Carseat debacle, continued.

In trying to figure out our carseat situation, I did a few more things in the name of experimentation. I tried both the backless Monterey and the high-back Nautilus in my car to see how they'd work, or what was better, and in what position. The car is less of a predicament than the truck, because the seats are a bit taller in the back, and there are side-curtain airbags, so the side-impact protection is not as crucial as it is in the truck, which does not have side-curtain airbags, and the lack of a headrest in the middle, I didn't expect to be a problem since it's a taller seat.

I tried the backless Monterey in the middle. FYI, a Monterey booster does not fit very well in the middle seat of a Chevy HHR if it's butted right up next to a Radian XTSL installed with LATCH. (If I did a seatbelt install with the Radian, it would give a little more room.) So I put Erin in the booster, and sure enough, the top of the seat was above the top of her ears! Perfect! Then I tried buckling her in. Because the seat is taller, the seatbelt comes from a higher place, and it didn't fit. It was cutting into her neck. Plus, with the Monterey right next to the rear-facing Radian, getting the booster buckled was a royal pain in the ass (still not as bad as the Nautilus, though).

Then I moved that same seat to the outboard passenger's side position, and while it was a great fit (duh... that's where it always is), the seatbelt was even worse. The backless Monterey was not an option in my car.

I put the Nautilus (as high-back booster) in there. We'd never used it in my car as booster before, only as harnessed, and the belt path wasn't THAT bad. Nothing is as good as the Monterey, but I've certainly seen worse than what the Nautilus gave me in the passenger's side outboard position. The Nautilus is workable, safety-wise, as the backless Monterey is workable safety-wise in the truck. We have bandaid solutions now.

Here's the pickle, though. The Nautilus is impossible for Erin to buckle, and even difficult for ME to do for her, just because of the enormous arm rests, and the sheer enormity and clunkiness of the seat. It practically covers up the seatbelt thingie it's so huge. There is NO WAY I can use this in a few weeks when school starts. I cannot imagine the drama in the parent pick-up line at the end of the school day when Erin would climb into the car, and I'd have to stop, get out, buckle her in, and everyone's honking at me to move my ass. Not cool. Not cool at all.

I know we can probably get the airline to replace our Monterey, which is great with me, but I wanted to get another booster anyhow since I'm pretty set on selling the Nautilus now since it's completely not functional as a booster, and the whole world seems to be involved in a love affair with this stupid seat, so I can probably get a very good price for it, especially considering that it's in excellent condition (or will be as soon as I wash the cover, and restore it to factory settings). There are three boosters I like, the Sunshine Kids Monterey (which we have), the Britax Parkway SG, and the Recaro Vivo. The Vivo is not made anymore (sad!), and we don't have a single retailer in town who carries Sunshine Kids or Recaro products anyhow. All we really have is Babies R Us, and they do carry a half decent selection of Britax. I thought for sure they'd have the Parkway. We got there, and the ONLY boosters they had were the Evenflo Big Kid and the Graco Turbobooster. Gag me.

I put Erin in a Turbo because she liked the color, found that she was almost too tall for it already. It probably wouldn't even last us another year, and with the height of seatbelts in my car, we NEED more than a year of belt positioning unless she has the all-torso growth spurt of her life sometime before 2nd grade is out. Oh, and the Turbo? Holy cheap shit, Batman. I was moving the headrest up and down, and I swear, this BRAND NEW booster was sticking, squeeking, and catching. Plus, it felt disgustingly flimsy. How could anyone trust that to keep their kid safe? Seriously, riddle me THAT.

It was just frustrating. I mean, we have a booster we absolutely adore, and Delta Airline lost half of it. We can't replace it quickly, because the nearest retailer is in California. We looked for our second choice, which was from a very big name brand, very popular, but no... of course they wouldn't have it, because all anyone whose kids are big enough for a booster would ever want to spend is $30, and the Parkway is a $120 booster, so they would never sell around here. Ugh.... The single biggest disappointment about this city for me was that I thought I would be able to find all the things I like, because in a big city, you're supposed to be able to, but this city's so poor they don't have anything here. It's just big, ugly, filthy, and poor, and I won't put my kid in a stupid Graco booster, no matter if the entire city's doing it.

So I guess I need to decide whether I want to order another Monterey (meaning we'd have two Montereys) or if I want to get a Parkway instead. The reason I am considering getting a Parkway is because if we have another baby, I'll need to do a 3-across in my car, and you just can never tell what will puzzle well together. While I'm 99% sure the Monterey will puzzle well with two Radians, or a Radian and a Diplomat (Orren's old seat, the black one), the Parkway is also well known as an easily puzzlable seat, and could be nice to have. I'm trying to get past the fact that the Parkway is quite possibly the ugliest booster I've ever seen, while the Monterey is kind of cool looking....

I don't know. Someone flip a coin for me. Heads, it's a Parkway, tails, another Monterey.