There are a lot of ways to recognize a new parent. Such as:
1. Glazed-over expression from sleepless nights.
2. Someone who looks like they might not have showered for a few days.
3. A person whose head whips around at the sound of a baby's cry.
4. Pale skin (from not having left the house in a week).
And, of course, there is this tell-tale sign:
This is the stroller we received as a gift, which is designed for use with the infant car seat. I put it, already collapsed-down, into the car and took Maren to the mall (to get out of the house and avoid sign number four, as indicated above). It was a little tricky to set it up and get the carseat into it, but I figured it out.
However, re-collapsing it so that it would fit back into the car...well, that's another matter. I tried numerous times, all while the woman in a large SUV waiting for my parking spot at the mall was getting a day's worth of entertainment out of it. Eventually, I gave up, crammed the whole stroller into the car, slammed the door shut, and took off.
Also a sign of a new parent: people who take pictures of the stroller their desperate wife crammed into the car while they both laugh and then go into the house to practice collapsing and un-collapsing the stroller (we're pretty sure we figured it out this time).
