Completely Technical

This is perhaps going to be the most boring, least entertaining, and most uninteresting post I will have ever written. I have nothing witty, nothing sweet, nothing funny to write about [at this moment - there will be more soon], but currently I am so incredibly excited that I can hardly contain myself! Excited about what, you may ask. I am over-the-moon excited about a new booster seat for Miss Mouse, even though a good chunk of me (and there's quite a few "chunks" these days....) can scarcely believe she's out of an infant seat and is helping me look for one of those for her new little sibling. Time doesn't fly; time zooms.

Anyway, I've been suspecting for quite some time that Miss Mouse would be moving to a booster far before she ever hit either the weight or the height limit on her convertible car seat. I recalled reading something about a "seated height limit" having to do with the shoulder straps; I read that back in 2007 when our incredibly tall infant had to move out of her infant seat into this convertible limousine of a seat at eight months old. A few complaints on our recent 1,000 mile trip (in 4 days) from the Mouse who rarely complains in a vehicle sort of solidified my suspicions about the seat. We measured Miss Mouse last night, and her "seated height" is 17 inches. The convertible seat's limit is 16.75.

Thankfully, I've been researching like a mad woman lately. Really. Ask me the rear hip width of some different vehicles. Chevy Equinox? 51.3. Ford Taurus X? 56.5 Ford Flex? from 55-57.8 Chevy Traverse? 57.8. Yep. I've done a bit of research into vehicular capacities, LATCH placements (for those who haven't dealt with small children post-2001, they are handy-dandy little metal bars which car seats attach to....and then the seats don't move...at all!), seating arrangements (i.e., rear captains chairs, bench seats, width of bench seats, 40/60 splits in bench seats, optional third rows, optional bench seats, etc.). It was enough to boggle my mind for a period of time.

In addition to researching vehicle options, I also researched booster seat options. Previously I thought that going to a booster seat meant leaving the five-point harness system behind. That bothered me because of how tiny Miss Mouse is regardless of her height. How excited was I, then, when I found that several companies make booster seats that convert from five-point harnesses to flat, under-the-bottom boosters as the child ages and grows??! Super excited!

After a lot more research, I narrowed down my list to two. The first is a narrow booster, the narrowest on the market. It's got enough padding to be safe but no more. It has no armrests (though I wondered if the kiddos wouldn't eventually just use each other as arm rests when crammed like sardines next to each other in the back of our Equinox?!). I struggled with my instinct telling me not to go with this one. It would have been the financially most responsible move, considering we would be able to get 17 inches X 3 across the Equinox (and would have .3 of an inch to spare even!). The other seat has the same safety features as the first, but it has a load more padding. I don't believe it's "safety padding" as much as comfort padding. It also has fold-down armrests. Those two things, more padding and armrests, weighed on me as I remembered our trip of 1,000 miles in 4 days. I'm not sure I could have done it without my own armrest. Given, the kiddos are young compared to my old self, but still. I don't want going to Grammy and Grandpa Bob's house to ever turn into a nightmare because of sore bottoms, stiff necks, and aching arms.

Considering we solified our opinion on Miss Mouse having outgrown her current seat last night (I had Mike measure, too, so that I was sure my measurements weren't wrong), I finally did some phone calling this morning. After finding online that no store in a 150 mile radius from us sold either of my two favorite seat choices, and getting some feedback via facebook, I called the company that manufactures the first car seat, the narrow one. I asked what the seats "seated height limit" was. The cornflake I talked to told me in an irritated tone that all the limits were on the website. She could just as well have added "Stupid" at the end of the sentence to go with her tone. I explained that the seated height limit was not easily found on the website, and that I would like to know what it is. Well, apparently they have none. Red flag. She finally figured out that the top adjustment of the top strap is at 19 inches; I thanked her for providing what is the actual seated height limit (whether or not they acknowledge it!) and hung up. A limit of 19 inches would mean we would have 2 more inches of torso length increase before Miss Mouse would be kissing the five-point harness goodbye. That's not so bad, but when I looked at the comparable Britax seat (the one I loved anyway because of its cushy-ness), I found their seated height limit is 20 inches. We'd get an entire extra inch of five-point harness use.

Miss Mouse and I sat down and found the closest color to red available (it's called "Livia", and I'm sort of afraid it is a purplish/pink rather than anything close to a red) and ordered Sir Cushy. We'll give up another inch of car room in the back once it arrives, but, sigh, I'll give up that extra inch and as much of my savings as needs be if it means we can visit my family in comfort. Poor Mike. All of this just had to be decided during Holy Week. Good thing he got to spend some good time tickling his Mice on the couch tonight as they crawled, literally, all over him (even on his head). At one point, Miss Mouse wanted to tell him something, but he was getting so much laughter from Sunny about a ridiculous face he was making, that Miss Mouse had to start shouting "Stop laughing! Daddy will stop the faces and listen to me if you stop laughing!". Of course, she was chuckling, too.

And I was happy-as-a-clam knowing we have a humongous box on its way here from a Target warehouse somewhere (oh, and it's coming via free shipping and at 25% off retail price.....I'm big on safety, big on comfort, and big on cheap!).