WWYD? booster downgrade?

So, I love my Monterey, ahem Liberty's Monterey. BUT she hates it. Hates it. I dunno why, but for some reason the kid is always begging to ride in the Turbo or the Big Kid.
I like the Monterey for the LATCH option (which I dont have a car with LATCH now, but hope to have one before it expires LOL) and that it has *IMO* better SIP than the other two I have. More sturdy, that sort of thing too weighs in my mind.
ANYWAYS-- money is tight, we have 3 boosters (see above) and really only need 2. We'd need to sell the Monterey if we're not going to use it.

Liberty is 41.5lbs and 49" tall. She is pretty thin, I don't know if any of you would think she is too narrow for the Monterey. I have seen it mentioned before and I didn't think of it til now. So, would you go back to using the other boosters more regularly and sell the Monterey (9-09)?

Landen is 3 (today) and 33lbs and 40.5" tall. He has a True Fit in my car, ff and on the top freaking slots. The 3rd ones are at his shoulders and a bit tight, so I moved him up. I'd like to move him to a Nautilus or a Symphony65. I could sell the Monterey and fund a new seat for him, then sell the TF and fund the 2nd seat for him. He only has the TF right now. Great seat, but I think we lose too much room due to the recline of the seat, it's as upright as we can get, and he only has a 13.5 " torso, or something like that.

I hate doing the stupid carseat shuffle. I had a Radian 65, sold it and dammit I should have kept it and not bought the TF. I laugh when people say it has the same shell height-- may be but I don't see it.

OK-- so help me, enable me, laugh at me. Something so I don't have to decide. My brain hurts.

sell the monterey!! 1st reason because she HATES it & 2nd reason is IMO its too wide for her. if she ever leaned into the side even a hair the belt would be too far off her shoulder. my DD has the exact same problem.

Oh my goodness, Liberty is just adorable!!

I don't think I'd be comfortable with the way the Monterey fits her. It even looks like she might be leaning a bit to make the shoulder belt fit better in the picture. My ds1 was (IMHO) *just* fitting the seat when we bought him a Monterey last summer. I'm sure he was at least 50" and 50 lbs. at the time. (I can't remember exactly.) Of course, if she hates it, that is a huge factor as well. DS1 is 8 now, and I think I'd have a hard time getting him to sit in a seat he hated. He loves his Monterey, fortunately. I'll be curious to see what other folks have to say about the way she fits. I never know if I'm just being too picky.

The only reason I might consider hanging on to the Monterey for Liberty is this: DS1 has outgrown the legs on many seats and is fairly narrow in the shoulders. He is not even close to fitting with a low back booster in most vehicles, but is reaching a size where some high back boosters would not work for him. You might not need to worry about this with Liberty, though, especially in the legs. He is only a few inches taller than she is, but his legs stick out much further in the Monterey. I'm not sure how tall your other boosters go, but I would think that a child as thin as she is might outgrow the height of some boosters before having filled out enough in the shoulders to fit in a low back booster. Just something to keep in mind as she grows...Maybe it would be better to sell the Monterey now and get something like a parkway down the road, IF she needs it. It sounds like your younger child is on the thin side as well, so he might have the same issue with the Monterey fit in a few years.

Why does she hate the Monterey? I wonder how much you could get for it?

Best of luck!

Looks like her headrest needs to be raised a notch or two. Might make it more comfortable.

Personally, I'm comfortable with kids in the highback TB but not the big kid. Just feel like the big kid provides no side impact protection. So I'd put her in the TB. She'll be happy and the belt will probably fit her better.

Thanks-- she rarely smiles for pics. That was a good day, I guess.

I personally don't know what I think about how she fits, but like I said she doesn't like it. Probably because peer pressure is getting big right now and all her friends just have TB or BK. The headrest has moved up since then, that was September, she's grown since then-- but thanks!

The new Monterey's still go for $139, right? Maybe I could sell it for $110 shipped? Does that sound too high?

I really am tired of buying seats, I feel like everytime I get one, it doesn't work quite the way I expected.

**Would you put him in a GN or a S65 at his size? I mean, expecting down the road the booster conversion probably wont fit him either and I'll end up buying a TB anyway? LOL

LIberty's stats even seem to be too small for the monterey. I bet she fits much better in a high back turbo, and as Maedze says, it is a "warhorse"

ANd happy birthday to Landen! I got the babycenter notice but didn't say anything. Matthew was 3 just 2 weeks ago, and he is still rf in a radian xtsl And if he only has a 13.5 inch torso, there is something wrong with your measuring, or the truefit. The top slots of the truefit are 17+inches. Matthew has a 14.5 inch torso or so. The reason the monterey doesn't fit Liberty well is because she is a bit narrow in the shoulders. That actually came out in the NHTSA testing, which is why it was in the middle ground. Narrow kids just don't fit well in the shoulder area with the monterey.

Jen, that's ok, I haven't been on BBC in like 3 weeks or something. Dang Facebook and Etsy eat all my free time.
LOL-- I know Landen could RF in the TF for another 2lbs but I don't really wanna switch him now. He will be fine FF, but of course, now that you make me think of it... just kidding.
I'll be selling it when the grey cover comes in, I suppose. I'll try local first then move on to posting it in swap here.
I'm gonna post pics of her in both TB and BK and see which yall think is best. Is that ok?

the fit in the monterey is OKAY... but the fact that I KNOW other boosters will fit her better makes me say to sell it.

I really don't like the BK.. never had... it just feels significantly flimsier to me than the Turbo... and the turbo is such a tried and true great bet of a booster.

could you track down a Vivo (big lots in some places still have them) to take the place of the BK, so she has the turbo and a vivo (and still sell the Monterey)??

here's my thread showing the difference in the fit (my daughter fits about the same way Liberty fits in that pic... OKAY, but not good.

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=107696&highlight=vivo+monterey

I'd put DD in the TB. Does your BK have EPS foam? Some do, some don't.

Since you won't be RFing DS, I'd get a Nauti, not a Symphony. If he doesn't fit it well in booster mode later, maybe you can put DD in the GN booster, and DS in the TB booster. No more buying seats

I second Kat's idea of trying to find a Vivo. I personally prefer the bigger headwings. My older kids ride in Vivos in my car, and TBs in their Mom's car.

I researched a ton and got a parkway for Julianna when we went to a booster, and got a turbo as a spare, the fit on the turbo was better though, so I finally sold the parkway and got her another turbo, we now have two turbos for her, I want to try her in the frontier as a booster but we use it as a harnessed seat for Fiona, not sure I want to part ways with that one for her.

I think she fits fine in the other two we have.
I should post a pic, but I don't have any I don't think. I'll check.
I dont think I'll look for a Vivo, we'll stick with the ones we have.
Yes, our BK has the EPS foam, that's the reason I went and bought it instead of another Turbo.

The fit doesn't bother me. Sure there is some gap between her and the armrests but I think the extra side protection still makes it a good choice. Would she like it if it were pink? Maybe try to trade covers with someone.

You could also put her in the turbo for now and put her back in the monterey a year from now when she is a bit bigger.

I admit I'm just not a big fan of the turbo, it just seems so flimsy compared to the monterey.

emandbri said:

The fit doesn't bother me. Sure there is some gap between her and the armrests but I think the extra side protection still makes it a good choice. Would she like it if it were pink? Maybe try to trade covers with someone.

I admit I'm just not a big fan of the turbo, it just seems so flimsy compared to the monterey.

Click to expand...

She didn't like the pepto pink so she chose red. I wanted her to have pink, but you know how that goes. At the time, Landen's TF was a Sporty Blue, so it looked cute-- but now we have an Aurora cover since the blue one fell apart.

I think so too, which is why I bought the Monterey, it was between that and the Parkway, but that felt flimsy to me-- I wanted her to sit in a TANK and that's what the Monterey feels like to me.