The Car Seat Caper

Many of you may or may not know the original car seat story. About a year ago, I was driving Emma Kate around in Birmingham. We were headed down I-65 at my normal rate of speed when I heard EK laughing. I looked in my rear view and I saw Emma Katherine Thomas STANDING in her car seat, facing out of the back of our 4runner and waving at the cars behind us. Lovely.

I quickly exited at the Valleydale exit, which is still quite far from our home (then). I pullover and (spank) Emma Kate. I was shaking; she was laughing. (Keep in mind that she is just over one at this time--visions of the next 18 years are flashing in my head at a rate of speed faster than I was driving).

She had unbuckled the chest part of her car seat and then she squirmed her way to a standing position. I sat her back down and buckled her back in. I decided to travel down Hwy 31 the rest of the way.

About 8 minutes into our drive down 31, I hear her squirming and turn around just as she is standing up again. She is loving this "game" we are playing. I am not loving this "game" we are playing.

We repeat the spanking, the sitting and the re-buckling. And we're off.

I make it all they way to the Big Lots in Alabaster when she has popped up again. I realize that this isn't working. I have to run the risk of the po-po passing by me and my child in standing in the window--waving and laughing. Now I have visions of the DHR workers that I work with on a daily basis showing up at my house and the cops that I work with in Alabaster writing me a ticket.

I try one more time with stern words and mean faces. I RE-BUCKLE the child one more time. We get to Shelby Medical in Alabaster and she is back up. I pull over AGAIN. I find some packing tape (since it is December and I have been shipping http://www.amyleighsattic.com/ packages all over the country).

I then tape my child to her car seat. Stop laughing; what else could I do?? I taped each leg (she had long pants on) to the car seat. I wrap tape around the chest buckle. I am now thinking I have out-smarted the one-year-old.

As we drove down 119, I hear whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip, whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip, whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip. And she's up. She has untangled all of the tape. Man she is fast. We are now in front of the elementary school---3 miles from home. I say a quick prayer and just drive......carefully.

We did make it home, safe and sound.

That night Mikey T decided we were heading straight to Target and we got this..........The lazyboy of carseats, the Britax Marathon..........

The Marathon has been a life-saver, literally. She has stayed in it for a year. No attempts to play parade-float-princess and wave at the folks behind us.

That is, until today. I am taking her to school and I hear her window roll down??? How can she reach that AND thank GOD the child-lock was on because she was after the door handle too.

Seems Super-human has figured out the Marathon.........

BUSTED. At least she stayed seated and seemed to have no desire to stand. She just wanted to play with the windows (which are now also child locked). She UN LATCHED the main latch. (and she took her shoe off) Yes, she is strong enough to push the button. This is new. In the past she just did the chest latch. Now it is both of them..........any suggestions??