We received the Trailhopper shown below, to facilitate our review.  As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

The folks at Cozey7 call the TrailHopper a “performance blanket.” I call it “a jacket for his legs.”  Made of polar fleece, this is a doohickey designed to avoid the mad juggling it takes to wrap a blanket around a baby and keep it tucked into a zillion different places so it actually covers the (otherwise-)cold parts while you’re carrying other stuff, too (or just trying to actually use your hands).  You know that juggling act, I’m sure. 🙂

Being August, it’s a little tricky to see this thing in action — or so you might think.  We’ve been under this “Polar Vortex” lately, though, so the evenings (and early mornings, but we sleep through those!) have been a bit chilly.  (That’s not terrible uncommon for early or late summer, anyway — chilly evenings.)

My sister and brother-in-law celebrated S’mores Day with a party this weekend, so we got to try this out.  (You’ll have to pardon the pictures, as late-enough-in-the-evening-for-chill in the summer is inherently at odds with good-light-for-photographs.)

I think the Trailhopper is exceptionally well-suited to use with a baby carrier (like our Boba 4G).  Little ones are often warm enough up top simply from being pressed body-to-body against mama. If not, they’re often wrapped inside our coats.  But their little legs get cold.  Perfect opportunity for a Trailhopper!

(Toldya the pictures were questionable.)

Features of the TrailHopper

There are some pretty nifty features/details to this.  First, the feet.  They have cuffs like you often see on newborn sleeper sleeves – they fold up out of the way if you want baby’s feet to stick out, or wrap down around his feet as “footies” if you want the feet covered up and warm.

(I’m guessing the little babies are more likely to want their feet covered, while the toddlers prefer to have their feet out.  Although I appreciate that they’re all made the same because my little guy is…well, little.  That’s a 12-18 month size he’s wearing, if I recall correctly, and you can see it’s pretty big on him.)

Also, there’s this little tab thingie that covers up the top of the zipper so it doesn’t poke them in the neck (and isn’t too easily accessible for them to unzip on their own).

Our little man didn’t want to spend a lot of time being held, though.  We had to spend some time holding him, because baby + fire = not a good combo.  But fire + marshmallows = yummy S’more ingredient.  So some of the time he was in arms or in laps to keep him safe.

But he just learned to walk and this was his first time having a lot of time and space on grass (as opposed to indoor floor) so he spent a couple hours mostly toddling around, practicing on the not-so-smooth terrain.  Back…

…and forth.

Or would those be “forth…and back”?  (You can catch a glimpse of his Freshly Picked mocs here, too.)

I thought the Trailhopper might not get use again for a while, and then I got up today and looked out the window.  This is what our back yard looked like:

Is it just me, or does that look like Autumn?!  (It is not even halfway through August, people.  What in the world?!)

Needless to say, it was a bit chilly today.  (Also pouring down rain.  Which means we did not go out.  Because we did not have to.  Who wants to run errands with a toddler and a preschooler in a downpour if she doesn’t have to?)  But it seems we may be needing it again sooner than one would think!

So…while the Trailhopper was originally conceived of for hiking and other similar pursuits, we can imagine it being quite useful just around town.  The separate legs allow for buckling a car seat or letting a toddler walk around, so there’s no need to get it on and off, on and off, on and off as you transition from “travel” to downtime through the day.  (Although obviously you can take it off whenever you’re ready!)

It comes with a little stuff sack so when you’re done with it, it’s easy to carry around.  (I should have taken a picture of that.  I didn’t think of it until now.)

What would you use this for?