  We found one for only 50 hkd (that’s about 55 sek!  or 6 usd!)  It’s so old that it will probably be in their retro line soon, but we don’t mind, it’s fantastic!  We also bought a 2nd hand (but new in box) Stokke Tripp Trapp chair for a really good price from someone else, but that is a boring story.

The location of the baby bouncer was in Happy Valley (by the race track), so off we went in the metro and by foot.   I did not get a “data package” when I got my sim card yesterday, so I was going off the photo of the directions from my wife’s phone (no map, just photo).  Long story short, the baby and I walked twice around the race track.  It was raining, we were getting wet, and I was starting to worry the little guy might get hungry soon, so I asked a stranger for help.  The guy did not know where the street was, so I thanked him and walked off, and looked for a free wifi spot to do it the modern way (google maps).  As I was looking on my phone, he came back and found me and helped me find the street (he had looked it up on his phone).  This is a city with over 7 million people, and you do not expect to find that kind of kindness.  So cool.

My mind is still on the kindness of the kind guy who came back to help me even though he did not need to.  It helps you believe a little bit more in the future world my son will live in.  That kindness helped to shine light on the grey day, and after that, we found the spot, got our new/old baby bouncer, and headed home.  Later, when I put the little guy in the bouncer, he was literally laughing for 5 minutes straight.  Today was a great experience for both of us – with a great ending to it.