Car Seat Saga *Clarification*

**to clarify...we only have one car seat with a base in each car.  I drop off at day care and S picks up, hence the need for dragging the carrier around...that'll all change this weekend though, I can't wait!

 Let me start with the infant car seat we currently have.  Following the advice of a friend of mine, we got the largest infant seat possible.  In fact, we brought back our 32 lb seat for an up to 35 lb seat because she was so adamant that having the largest seat possible to make that 2-year recommendation for rear facing.  All well and dandy, as the infant seats are designed to face rear only and the bases are relatively easy to install.

Until you heave said "up to 35 lb" infant carrier into an upside down high chair at a restaurant and it doesn't fit.  Until you heave said "up to 35 lb" infant carrier up a flight of stairs, down a flight of stairs, and back into the car, with two heaves to try to get all the way to the middle of the back seat to click the seat back into the base.  Ah, and of course, heaving the seat down four narrow steps (ooooh do we have a "charming" old house) to the back door without getting wedged between the walls.  Keep in mind, that this little cherub who is happily hanging out in the monster seat weighs 15 lbs. 

And then...the kicker....daycare.  We started daycare this week, which was awesome after the food poisoning incident.  Thank you Universe, fantastic timing!  Granted, most people don't have to deal with the special situation we're in I got us into.  The building that houses our daycare center is a federal building and is all decked out with an x-ray machine and metal detector, and is currently under construction.  As in all windows replaced.  As in the entire building covered with scaffolding, drop off zone taken up by construction equipment and so on.  It is a pain in the ass.  Monday, I be-bopped in after parking 1/2 a block away to avoid the congested drop off zone with my purse, Baby X's diaper bag, Baby X in the carrier and the carrier in the snap n' go.  I was feeling pretty on top of things, knowing the routine, signed in, dropped the bags on the conveyor belt and then I heard this from the security guard, "We have to x-ray the car seat".  Come again?  "Take the baby out of the car seat, push the stroller around the metal detector, place the car seat on the conveyor belt, walk through metal detector with the baby.  Imagine, if you will:  7:40am (read: late), a mother who had, approximately 36 hours prior been puking her guts out, pulling baby out of the car seat, trying to one-handed unlatch the seat from the snap and go, heave the "up to 35 lb" carrier onto the conveyor belt and shove the stroller around the metal detector.   It took 3 tries to get the carrier off the snap n go, the stroller set off the metal detector (even going around the damn thing), mom set off the metal detector and had to be wanded.  (as it turns out, mom sets off the metal detector every fucking time).   On the other side of the metal detector and the x-ray machine it's about as much fun wrangling the car seat back over to the snap n go to drop it in one-handed, sit the kid down and grab all the bags.

I called S from work with an authoritative statement.  "I am not doing that every fucking day".  So commences, the search for the perfect convertible seat.  I decide that after Baby X's 6-month pediatrician appointment, we're going to go straight to Tar.get, see what they got and just choose one.  Tar.get hasn't restocked yet.  So, that's a bust.  I venture out later to B-R-U and pick up a seat to the tune of $140 (trying to avoid the one I KNOW will work, but costs twice as much), and S starts installing it at 9:00pm.  At 9:45pm, he comes downstairs, "Uh, can you take a look at this?".  The seat doesn't fit in our To.yota Matr.ix.  It won't tighten, not in the center of the seat, not in the passenger side, not with a rolled towel.  Into the box it goes.

This morning commenced another nightmare drop off wrangling the infant carrier (sans snap n' go and purse this time, I'm learning!), but still a headache inducing, swearing in front of my baby endeavor as I struggled to get through the security line in some amount of time less than 30 minutes.

We'll be shopping again this weekend.  Two more days of sending the carrier through the x-ray machine....
 
FYI, I found an awesome site (which I should have checked last night!).  www.car-seat.org

Happy car seat hunting everyone!