Wherein Totakaze’s high chair takes abuse in stride
Saturday, August 12, 2006

Have we mentioned that Totakaze is a very active girl? She looks sweet as a cupcake, it’s true, but beneath her rosy, smiley exterior is a force of unfathomable destruction. When we add up all the times Totakaze has done something that took a few years off our life, we reckon we have about six months to live.

Today’s accomplishment for Totakaze was using her high chair as a diving board. We turned our back for just a minute as our innocent little cherub enjoyed her morning sippy cup, and when we looked over at her, she was standing smack in the middle of her high chair tray, dancing up and down on her fat little legs and beaming with pride. Fortunately we managed to magically teleport ourself to the high chair and snatch Totakaze up in one one-billionth of a second, before she went all Greg Louganis on us. But had we looked over a moment later, or had the high chair not been such a high-quality product, we shudder to imagine what might have happened.

Of course this could all have been avoided had Totakaze been wearing the five-point harness that comes with her Peg Perego Prima Pappa. Unlike the three-point harness provided with some other chairs, the five-pointer keeps babies securely in place (well, our clever Totakaze needs about 30 seconds to escape from such a harness, but we think we’ve established that she’s an extreme case). And unlike the cheaper chair we keep at Nanakaze’s house, the tray is sturdy enough to support a wild 24-pound toddler.

In addition to its super-strong tray and secure tray-locking mechanism, the reasons Mamakaze loves this chair are many. The Prima Pappa folds to a compact size for storage and is easy to operate. The seat is easy-to-clean vinyl and the dinner tray comes off in a snap for convenient washing. With four recline positions and seven height adjustments, the chair is as appropriate now as it was when Totakaze was a babbling babe taking her bottles at a 45-degree angle, rather than a tyrranical tot angling for a better vantage point.

When we were high-chair shopping, we found many imitators at lower prices, but none felt as sturdy as the Prima Pappa. We felt a little silly testing chairs for sturdiness with our nonmobile, 16-pound lump of slobbering sweetness in tow, but when we’ve used other people’s “as-good-as-Peg” chairs, they’ve wiggled and jiggled under the abuse of our wee dynamo. After today’s incident, we’re even more satisfied with our purchase.

But more importantly, we’re never, ever again going to leave Totakaze unharnessed (or let her escape without consequence) for even a second!

Totakaze dines in a gorgeous limited-edition Prima Pappa rocker that is no longer available, but we adore the stylish jade cube pattern available currently on the regular high chair ($169.99, Babies R Us).