Saturday I washed all of our carseat covers and carseats in preparation of moving E and Z into boosters. I cheated and did it a week early because: a) I never know if it's four years and forty pound, or four years or forty pounds; b) I had the time; c) I wanted to get one carseat cleaned up and ready to hand off to a friend. Also, I was sick of the buckles (C switched to boosters several months ago for this reason...but he rarely drives more than a mile with the kids). M, now eight (but nowhere near 80 lbs.) sits in the middle with a lap belt...because we have an old car with no center shoulder belt. Not the ideal situation, but one we have to live with for now.As I was hosing off carseat bases (OK, so I've never had maggots in my carseats like a certain Hausfrau, but there was some serious nasty gunk under those seats!), I was inventorying in my mind the number of carseats we've been through--truly staggering:
1. Infant bucket seat for M (hand-me-down from a co-worker); outgrown in 3 months (thank god because my elbow was killing me!). Handed down to a friend b/c it would expire b/f I wanted more kids.
2. Cosco Alpha-Omega for M to replace the baby bucket (supposed to go from infant through booster). Currently used as a booster for one twin in C's car.
3. Baby bucket for twin purchased at consignment store for $10, because it looked like the narrowest one there (coming home from the hospital realized the base didn't work and C ordered a new one, with express shipping that cost more than a new carseat would have! Outgrown in 3-4 months; handed on to a friend.
4. Baby bucket for other twin borrowed from a friend and returned after 3-4 months.
5. Cosco Alpha-Omega just like M's only with brown cover instead of black handed down from a neighbor when C realized the baby bucket wouldn't work and called everyone he knew with kids to find a replacement. Handed on to a friend.
6. Graco toddler carseat/booster purchased for M to fit in my old narrow car (Volvo 240 wagon) with two baby buckets. Currently used as a booster in my car.
7. Another Graco toddler carseat/booster purchased for some reason (??). Currently used as booster in my car.
8. Old grey carseat handed on from a friend. Used in C's car for one of the twins when the buckle got lost out of one of the Graco's, until the twins outgrew it (that's when they moved to boosters in his car). On its way to the yard sale.
9. Another carseat/booster similar to the Coscos handed on from a friend. Currently a booster in C's car.
10. A butt booster purchased for M when I got tired of trying to squeeze my hand between two carseats to buckle him. Currently in the way back of my car in case anyone needs to ride in the front or M goes in someone else's car with a shoulder belt.
11. Another butt booster purchased for C's dad's car so he could take M places. Currently in C's dad's car.
12. Another butt booster purchased by C for his car when E and Z took over M's full-body boosters. Currently M's booster in (the front seat of) C's car (because he drives my old 240 which is too narrow for three kids!)
Whew! Three kids--twelve carseats! Crazy. It would have been much more sane to live in a bike-friendly town and get one of these, don't you think?
Ah, carseats. I suppose I should weight the LSB, as she will be five in June, but I don't think she is 40 pounds yet (tiny thing) and the five-point harness is safer. I actually kept her rear-facing until she was past two years old because she was within the weight limits of that and it's safer. I made the LSG stick with the booster until she was almost 11 and hit the 4 foot nine and over 80 pounds milestone. This was rough on her as our state has a very weak 4/40 law only and NO ONE else her age used it. Working with people on the community's child fatality review team will make a person a carseat fanatic, though. That's me. I think we still have a good many booster years ahead of us with my shrimpy LSB.
ReplyDeleteIt helps that my two older children are small so stayed in their baby buckets for a year and now STILL sit in their carseats that they moved to at one years old (sometimes still strapping in with the five-point-harnesses instead of the over-the-shoulder belts).
ReplyDeleteWe have two seat boosters that we keep in the back in case of a friend joining us or field trips but it would be hard to go to the boosters full-time b.c. #3 would be insistent that he sit in one. Wait-- come to think of it, while he's not yet four, he probably IS 40 lbs. Boy, he's not built like his brothers at all....