Monday, November 15, 2010

The Car Seat

The FP Gal mentioned that we've bumped each of the kids up one seat. That means Relia is now in a booster seat (and will be until she's 16 or something like that). This isn't a big change for her. The buckle mechanism is the same. The only real difference is that it's not quite as high a seat and she can't see out as well. But . . . she's growing pretty fast and that won't be an issue soon.
Felix has now moved from the bucket style car seat to a more traditional one. (There are probably technical names and the FP Gal and all the ladies on her chat sites would probably laugh at my terminology. So be it.) The bucket was great because we would strap him into it while inside the house and then carry him to the car. Then it would lock into a base and be all set to go. On the other end of the trip you simply undo the bucket and you can carry his colossal bulk around.
Not anymore! Now we carry him out to the car and fight with him over the straps. Then we get somewhere else and tote him around manually. Usually this only means transferring him into a stroller or shopping cart (with even more straps!). But this isn't fun at all.
And the worst part is the timing. Relia was born in August and was in her bucket seat until after she could walk around. Felix, of course, was a spring baby and we've made this switch just in time for winter. So all that lugging of our chunk of baby is done with ice, snow and cold weather. Ugh.
It's the right time to change him and I'm not complaining about that. Only, the timing really is bad and I'm not looking forward the next six months of winter.

5 comments:

Sarita said...

It isn't just that he is a spring baby, he's a spring baby who grew out of his bucket seat 4-5 months faster than his sister!

Cellomama said...

I had the same thing with Elizabeth. She was born June 2nd, and she outgrew her infant seat right when it got cold out. I remember buying her a snowsuit just to help keep her warm since she didn't have the protection of the infant seat anymore.

Otherwise, I was thrilled when my girls outgrew their infant seats! Mostly because they just got so darn heavy to carry around - it was easier to plop them on my hip and be done with it.

Test said...

Holy cow. Claire seems to be average but hasn't made the move to the booster. I weighed her the other day and she's only 32.5 lbs! It's going to take her FOREVER to get into the booster.

Sarita said...

Holly, Relia is about the same weight. We got a booster with a harness that is for forward facing 20lbs & up. It will convert to using the seat belt when she hits 50 lbs.If it weren't for Felix, she'd still be in the regular car seat.

Test said...

A ha! That makes sense. I have done ZERO looking. Obviously. We'll have to consider one of those in the not too distant future.