“This weather is for the birds,” my friend e-mailed me this week.
-50˚ with the wind chill, I couldn’t agree more. Except that birds have the sense to fly south!
And we, well we are left with this.
Which brings us to the battle ranging at the forefront of our preoccupation.
How do you pack this
into this
There has been many times is the past three and half years, that I have wondered if I gave birth to the reincarnated Princess and the Pea. Like tactile children of many generations, Ava is plagued by unseen hairs, sand, dust, and tags, otherwise known as the Itchy Fairies that make her squirm and fuss and cause me to pull my own hair.
Getting Ava into the previously pictured safety device in the summer is as breezy as the sundresses she wears. She hops in, buckles herself, and away we go. However, add the layers necessary to protect her from the biting cold (and by biting I mean walking through a wall of flying locust that are gnawing off your nose), and you find yourself under fire on the western front: arms flailing, legs kicking, and squeals less merciful than rockets.
I am not trained to withstand this kind of onslaught especially given the added weather conditions. No one, I mean no one wants to stand bent into an open car trying to restrain a three-year-old in full-fledge meltdown, while sub-zero temperatures are howling up their coat and snatching every ounce of warmth.
I have tried rewards and punishments. I have explained the difference between “it hurts!” and it’s uncomfortable. I have been calm and I have been not so calm (have I mentioned that it’s COLD). I have actually heard myself say, “deal with it.”
So I turn to you, how do you peacefully strap in a child with this many layers?
Ideally, I would like to move her into a seat where she is not so smooshed. To her credit, she is very smooshed. But the laws require her to be forty pounds to switch seats. And she is nine pounds shy of that mark. How are we to endure nine more pounds of growth? And how are we going to get them into that carseat?
Please, advise, please.
Believe it or not!: There was just a segment regarding THIS VERY THING on our morning news…
The nurse from our children’s hospital actually advises that children are placed in their seats sans coats/wrappings. And that’s the ONLY way they’re safely secured in their seat with the straps positioned in the correct placement with the correct tightness.
As she demonstrated this, she took the child’s coat (not actually being worn by him) & covered him with it (like he was wearing it backward) AFTER he was indeed strapped in.
Now it’s 20 degrees here right now (& probably much much colder than that for YOU), and I just can’t see doing that. Even in the mildness of our garage.
But my kids sure would like that!
Or you could just give her a 9 pound bowling ball to hold onto….
Compass – Premium Fold Booster Seat, in Daisy
Rachel,
I have a daycare and am constantly thinking I am a carseat queen. I own 7 five point car seats and 5 boosters. If you go to Walmart.com you will find the most adorable car seat that is a “high-back” booster. It is daisy and so cute!! She can be 30 lbs. and be completely safe. Good luck! Here is the brand:
Compass – Premium Fold Booster Seat, in Daisy
Believe it or not, we have been using the Compass car seat for Alexander since last Summer and he loves it. It has an arm rest that folds up and down (like on an airplane) so it is very easy for him to climb in and out of the seat. The head rest is also adjustable so that you can make it fit Ava perfectly. The only hard part about changing over to a booster is that he can easily wriggle out of it, but a little bit of discipline stopped that pretty quickly. I think that there are a few other boosters that start at 30 pounds, but when I was researching it, the Compass looked like the best product for the price. Not having to connect a 5 point harness will change your life!
We deal with this every winter day here in Minnesota. The only thing we do is we always warm our car up and then..yes..we remove the coat in the car. I’m just like my kids..I CANNOT ride in a car with my carseat on with the bulk of a winter coat..so I always take it off in the car too. If the car isn’t warm enough we bring a fleece blanket to throw on top of them..they still wear their hats…but our family is clastrophobic..excuse the spelling…so it’s almost a must to do this and it works. We all stay warm if you can believe it in our heated car in the middle of winter!