Graduation

So we graduated to the "big" car seat this weekend. Normally you don't have to go to the bigger car seat until the kid is about 22 lbs (at least, that's the case with our infant seat), but Carrie HATES the infant seat. And I mean HATES. I think she just starts crying when I even think about taking her somewhere which means putting her in the infant seat. She's fine in it...for about 5 minutes. Then she starts whining a little, crying a little, and if the ride's not over in about 10 minutes, it's full-scale bawling. I can't say I blame her. She's all wadded up in there. Halfway lying down, no room to move, and strapped in the five-point harness (which is a great thing when Jerry's driving :) )

Since we have a ridiculous amount of traveling coming up for the holidays, we sprung for the Britax Boulevard seat. This thing will last till she's 65 pounds, or so the box says. Jerry brought it home from Atlanta this weekend (no Babies R Us in Gainesville, and we had almost $200 in credit there, so you better believe we got it in Atlanta). Sunday morning found him dragging out the base of the infant seat and installing the new monstrosity of a car seat. This thing is HUGE. It's still rear-facing like the infant seat, and will be till she's too big for it to be rear-facing. I'm not sure where her legs will go once she gets taller, but we'll worry with that later. Jerry got it all installed, and next came the big moment - we put her in her new car seat for the first time. We drove from our house around town to do a few errands, and never heard a mad peep out of her. She got a little fussy on the way home, but that was just because it was 2:30, and 3pm is usually naptime, so that was to be expected. But all in all the new car seat seems to be a success. The true test will be on Tuesday when we travel up to Atlanta for Thanksgiving. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for us!

I never thought I'd be so sentimental about switching to the bigger car seat. Sure, it's exciting that she (hopefully) won't be so unhappy in it. But I couldn't help but think while looking at her in her brand new "big girl" seat that all too soon she'll be all grown up and be off on her own adventures without Mommy and Daddy. Everyone tells you to enjoy babyhood while it lasts because they grow up so quickly, but you're never really prepared for just how quickly time passes...I think now I have a pretty good idea of what my dad meant when he said regardless of how old I got I'd always be his little girl. :)