Why Does It Always Have to be so Hard??

It was the sort of day that I dread. We needed to hurry. Any time you need to hurry and you have kids it's a recipe for grumpiness at the very least.

We've known for a while that D is too big for the infant car seat. She's small weight-wise but she's long. The car seat we had for M expired last December. The second car seat we bought for K is still good, but when it is installed rear-facing in my car M cannot buckle herself into her booster. So this sent me to Tar-jay Boo-tique last night to try to find a different seat to fit in my car.

This involved much standing and looking at the seats in the one aisle. Also involved some sighs and perhaps a phone call home or two. Eventually I picked a seat and brought it home to try.

It didn't work.

So we put the infant seat back in the car. (this is the royal "we" and by "we" I mean Craig) One more day can't hurt right?

We drive M to school in the morning and I encounter yet another jerk that can't seem to be bothered to check his blind spot while driving. HONK! Why are you honking Mommy? DEEP BREATH. Oh that person is just an asshat just did something wrong and didn't see us here. And I am happy that we have averted another fender bender yet I am amazed again at how many close calls we come by. I cringe as I think that the baby is perhaps not entirely safe in her car seat that is technically too small for her. (In our defense I think the length restriction is so that their heads are not flopping out of the seat top and D's head was in no danger of floppage. She is long in torso and leg, her head was still below the top of the seat.)

So K and I go to take the car seat back to Target and get a few more things, because you seriously cannot enter Target and buy only one thing. It's like a vortex that sucks the money right out of your pockets.

We return the seat and shop for a few things with remarkably few incidents. It is like the angels have begun a jubilant chorus. Naturally, I push it. We head to Babies R Expensive to check out the seats there. I am not optimistic about finding a seat that will work. I luck out and a woman who is beautiful, smart, knowledgeable and helpful asks me if I need help and I take her up on it. I have a slight urge to kiss her. (I probably shouldn't admit that, right?) She walks me through my options, she tells me I can try the seats in my car.

So I try one seat. I realize I am an idiot. I have to call Craig to ask him how to even get the infant seat base out of the car. I essentially have every car seat under the sun out in the parking lot of Babies R Expensive while D is in her infant seat in a cart and K is dancing around the car. I've begun to sweat profusely because A) it is a warm 72 degrees at least...possibly 82 in the hot blacktop parking lot. And 2)(because I love to make fun mistakes like that) it takes an extraordinarily unnatural amount of energy to test a car seat with 2 kids...even if only one of them is putting himself in imminent bodily harm every 2 minutes.

Holy Christ on a cracker I have forgotten how much actual car seats suck the big one. Of course the two older kids were out of the infant seat at 3 or 4 months so I've been spoiled with D. She can sit up when I put her in a cart. I remember having M outgrow the infant seat and wonder what I was supposed to do with spaghetti baby when she couldn't sit up in the carts. We muddled through somehow, but for the most part it sucked. Make no mistake.

So. Long story slightly shorter, I ask Craig to meet us at BRE so we can see if there is any hope of transporting three kids in my little car without strapping K to the roof. (tempting. I daydream of how quiet that ride would be.) Craig looks a little, points out one seat that he thinks may work. I give the girl my driver's license again and she quips "hope this one works for you!" with a big smile and I am tempted to smack her because she obviously has no children and she has no compassion for the plights of us marrieds with multiple childsrens thingies.

And then the car seat totally fits. M can buckle herself, I can buckle K we can rejoice except for the $2oo price tag.

It's a small price to pay for the littlest Zebra's safety right?

Yeah, I thought so too.