Pics of my DD's last day ERF (at 43lbs!)

Hopefully these pictures don't come out too big, they looked fine in the preview, but let me know if I need to change them.

A little background on our ERF journey, I had fully planned on keeping her RF for as long as possible. But that came much quicker than I had anticipated when she was 32lbs at her 18 month appointment and we had a 33lb Marathon. So I turned her FF at 19 months, right before DD2 was born. She was 36lbs at her 2 year appointment so really even buying a different seat at the time wouldn't have bought us much time. So then all these new 40lb RF seats started coming out and of course she was already 38-39lbs at the time so I didn't feel like I could justify the cost. But as soon as I heard that the SL models of the Radians that could RF to 45lbs were coming out I was sold. I bought one as soon as I could and the first day she rode in it (beginning of November) she weighed 41lbs

So I had already decided that I was just going to turn her back FF when she turned 3, but I felt very good about my decision to keep her RF for even those 2 months more. She weighs roughly 43lbs fully dressed now, so I probably could wait another month or so, but with another baby on the way I didn't want to stress about it every day.

So here she is at 43lbs and about 40" (might be 41" now) and 2 days shy of 3 years old







Looking at the pictures now I think her chest clip is a tad too high, and the headwings could have probably been moved up a little. We did have it more upright when we first installed it, but no matter how tight we got it because of her weight it would recline more and more every day. And as you can see she probably doesn't have too much height left even if she wasn't so close to the weight limit. So back to the Frontier she goes now.

And I thought I'd add one picture of my other ERFer, she is 16 months and about 27lbs and 31" And thanks to the XTSL she will definitely make it all the way to 3 before we even have to think about FF her :thumbsup:


She usually looks cuter than this in pictures, she wanted to play with the camera more than she wanted to smile

Your girls are beautiful!!
Good for you for keeping her rf for so long!

Great job rfing for so long! And adorable blue eyes

They are both adorable and their eyes are so pretty!!!

Good job keeping her RF'ing as long as possible!!!

Your girls are gorgous! Good Job on keeping her RF this long.

Amazing job rearfacing such a big girl (I mean, seriously, she's TALL, too). With my magical psychic powers I'm sensing an 86-Y harness in your future for her to use with a booster until she's 6.

Thanks, I think they're cute too And people seriously don't believe me when I tell them she's about to turn 3, they assume she is at least 4 if not closer to 5. And she's not really chubby either, just tall and solid.

So I haven't researched too far ahead, but what is the 86-Y harness? I do plan on keeping my kids harnessed until 6, but I'm now realizing that it might not happen height wise (I've been more concerned with weight all this time!). Is it something that you use with a regular booster that makes it a 5-point harness? If so then yes I do see that in our future too I'm not sure which slot she's on on the Frontier, I had to move it up when I reinstalled it last night, but I didn't look to see how many more slots she had. I'm somewhat wishing I had bought a Regent instead of a Frontier, but there is no way I could convince DH that we need another car seat now since I just bought the Radian a few months ago.

And luckily DD2 is slightly smaller in both weight and height than DD1 was so I'm not as worried about her later on. But who knows how DD3 will turn out, we might have another giant on our hands!

What does our DD think about no longer RF?

http://www.ezonpro.com/products/fami...yHarness.shtml

this is the 86-Y... most of the info is there...

you can find more info at the sites below (the first sells them)

http://www.hipmonkey.com/Ez-On-86Y-U...ess_p_135.html

this one you have to scroll down till you get to the paragraph on the harnesses - http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/Over40.aspx

I know that some companies are fine with you using the harness with the booster (sunshine kids, for one), but others aren't... so obviously then it comes to parental decision...

and here is the album with the pics that used to be on older threads about this... I only link to the album as I won't post someone else's pics... Defrost no longer has internet, so she's not around to post them, but I figure she wouldn't mind me linking to the public album

http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i301/alunatic_photos/86Y harness/

Awww great pic's. Love the chubby thighs. We call my DD's her chubs.

Thanks for the info on the 86-Y. I bookmarked all of those pages so that when I need them I can refer back to them again. I'm going to move the Frontier again soon (I'm crazy I know ) so I'm going to see how many harness slots she has left. I just moved it up the one, but she's pretty close to needing it moved up again!

As far as how she likes FF again, she really never cared either way which direction she was facing, which was really nice for when I turned her back RF. But I am now remembering another reason why I liked her RF again, she is such a backseat driver when she is FF! She is just talking and talking and telling me to slow down when the lights are red and speed up when the lights turn green. It's kind of funny, but at the same time it was nice to drive in peace for a few months

Thanks for sharing the pictures. It's really cool to see how the Radian might work for a child who is 40lbs+ in the rf position. That tall shell really provides a lot of rf room. I'm using our Radians ff for my just turned 5 (last week!) DS who is 46in tall and weighs 54lbs and he still has some growing room.

Melanie