A Very Long Car Seat Post

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the finer points of car seat shopping, this may be very boring for you. But I don't care.

For some strange reason, I really enjoy shopping for car seats. Well, maybe not "enjoy", but maybe "obsess over"? Maybe it is a strange thing to obsess about but then again, you have to remember that the kids are in their car seats every day of their lives, which means Mom is buckling, unbuckling, untwisting straps, tightening, loosening, scraping squashed food off of, etc said car seats multiple times a day.

So when it comes time for a new one, a lot of thought goes into the buying process. With Ben, his height and price were always the main factors. He outgrew his infant carrier seat when he was 4 months old, and I switched him to a budget convertible car seat that I hated - I could never get the straps adjusted properly, they were forever tangling, etc. He outgrew that also in about a year anyway, and I shopped extensively for a car seat I could afford that would allow him to remain harnessed for as long as possible. I finally got him a Cosco Apex 65, which advertised that it could be used with the 5 point harness to a height of 53 inches. (Well, not the point of this story but he's nowhere near 53 inches and he is still about to outgrow this seat because the seated height limit is 17.5 inches, which he's just about at). Besides that, his seat is okay - not wonderful, but not bad either. The straps twist, it's basically impossible to take the cover off to wash, and it's kind of ugly.

Okay back to the point. What was the point? Oh yeah - Rebecca! Since she is not absurdly tall like Ben, and since I got a larger than normal infant car seat just in case she turned out to be -- she is still on car seat #1. I congratulate myself on my foresight in buying a slightly larger than normal infant car seat. However, it is extraordinarily ugly (black and gray), and since it is a little larger and is rear-facing and is located behind the driver's seat it is a little cramped if a person taller than, say, me, is driving because the back of the seat juts out and prevents the driver's seat from being put back very far. But I put up with this because a) I have to and b) the car seat was only $30 (instead of $130) because it was mismarked at Target and the clueless cashier was, well, clueless. (No I really do not have any remorse over not pointing it out to her). So, you know the expression.... never look a gift horse in the mouth... well, never look a $30 car seat in the mouth.

But now as she approaches her first birthday I have been shopping for a forward facing seat for her, since she will be able to sit forward facing when she turns 1 (being already over the 20 pound weight requirement for forward facing). I just ordered her a Britax Marathon, in a lovely pink and yellow floral pattern, and yes it was rather pricey but I feel that having put up with several inferior car seats in the past and having paid only $30 for her first car seat, I am justified in spending the extra money for a top of the line seat. It was on sale for $50 off (the actual price of which I am carefully ommitting from this post in case Joel reads it and complains) and free shipping, besides. Yay! I am so excited to finally have a decent car seat for one of my kids!