The happy parts of the week

I just wrote a long post complaining about all of the things that went wrong this week (including the loss of all of the files on my primary thumb drive; other computer failures; car seat near-decision and then sudden indecision after the manufacturer announced new models are coming soon; long hours spent working on job applications for both Nate and I; fresh rounds of teething trouble; and more). After I got done spewing all of my thoughts onto the "page" I realized how very dark and bleak and whiney it all sounded. Yes, it was kind of a crappy week. But there were also some great things that happened, and I would much rather think about them. So I saved the unhappy reflections as a private post, and I am going to start over with the better stuff...

We got to visit with some good friends this week, the Hansons. They have a lovely and very energetic two year old girl (uhm, are all two year olds fast and loud? Because if so, don't know how I am going to handle Darling Girl at that age!). Momma Paige is one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, and Adam is one of Nate's oldest friends. They like to talk about paintball. A lot. It was a really brief visit, but it was great to see them. (Paige, if you're reading, I <3 you!)

At the beginning of the week Nate was very busy and under a lot of stress because his agency was undergoing its once-every-three-years audit by the federal government. Super important. He survived and it looks like they passed all of their benchmarks, whew! So Nate took Thursday and Friday off of work. I had a furlough on Friday. Since it's Memorial Day on Monday, that makes for a four day weekend for the whole family. Awesome. We decided to celebrate on Friday by driving up to visit my mom at her work, then doing a little bit of shopping. My mom bought us lunch (thanks mom!) and got to show off her babies (me and Darling... mostly Darling) at her office. The shopping was quick. The kid hated the car ride home and she let us know.

When we arrived safely back home, we had time enough to do a bit of yard work together during some very fine evening weather. All in all, it was quite the blessing to spend the day together.

On Monday we're going to travel an hour southward so we can visit some old friends, their handsome son, and our alma mater. It will be a wonderful trip, I'm sure. More on that next week.


The garden had a good week. I planted some onion starts today because the seeds we put down never sprouted. (I think I planted them too late -- apparently onions like to be seeded when it's cold.) I also thinned the lettuce and put in a few more leek seeds. I need to reseed our carrots because only a half dozen sprouted. Still waiting to see if the bell peppers pop up.

I put some seeds (tomato, squash, and pumpkins) in starter pots last week and put them in the greenhouse. Every last one of them has sprouted and I am delighted! I feel very blessed that we are going to have so many delicious, home grown foods this year. Doing all this yard work takes me back to some fond memories of my childhood and the house on "D" street where my mom always had a big garden. Actually, mom did a lot of gardening when we moved in the "C" street house, but I was in middle school by then and had stopped paying attention. It's the earlier gardens that I remember, and love, the best.


I was about to say adieu but I just remembered one more good thing about the week: Yesterday morning, Nate super-cleaned the kitchen. He moved absolutely everything off every surface in the kitchen and into the dining room, then he cleaned all of the surfaces (including the sink) in the kitchen. As he brought things back into the kitchen, he wiped each item off -- microwave, toaster, knife block, etc. The kitchen is smooth and shiny. (Literally, the stove top shines; even the buttons and the display board were cleaned.) I am very grateful for his hard work!


Well, it's not yet bedtime, but I have a bunch of work to do, so I'll leave you with this sweet, peaceful shot from Thursday afternoon:

A whole bunch of food-related things and some baby updates

I sat down last night and wrote a long blog post. It started out all well and good, I talked about cooking and gardening. Then I started talking about work, which was frustrating last week, and about computer troubles, and my inability to make a decision about a new car seat. About 1,500 words into my post I realized that I was not going to actually post it. Too negative and ranty. So I wrapped it up with another 500 words, allowing myself to get fairly personal, and went to bed...

I thought about it on-and-off all day today. There was plenty of public-friendly info in my ramblings. So I figure I can at least share parts of it -- probably not the section where I grouse about work or rage about computers malfunctioning, but certainly the food bits, and maybe an abbreviated part of the car seat ramblings...


COOKING & BAKING

The one-semester cooking class I took in the seventh grade came in handy Friday night. I made chili for dinner, a dish which typically goes well with some chips on the side. Unfortunately, despite making three trips to various grocery stores during the day, I did not have any chips in the house at the time I was mixing the final ingredients into the chili. Thankfully I had half a package of leftover tortillas in the house. So I turned the oven to 400 degrees, sprayed down the stack of tortillas, sliced them up with my pizza cutter, and tossed them on to baking sheets in the oven. (I googled a recipe just to make sure I used the right cook temp and time.) They were quite yummy -- I think Nate was pleasantly surprised. Many thanks to "Ms. R" for her excellent class, so many years ago.

(Side note: The recipe I used for my chili comes from my quinoa cookbook. I use ground turkey, although I've been meaning to try it meatless. This time I added some sliced carrots during the simmering step. You could also or alternatively add corn; I like to use about 1 cup for a batch this size. Nate loves this chili, which says a lot.)

Last night I made a chicken enchilada casserole for dinner. I used our new-ish slow cooker recipe book, even though it often annoys me. For instance, when I reviewed the recipe yesterday morning, I realized that basically you make the whole casserole and then just put it in the slow cooker for four hours so that it heats through. Pffff. That's silly. If I have to cook and assemble everything in advance, why not just put it in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes?

That's exactly what I did, and it turned out fine. The recipe called for too many layers of tortillas between the saucy chicken layers, so I will have to "fix" that for next time. The recipe is also a bit long and involved, so I need ponder what I could do to make it less labor-intensive. I really don't have time for all of these hours-to-prepare, dirty-every-dish-in-the-house meals. If the end result is an amazing meal, then it's worth it, but usually the end result is just a really good meal. More (cooking) shortcuts, please!

Right at this very moment I am making chocolate rolls. (Wait... rolls? Yes, rolls!) I've been thinking about making chocolate bread (not cake, bread) for months now. Awhile ago I found a promising recipe and a couple of weeks  ago I tried to make it. Something went wrong in the process and the bread didn't rise, and it was a disappointing failure. I have a (yeast) dinner roll recipe that is pretty quick and never fails me, so I thought I'd try adapting it toward chocolate. So far it's going great; I'm waiting for the oven to heat up and then I will bake the rolls. Mayhaps by the time I am done writing this post I will be able to tell you the outcome... Stay tuned!


GARDENING

There are some plants sprouting up in the garden! The lettuce is popping up, as are a couple of the kale seeds. Yesterday morning Nate noticed a couple of leeks and a few carrots finally poking through. I expected more kale by now, so I might have to go plant more seeds. We'll see how the week goes. There are also lots of weeds, so I hoed a bit this evening, and we have a couple of volunteer squash! I don't know what they are, but I will transplant them in a few weeks and we'll see what happens. (I love volunteer plants, they are the most exciting kind. So much mystery!)

I expect to see some signs of life from the onions this week, cross your fingers. I am looking forward to the relief on our weekly budget that the onions will provide. Saturday I bought six onions (almost 4lbs worth) for this week's recipes. Thankfully, one of our regular grocery stores was having it's annual "Founder's Day" sale so onions were only 68¢ a pound. (Oh, but then last night, right after I diced two onions and put the pieces in a bowl, I knocked the bowl off the counter and lost everything. There goes $1 of food and a bunch of hard work. Sigh.)

This last week we planted bell pepper seeds in the ground. I also put in a few squash seeds, as test. (It might still be a little early -- i.e. cold -- for squash; we'll see.) I put seeds for squash, zucchini, pumpkin, and tomato seeds in transferable containers. They will spend the week in the greenhouse, since the temperature has dropped and it's rainy. Maybe next week the sun will be back and they can sit outside again. Either way, all of our seeds should sprout by the end of this coming week, or else I will need to plant more seeds.

Seeds still to plant include corn and sunflowers; both require consistently warmer weather prior to planting. (Someday when I have an awesome greenhouse -- i.e. after we tear down the current one and get and new one -- I hope to do lots of seedlings early in the year; as it stands, the current greenhouse isn't useful for very much. Too old and broken, unfortunately.)


CAR SEATS

If you're screaming at me that I should just make up my mind already, you're right! I'm still dragging my feet and it's silly. If it's any consolation, I am closer to making a decision. We are leaning toward a Britax...

My co-worker came over last week and let us test out his Britax Boulevard car seat. We got to put it in our car, take the baby in and out, play with the various moving parts and everything. It fits really, really well in our car -- it's not too big to fit behind the passenger seat. It latches down tightly and easily. It's easy to get the baby in and out. The tether on the crotch buckle is definitely a little bit short so it's hard to buckle down the shoulder straps, but I think that was the only less-than-ideal thing about it. The particular model we played with has a "click safe" feature, which means it makes a little clicking sound when the shoulder straps are tight enough. It's a neat feature and only adds a few dollars to the price.

A very good friend of mine in Eugene just got the Peg Perego convertible seat for her son, and she says it's great. Fits well in her little car and is easy to install and adjust. Still, I can't get my head around that price. Is it really that much better than the Britax, enough to justify the price jump? I don't think it is. I think I just need to cross it off my list... I'm almost ready to cross it off...

Really, I need to sit down and take a closer look at the options with the Britax, since I know we like it (almost love it). I need to carefully compare the Marathon, Boulevard, Boulevard CS, and the Advocate. What are the biggest differences? What matters to me? Do the added features justify the additional cost?

...And what color(s) do I like? :o)


BABY GIRL!

Not a lot to say about our darling daughter. I think she's working up toward tooth number 6 (!) because she's been salivating and had a bit of a runny nose, and maybe some pain in her gums. It's hard to tell if she's just being fussy or if she's hurting; when in doubt I sometimes give her a teething tablet just in case. They're homeopathic so no biggie.

"Cry-it-out" seems to be done now (knock on wood). I put her down in her crib at bedtime and she goes to sleep without a sound. Even tonight, after she had a rough day and had to go to the baby sitter (translated: mommy separation anxiety filled evening) and didn't seem sleepy when I put her in her crib, she just smiled up at me, cuddled her blanket, and was quiet. I don't know if she went to sleep instantly or lay in her crib for awhile, but she didn't make a sound. I checked on her after half an hour and she was out, so at some point she definitely went to sleep (I like to think it was right away but I don't know).

The downside of her new, independent sleeping ability is that she gets up early in the morning. She pretty much usually sleeps all night, but only for about 10 hours. Her bedtime is 7pm... You do the math...

Yeah. She gets up at 5 or 5:30. She let us sleep in until almost 6am one time last week. It's not too bad when it's sunny outside but man oh man, if she could just hold off until 6am it would make such a difference! I tried putting her to bed a little later (7:30-8:00) but it seemed to have the opposite effect, she got up at 4:30am! Ahhhhh! So now I need to be strict about my own bedtime (in bed at 9:30, Brooke!) or else I'm a bit cranky in the mornings.


Coming back to those ROLLS again...

Just took them out of the oven. Haven't taken a bite yet, they need to cool a little. They look and smell great so I am excited and hopeful!


FINALLY...
I would like to ask that you please pray for Nate. He has been looking for a new job for a year now. There have only been a couple of interviews, despite frequent applications. I help him find job listings and sometimes edit his materials, so I know he's putting his "best foot forward" but still we're hitting a lot of dead ends. So please say a prayer, or think good thoughts, or whatever method you use to send us some good mojo. Thanks.

A post of mostly pictures

Every month on my daughter's "birthday" I write her a letter. A couple of parts of yesterday's 11-month letter go well with some of my recent pictures of the babe, so I thought I might pare those bits with some pictures I've been meaning to share. Thus, in no particular order:

"You love to crawl! It aids your curious, exploratory nature. You get into anything and everything you can, for better and worse. It doesn’t matter that you have baskets of toys or bright colorful things strategically placed – you always want what’s just out of reach, what’s new, or the things that present a challenge or a puzzle. I love this about you, though it can be frustrating at times. I try to not chase you around or dig you out of things if I can help it; I think it’s good for you to explore and discover."

These pictures show the new Ergo baby carrier, in the hip position. (It can be used front, hip, or back.) I'm the one who uses it the most, but sometimes Nate will strap it on, too:

"Feed me" face:

My mom made a bunch of the really cool bib shirts, as shown in the above picture (the pattern is available for free from this website http://doityourselfec.blogspot.com/2008/04/shirt-bib-with-free-pattern.html; for the fabric, we used Babyville Boutique PUL (polyurethane laminate), available at JoAnn's). She had scraps of fabric leftover and decided to make a floor mat to go underneath Darling's high chair -- pretty neat:

"Something else you have come to love is OUTSIDE. You point outside constantly. Out windows, out doors, out everywhere. Out, out, out! You love flowers and leaves. You’re still not sure about grass. You like that there are animals  and people and cars and plants and so many, many things to see. It goes back to your curious nature. We take you out as much as we can, but we do have to be careful of sensitive baby skin and sunburns. The weather has helped us to adventure outside more often…"

"You LOVE to point at things. I don’t know why. But your little index finger is constantly extended, pointing at all of the world. Do you do it on purpose? Do you know what it means to point? I have no idea. I think so. You tend to point and stare at people and objects, animals and plants, everything. We use the opportunity to try and teach you words. So if you point at a tree, or the kitty, or daddy or whatever, we tell you what it is that you are pointing toward. I hope this will help you learn words. It sure is cute."

My mom stays at our house one night a week so that she can have back-to-back days with her grandbaby. Thus the guest room has pretty much become her room. At least, that's how we think of it. So we made it "official" with a sign:

"Cry-it-out" is working well, though challenging

Time is short, so I am just going to get right to it: Baby updates!

We've been doing the cry-it-out thing at bedtime for three weeks now, and I am pleased to report it is successful. Darling doesn't go down perfectly, sweetly, and quietly every night, but she goes down fairly easily and what's more, she stays down! At about two months old, she started sleeping at night for very long stretches -- 6, 8, sometimes even up to 12 hours. She was that way for a couple of months. Then she hit a little growth spurt. After that she started teething. Then she was out of the habit, and it just kept getting worse and worse until she was getting up every 2 or 3 hours at night (not usually to nurse; she was just waking up) and she was spending far too much time sleeping in our bed. As I mentioned in a post last month, our pediatrician said she needed to learn how to fall asleep on her own. He said she would sleep better when she did. And he said it was okay to start letting her cry a bit at bedtime. So, after some soul-searching and a couple of awful nights, we gave it and gave it a chance.

Now, three weeks later, I can report that it was and is worthwhile. Yes, it is hard when I put her down in her crib, give her kisses and loving words, and have to hear her cry when I back out of the room. But she cries for only a minute or two, then collapses into dreamland. Sometimes she doesn't cry at all, just rolls around a bit until she's comfortable then goes to sleep. If the neighborhood is loud or the house is loud -- i.e. it's Tuesday night and Nate has the youth group leaders over for a meeting (arg!) -- then she needs a little extra love. Any way it happens, Darling sleeps at least 8 hours straight, and always sleeps at least 10 hours total (usually closer to 11 hours). Lovely. I usually get 7 hours, sometimes even continuously.

As I mentioned, Darling likes to move around a little bit in her crib until she's in a comfortable position. Usually this means she's wedged herself into a corner of the crib. She's almost always on her tummy, sometimes on her side, never on her back. (The pediatrician said this is okay -- she's old and big enough to sleep however she wants... not that I could do anything about it, since my kid is stubborn. Insert comment from Kimmy, "In other words, she's YOUR baby?" :) When baby girl wakes up, she likes to sit right up. Wraps her blanket around herself and starts to chatter or scream, if she's wet.

One of the nice things about this shift has been free time in the evenings. I once again have a couple of hours to use for cleaning, balancing the checkbook, journaling, planning the garden, or whatever other devious project needs doing. It's marvelous. A necessary stretch of quiet work for the sake of my sanity and home organization.

The opening line of this blog post indicated updates, plural, but I am out of time. My latest car seat ramblings, a blurb about feline-baby friendship, and the giant set of photos I want to upload will have to wait until another time. (If you're a FB friend you can see some of the photos posted over on my page.) Cheers!

Busy at work, and a trip to see "oma"

Ahhhh, sitting on my front porch, enjoying a root beer float in the dimming post-sunset light, listening to the sounds of a neighborhood in the evening -- kids protesting bedtime, cars pulling into their garages for the last time, traffic dying down in the distance. Silence from my house, where my kid is asleep, the dishes are done, and projects are cleaned up for the evening. It's a good life.

I didn't write a blog post last week, and I make no apologies. I was incredibly busy with work and didn't have the time. It happens. I got hammered with data requests from all over the state, coming at me two a day for more than a week. At the same time I was working on the oh-so important survey and final report -- data cleanup, chart making, writing. It sorta felt like college, but more awesome. (Think: original data, the work belonged entirely to me, the output will have a real-world impact, and I get paid.) Plus I'm smarter than I was in college. It figures, though -- I got caught up on all my work and cleared my calendar so that I could focus on writing my report, then got hit with five times as many data requests as usual. It meant I worked every evening for at least an hour after the baby went to bed. And I worked on Saturday.

I turned in the report late Monday night. It came back to me Tuesday (ahhhhrrrrg!) from one of the managers; he asked that I make some changes. Totally valid. Gave me a chance to run it through one of the smartest people and best editors in my acquaintance, my mom. She noted some important corrections, whew. So I worked on it again late Tuesday, then sent it in again. Now it's going through the formal editing process. Soon the draft final will land on the desk of the uber boss... and that will be a defining moment. I am quite worried that he won't like it. I imagine him calling me into his office and, in his very British way, saying that he really liked it, but... (If you knew the boss, that'd give you a chuckle. He's a super nice guy, and when he criticizes your work, it's very gentle and polite. One of the many superb things about him is that he can give critiques without being harsh or insulting because he doesn't get mad or disappointed, he just sees opportunities for improvement. He's a really good boss.)

After the report was turned in, I took it down a notch. I was able to relax while doing my work, without the breakneck pace or beads of sweat on my face or late evenings. And since I worked late on Monday and Tuesday nights, I wrapped up a couple of hours early on Friday and enjoyed the sunshine with my family. Sweet.

Last weekend our big accomplishment was finishing the garden! We got a new shovel early Saturday morning, so Nate was able to shovel out the last of the weeds and pine needles from the garden. Then he got a load of compost and we tilled it into the garden. Oh, it's nice. The soil is rich, cleared, and ready for planting. We went out... Tuesday? Wednesday?... to put in some seeds. Onion, kale, carrots, leeks, and mixed lettuce. Later this month (or next, depending on the weather) we'll put in corn, tomatoes, several types of squash, pumpkins, and bell peppers. And sunflowers, but in the front yard. Nothing has come up yet  but within a couple of weeks we'll see some sprouts. I am very excited.

(An update on the weather this evening -- the skyline in front of me shimmers with a final touch of pale yellow, the clouds warmed to baby pink and the sky cooled to baby blue. Far overhead the air is darkening, a deep blue; all too soon it will be the blue-black of night, speckled with twinkling white lights. In the distance a siren sounds but the cars are mostly quieted. Here the neighborhood kids are all but silent; house lights turned to the gentle illumination of lamps, windows cracked to let in the soft breeze of a summerish night. The tree next to me rustles a little in the breeze, then calms. All is slipping to stillness. Bedtime is soon.)

Today we went to visit my grandma. For many years my mom's mother's day tradition has been a visit to grandma, where she weeds the yard, plants flowers, prepares the garden boxes, and so forth. Some years we have been able to help with this tradition; we made it an essential goal to visit her this year. I know she's been missing the baby (she's been pretty busy helping her sick brother and hasn't been able to visit us) so we went to her. Nate and my mom did most of the heavy lifting. I was much less useful because I had to cart the baby around, and she was a bit cranky. (Not enough nap time this morning.) But I managed to plant all of the flowers my mom brought down, while she and Nate worked in the garden. Grandma weeded out the pots so I could plant. It was a very nice day.

When we got home I did some pressure washing. On a warm, sunny day, pressure washing is one of my very favorite things to do. It's almost like running through the sprinklers or something, except that it's productive. So I get "two birds" with the task -- the spray of cool, refreshing water on a hot day, and cleaner cement surfaces around the house. Score.

Tomorrow after church we will go visit Nate's mom and dad. Nate's mom has been very, very sick for a few months now, so I don't see her very often. It's hard for her to leave her house. And with work and the baby, I don't have a lot of time to go over there, either. Thankfully Nate usually makes time at least once a week to go visit them with Baby Girl, so they get to see each other.

Oh yes, and speaking of the baby...

A few updates....

But darn, I just looked at the clock and it's past 9pm. So I must get ready and be off to bed. More on that precious subject next time.

Stage 2 Car Seats: Info, Options, Overload!

I mentioned in my last two posts that we are looking for a Stage 2 car seat, and in my last post I also mentioned that I've been doing a bunch of research. The information is beginning to get muddled in my brain; some of it seems contradictory. So I am going to put it all down right here with the hope that it will help me sort it out. For those of you who are or are soon to be in similar circumstances, perhaps it will provide you with some useful info, or maybe you can add to it with your research. For others, well... this post might not be especially interesting. Sorry.

My first step in looking at Stage 2 car seats was to try and get a sense of the big picture because car seat standards and recommendations have changed a lot in the last few years, to the point where it seems like kids as old as 10 are still in some kind of car-seat-related thing. I thought it would be helpful to first understand what comes after a stage 2 car seat -- another car seat ? A booster? And when do these changes occur? More immediately, what about rear- vs. forward-facing car seats?

Turns out that things are not crystal clear. For instance, I have heard that kids should be rear-facing until they are at least 2 years old. I've also heard that they should be RF "as long as possible". So what's the true recommendation? From what I can tell, the second recommendation is accurate -- kids should be rear facing as long as possible. But then everything I read said, "Use the car seat manufacturer's recommendations to determine when to switch from RF to FF."

Uhm, really? Has anyone ever compared car seats to see what the manufacturers say? Because some of them are rear facing based on height, others by weight, others by whichever comes first of height or weight. AND the various height and weights differ -- I've seen height limits of 24 inches for some seats, 28, 29, or 30 for others; weights ranging from 30 to 40 pounds, possibly with more variants. So what is really the safest thing? If I have a tall, fat baby, is she safe to be forward facing sooner? Does her bulk, like, protect her?

Blarg. Really confusing.

The booster seat issue seems a little bit simpler. Kids need to be at least four years old and at least 40 pounds before they move into a booster. If a child is still within the height and weight limits of the car seat, it's safest to keep her in the car seat until she outgrows the limits. If you need to move her up to a booster, there are boosters with back and/or side padding that are safer than just the plain seat, but the extra padding is not required.

All of that is important to know because there are a lot of combination seats on the market, i.e. car seats that go from infant to toddler to booster (these are 3-in-1 seats; options include the Alpha Omega), or that work for RF and FF during stage 2 (called convertible car seats). There might even be more options and more names, I don't know. It sounds like there are about four stages of car seats. It gets muddled and confusing very quickly.

To help myself narrow it down, I also tried to look up a list of the "best" car seats, but I found several different types of lists, none of which were identical, none of which were totally clear or entirely up to date. These "best" lists only added to the confusion.

You know what else is confusing? Reading customer reviews of products. For car seat Q, some people say it fits easily into their small car, others say it is huge and doesn't fit well; some say it's easy to adjust and others say it's clunky. Ohmygosh, how do you decide these things without having to go and man-handle every make and model on the market? (Worse yet, what if I like one and can only order it online -- how do I know the customer reviews are any good if they are all across the board?!)

So I'm trying to make it simpler on myself and just consider two things: What matters most to me, and what I know (or think I know).

What's important? I want my kid to be safe. I want her to be as safe as possible. I am willing to put down a decent chunk of change in order to ensure her safety; I know I am willing to spend X amount of money on a seat. Thus I am generally looking at the upper-end versions of car seats that the various brands produce. Darling's car seat should ideally be highly functional -- I want to be able to easily adjust it as she grows, and to clean it if she gets food on it or gets car sick. I am willing to trade down a bit in functionality if it means she is safer, but the cleaning thing is moderately important to me.

I know that she should be rear-facing as long as possible, so I want to get something that she can continue to grow in and remain RF (i.e. I am not going to get something where she has maxed out or is close to maxing out the RF limits). It seems to me that a seat which is designed for a specific purpose is safer and better designed for its single purpose; the multi-use car seats (like a 3-in-1) won't provide quite as much protection as something with a dedicated purpose. At least, that's my perception.

Thus I am leaning toward a high-end combination seat that will allow Baby Girl to remain rear-facing for awhile (i.e. she is not too close to maxing out the RF limits).

Whew. Took awhile to get to that point. Now let's review the car seats I've considered...

PEG PEREGO

Our current (infant) car seat is a Peg Perego and it's awesome. It has the highest safety rating in its class, it's well made, and it has been good to us. It's not perfect but I couldn't have done better had I gone out and picked one myself. (It was a gift.)

PP makes a convertible car seat, which is a brand new product this year. Because we love the current car seat, because we know and trust the brand, and because it's surely one of the safest (probably THE safest) car seat available, it is at the top of my list.

Unfortunately I am facing two drawbacks: The closest store that (maybe) carries the product is an hour away, so that makes it hard to go and play with the seat to test its functionality. It's also quite a bit outside our price range. I really like the black "licorice" color and style, but it's way up there; the moderately less expensive, plain black one is still above my price point. So I guess I'm hoping the car seat fairy drops one on our doorstep and that it has high functionality.

Ha, ha. Sigh.

(I have considered ordering it on Amazon so I can test it. It can be returned for free anytime in the first year -- wow! LOVE AMAZON! -- but I'm still balking at the cost.)

Update (June 2012): We got a chance to test one of these out. In the end I still went with a Britax, but you can find my comments about the PP Convertible in my follow-up post!


BRITAX: Roundabout, Marathon, or Boulevard

I've been told that the Britax brand has some of the highest safety ratings on the market. We checked this one out at a store two weeks ago and it is definitely sturdy and seems to have good, heavy padding. The shoulder and head adjuster is easy to use, and the recline is easy to use. The cover was easy to slide off for cleaning. It has LOTS of positive reviews and very, very few negative reviews. People who I know, with opinions I respect, have opted for this car seat.

In our "testing" last week we found it to be just a little bit clunky. It comes with rubber liners on the chest harness that prevent the straps from twisting (very effectively), but they also kinda get in the way. The crotch buckle doesn't have a long tether so you have to reach down quite a bit to buckle it in (I didn't mind this but it bugged Nate). Like most car seats (maybe all?) there is a strap that comes out the front of the seat which pulls the shoulders tight. The release mechanism to loosen this strap is a bit hard to access. It also seems a bit large... but then again, most of the convertibles seemed pretty big.

If I go with their lower-end "Roundabout" model, the weight capacity maxes out at 55lbs. At first I wasn't sure if this was enough, but then I was thinking about future kids. If/when we have another child, s/he will use the Peg infant car seat at first, but what about when s/he needs to move to the next stage? If I get the Roundabout, Baby Girl might max out of it at about the time Baby 2 moves into it. Maybe.

The next two models (Marathon and Boulevard) both go up to 70lbs. The difference between them is that the Boulevard has additional side-impact protection. That's why it's one of the safest car seats on the market, and why it appeals to me. It pushes the budget a bit, but I think that safety rating makes it worthwhile.

One of my co-workers got a Boulevard for his daughter, loves it, and just ordered a second one for their second car. He said that when the new one arrives, we can come over and put it in our car so we can check out the size, fit, functionality, and so forth in a realistic setting. (Playing with one in the store just gives you an idea -- it's not definitive!) Clearly he and his wife like it enough to buy two, and I respect their opinions. So we'll see how it goes.

Update (June 2012): We decided to buy a Britax Boulevard. You can read about it in my follow-up post!


EVENFLO: Symphony

The Symphyony by Evenflo wasn't originally on my radar, but we saw it at the store when we were checking out the Britax models and were surprised to find that we like it. It is very easy to adjust -- the head support and shoulder straps move easily, and the tilt is smooth. The cover wasn't too hard to remove. The LATCH system is a bit different from other ones, but looks easy to install, and hopefully it will be easy to tighten the car seat into place.

I am concerned that the shoulder straps might be too easy to adjust. It you need to make them taller or shorter, you just have to pull them up or down. You see the problem? I read on some of the customer reviews that it's not too hard for a toddler to pull the straps up and make them looser. If my kid feels about being in the car the same way I felt about being in the car as a child, she will do everything in her power to free herself from the car seat... or at least to make herself "more comfortable" (in other words, she'll yank those shoulder straps higher so they aren't "restricting" her). Also, the chest buckle felt cheap and flimsy.

I think this one was Nate's preferred car seat, but I'm hesitant. I think it's safety ratings that have me stuck -- again, I want something highly rated and I'm willing to trade down in functionality, but Nate's main concern is functionality. Understandably.


Safety First: ALPHA OMEGA

Funny story with this car seat. They have it on sale at Costco right now. Nate and I saw it in the store a couple of weeks ago, about the time we first realized we needed to look for a new car seat. We hadn't done any research or shopping or comparisons, so we literally just looked at it (didn't touch it) and then moved on. The next week (one week ago) my mom was babysitting and took Darling to Costco. I asked her to check out the seat while she was there -- try adjusting it, see if it moves easily; does it feel durable? Etc. So after hunting all around the store, she finally found one. The last one. The display model. She tried it, thought it seemed like a good seat, and purchased it. She brought it home and said, "If it doesn't work for you, it can go in my car."

Whoa. Surprise! Super generous! But what if it stinks? It's rude to look a gift horse in the mouth (btw, I don't understand that expression, and it means that I just called my awesome mother a horse; sorry, mom). And we do need a seat.

We tried it out. Tested the straps and latches. Tried putting it in the car.

During my research I had read a lot of reviews, saw a lot of negative comments. People said it was loose and hard to adjust. Unfortunately, they weren't altogether wrong. I think the shoulders are easy to adjust and the headrest isn't too hard to move up and down. As a forward-facing car seat, I think it would be great. It goes up to 100lbs so it would last for awhile. But that's where my praise ends...

The recliner is very choppy and difficult to use. When we put the seat in our car, in the rear-facing position, we couldn't get the LATCH to tighten down all the way. Nor could we get it to recline to the level recommended by the manufacturer. Do you know how you're "supposed" to fix the insufficient recline? Stick a rolled-up towel under the car seat. No joke. Also, in the reclined position, the passenger seat has to move uncomfortably far forward. Even then, it's a bit hard to squeeze the baby around the door frame and car seat to get her in the car.

When my mom came to babysit this week, we decided to try it in her vehicle. It had the same issues of being loose and not able to recline correctly. So we did the towel thing and were surprised to discover that it made  all the difference -- the LATCH felt more secure, and the seat was at the right angle of recline. Mom's car is an SUV, so there was also enough room for it to recline without interfering with the front seats, and we could get Darling through the door and around the seat without trouble (because there was sufficient room).

My mom had the brilliant idea of using the LATCH from the spare base to our PP infant seat on the AO. We didn't get a chance to try it this week, so we'll do that next week. (The PP latch is excellent. Superb. Hopefully it will function as expertly on the AO.)

Overall, it looks like the AO is going to be grandma's car seat. It works better in her car than in our car. I think we could have made it work, now that we figured out some of the problems, but still, the seat is less-than-ideal for our car.


RECARO ProRIDE


Let me just say up front that we can't get this car seat. It would be a strong contender, if my kid was a good fit. But it's too small (aka Darling is too big) to still be in the rear-facing position, so it's not in the running. Nevertheless, I did a bunch of research before I learned that tidbit and so I wanted to make a few notes about this seat.

The RECARO brand was originally a racing car seat manufacturer, so when it comes to safety, the kid car seats are top notch. They know what they are doing. The brand was on my radar because it was at the top of one of the various "best car seat" lists I looked at (although I can't now remember which list or why). They also have a pleasant variety of colors, including a purple that makes me smile every time I see it. (What is it about purple lately?!)

To be rear facing in the car seat, the baby has to be less than 23 inches. Is it just me, or does that seem short? My kid is nearly 30 inches, so she would have to be forward-facing in this car seat. I just don't feel comfortable having her face forward yet, for all the reasons detailed earlier in this post.

Sad face. It's so pretty. And safe.

But... moving on....


OTHER BRANDS

(Finally, holy goodness, this post is almost done.)

Should I consider other brands? There are more options on the market. Other popular names include Graco and Chicco. Someone last week mentioned The First Years. Should I do research on these models, too?

If anyone is still reading... do you have a convertible, all-in-one, stage 2, etc. car seat? What brand? Do you like it? Why? What don't you like about it?

Recommendations?!