Thank you for your response! It is actually quite a bit more complicated than that... we have a 7.5 year old (53 pounds, 49.5 in), an almost 5 year old (39 pounds, 43 in), an almost 3 year old (34 pounds, 36 in), and a new baby on the way! I feel our 5 year old still needs to be harnessed based on both his skinny stature/weight and (im)maturity to sit correctly. Currently in my vehicle, my 7.5 year old is still harnessed in a Britax Frontier CT; as a result of the Consumer Reports testing in which that seat had crash test failure, I would have already switched it to booster mode, but she sits three across and it’s tight- no room to reach down for the buckle easily. My almost 5 year old and almost 3 year old each sit in a Britax Boulevard CT.
The issue is finding a good configuration in my husband’s truck. We want to have seats for at least two of the kids designated for his truck to limit the switching back and forth. We currently have a Britax Highpoint (highback only I believe) for my 7.5 year old, and an almost expiring (and disliked) Britax Roundabout. We want to replace the Roundabout for sure in the very near future. We plan to get a minivan soon, so one option is to get a second highback booster for my 7.5 year old for the van (the other in the truck), and move one of the Boulevards to the truck. In the van, that would mean 7.5 year old in highback booster, almost 5 year old in Britax Frontier harnessed, and almost 3 year old stays in second Boulevard. In the truck would be the second highback booster and a Boulevard. Sounds good, EXCEPT, that means that if my almost 5 year old and almost 3 year old are together in the truck (which is probably the most frequent combo at the moment, but still only 1-2x/week, and generally only on 25 mph roads for 2ish miles or less), my 5 year old would have to sit in the highback booster unharnessed. He is also technically speaking still one pound off of the bare minimum weight requirement. Where the truck rides are generally so short and generally only on 25 mph roads, should this be fine, or should I really be considering a harnessed seat option for him, which I feel he definitely still requires on average (he’s an active, wiggly little guy!)? If he really should be in a harnessed seat in the truck as well, I think I would probably need to find a backless booster option for the truck for my daughter as well, since her height and weight seem to be above most harnessed boosters on the market. The Frontier was the best bet in terms of them both being able to use the seat with little adjustment, but I am nervous about that for her given the Consumer Reports info. Ugh!
Then we throw the new baby into the mix and fast forward to next year when we transition to a convertible car seat... that could mean moving the Boulevard from my husband’s truck back into the van for the 1 year old baby and potentially needing to buy yet another car seat for the truck! It would be great to figure out the most logical, financially savvy way to buy the least number of car seats!! Oy vey. If you have made it this far, kudos to you for reading all of this and trying to make sense of it all. My head is sure spinning.