Things I Like

Cheap Travel Car Seat

Hey! The Cosco Scenera is on sale right now at Amazon.com for $31.03!!! That's an astounding price for a travel/backup or just plain cheap convertible car seat, good 5-40 lbs. I just ordered one for our trip, rather than hauling one of our large and heavy, if wonderful, Britax Boulevard. Estelle says that the Scenera is "one of the better convertible seats on the market." (Scroll way down.) Reviews on Amazon & epinions are mixed, but I'm inclined to trust carseat-obsessed Estelle over random individuals on the Internet. Go buy one!

1 Car Seat Down, Lots of Decisions to Go

Between all of your comments and an email exchange with Estelle, I ordered a car seat. The Britax Boulevard, in Mosaic, on sale for $259.99. (Thank god that last 2006 child care savings account check arrived.) I made the decision, in the end, over a feature I didn't know about until Estelle mentioned it. The Boulevard doesn't have those little slots you feed the shoulder straps through. The shoulder straps are adjusted by a bar (you turn a knob on the side of the seat) How intuitive! You turn the knob until the straps are the right height for your baby. When he gets bigger, you turn it a little more. No more slipping the straps off the shoulder because they just don't fit. I can't wait. Oh, and we realized that we CAN use the center seat, we'd gotten either confused or bad advice previously. Doh! (Estelle, next time we will try ordering from your friend; your second message arrived 10 minutes after I placed the order.) Of course I will be publishing a review. No day care decisions, but we got an email about an in home provider who sounds interesting, and found out that our public school system has a day care center that is in the process of NAEYC accreditation, and is having a parent information session on Saturday.

I've Become Car-Seat Obsessed

As we approach Noah's birthday and his 12 month doctor visit, I'm becoming car seat obsessed. You see, at his 9 month doctor visit, he was measured at 30.5" tall, so we are close approaching the 32" height limit on his "baby bucket" car seat, which we love. And I hate his other car seat. It's an evenflo titan, and it was a very generous hand-me-down, but it really doesn't fit my tall boy. This weekend, I noticed that the belt slipped off of his shoulder, and I wasn't able to tighten it enough to stay on -- it's helaciously difficult to tighten, and even as tight as I could manage, he could wiggle one shoulder loose, I think because the strap slot is so low. But the next one up is only supposed to be used forward facing, and he's too young to be forward facing. (Not just my opinion, but actually under the law.) So we need 1 new seat ASAP and another one pretty soon after that. Because I used to rely on Consumer Reports for these kinds of things, and it freaks me out that they retracted their car seat test results and makes me wonder about their other car seat test results, I'm not going with their pick. Plus they like the evenflo titan, which, as I mentioned, I loathe. I'm a regular reader of Estelle's blog, and she writes often and knowledgeably about car seats. When Noah outgrew his first car seat, I asked her a few questions before buying the one he's about to outgrow, so it made sense to turn to her again. Plus Charlie is even bigger than Noah. If Charlie is comfortable, the seat will probably work for Noah. So Britax. But Marathon? Decathalon? Boulevard? How are they different? Besides price? Do we need to get the same thing? Those are the 3 options because they all go to 65 lbs, and it would be nice not to have to buy another car seat for Noah until he starts kindergarten. The Boulevard is the most expensive, clocking in retail at $299. But it has these side impact protection wing-thingies that really seem like they would do a good job protecting a child's skull in a side impact crash. And I have an older car without side air bags. The Decathalon's biggest selling points seem to be more adjustability in the crotch and a push button tightening system, not a lever (harder for clever baby to loosen). But the message boards at car-seat.org include a lot of complaints that parents have trouble with sticky buttons. The Marathon is the cheapest (not cheap: MSRP = $269), but the only differences seem to be lever vs button harness-adjuster and fewer crotch tabs. Is that a big issue? Here's what I'm trying to decide:

• How important is the side impact thing? I have an older car without rear airbags or LATCH, so Noah is essentially stuck in the rear-passenger position, not the middle rear. That makes me want the side impact protection. Am I just being paranoid?
• Is Jill's car sufficiently safer than mine that if the side impact thing is important, we would be comfortable with a different car seat in her car?
• Should we get one of these (above), whatever we decide, wait until Noah fully outgrows his infant seat (I'm guessing March-ish) and get one of the forward-facing only, good all the way to 80 lbs, Britax Regents instead? (MSRP = $269).

I don't know. I just know that I want Noah to be safe, and I hate the titan. (And I don't think he is safe. We are back to playing car seat runaround until we decide and buy something. And install it with the help of a certified trained car seat person.) Ugh.