Stokke has developed a "test-stroll" program in which parents can take a model of the stroller for a walk around the block before deciding whether or not to put their name on the list for October. It's part of the marketing plan that Stokke seems to have borrowed from Bugaboo. Kari Boiler, director of marketing for Bugaboo USA, said that the stroller's meteoric rise was mostly dumb luck. "I think the stars aligned," she said. "The 'Sex and the City' thing happened before we actually launched in the States. People started asking about it, we created a wait list, the wait list created extra press. That mix of all those things created a lot of buzz. Everyone wants what they can't have, and at the time it was this very exclusive thing."

"Obviously there's a comparison with Bugaboo," said Stokke's Kreditor, "in that they established this price category." Kreditor pointed out another thing that the two strollers have in common. "At least you know you're buying European, which means that they don't build in that it will break after two years." Kreditor continued to kvell about the special way the Xplory's wheels absorb shock, trilling, "There are times I wish I could be under 40 pounds so that I could feel what this feels like from the inside!"

"One of the phenomena here is that the Bugaboo entered a juvenile market that has just taken off," said Boiler, pointing to the increasing schmanciness of everything from designer infant clothes to baby bottles to cashmere swaddlers and special nursing pillows. Boiler attributes the change to an increased number of men and women reproducing later, when they've grown accustomed to treating themselves right. "These are parents who don't want to sacrifice aesthetics and functionality," said Boiler, as she pointed out some of the perks of the stroller in a way that made it sound as if she were describing a Lexus. "The Bugaboo is not only aesthetically beautiful, but the suspension and swivel wheels make it so easy to steer in the city, and the two pneumatic tires mean it can be an all-terrain vehicle for the beach, the snow or the woods."

That's great, except that it's not a Lexus, it's a stroller. The suspension and shock-absorption is lovely, but are we at risk of raising a bunch of overprotected wusses who wince when their dirt bikes hit gravel and don't like to be touched? Or kids who think that nothing has to be uncomfortable or distasteful if you throw enough money at it? The Bugaboo and Xplory fall into the category of products that make life so easy for newborns that it seems downright wrong. Take for instance the sudden ubiquity of "wipe-warmers," devices that heat diaper-wipes so that babies aren't forced to deal with clammy cleanings. It's a nice idea. But haven't generations of infants survived the scourge of chilly diaper wipes and emerged relatively unscathed? Are we creating coddled kids who will never be able to face hardships like skinned knees or, you know, puberty?

Literary agent Daniel Greenberg and his wife, Tina, who owns a downtown store that carries products made from recycled materials, were given a Bugaboo as a wedding present by a bunch of friends who had all chipped in for it. "My wife and I originally made a pact that we would always say it was a present," said Greenberg. "But we've stopped doing that." Greenberg, who lives in Manhattan's slightly scruffy East Village, was wary about his high-end baby lucre. "Initially I felt like it was the Range Rover of strollers and I was embarrassed," he said. "I thought people were going to point me out as this yuppie who'd spent so much money for a stroller. I imagined walking into Tompkins Square Park and having heads turn and women go into the corner and start whispering about me. But no one seems to care that much. If anything they're like, 'Nice stroller.'" The park Greenberg mentioned is a hangout for downtown hipster parents and their half-naked single counterparts. "At Tompkins Square Park it's all MacClarens," he said, describing his walking route. "But when you start heading west [into the more upscale West Village] the Bugaboos start coming out."

What does Greenberg like about this Bugaboo? That he was able to use the bassinet early in his son Sam's life -- and even convert it into his bed for the first three months -- and that it now works as a full-sized stroller. "It may be $700, but that's for a stroller you're going to use for years and years," said Greenberg, momentarily sidetracked by some residual defensiveness. "People who live in the East Village are paying these incredibly steep rents just to live there, so how different is that?" he muttered. "I used to roll my eyes when people talked about how you can take it to the beach and have it in the sand and snow," he continued, "but in the city, in the snow or rain, it's really nice. You just plow through a puddle with that thing."

Greenberg said he hadn't yet had a chance to check out the Xplory, but when he looked it up on the Web he said, "Whoa. That thing looks wild."

Just wait till October.

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