Help me decide!

I'm looking to purchase a second car seat for DH's car. I also plan on using it for traveling.

I currently have a britax roundabout in my car and originally I was going to put that in his and get a Marathon for my car. Now I'm not so sure.

I love the Graco Nautilus but I don't really want to put ds ff until he's a bit older.

What other options do I have? I really don't want something too bulky or heavy because I'll have to lug it around an airport but I also don't want to have to buy 2 more seats for him either.

How old, what weigh is the child?

He'll be one in 8 days and he's about 22lbs and 30 inches tall.

I would recommend the Safety First Avenue. You can see it on sear's website. It rear faces to 35lbs. & forward faces to 40lbs with 16" top harness slots. Its lightweight so it'll be good for traveling on an airplane. You will probably need a pool noodle to get the correct angle for rear facing, and there is an excellent thread about how to do this...but I cannot find it. I'm sure others will chime in

The Avenue, or Uptown. I bought an Uptown for $60 at Big Lots.

We also travel a lot. We have the Radian for travelling. It isn't light weight, but because it folds in half, it makes is super easy to get around the airport, because you can stack it with your luggage on the cart.

The Radian is super easy to install on the airplane, although some people have had issues getting it RF on an airplane because of it's size. (It's tall) When FF on a plane though, it is awesome. You can easily use the tray, and slip past the seat when you need to use the facilities. It has a low profile which also helps to keep your child from kicking the seat in front of them, well until they get taller.

The Radian doesn't turn into a booster, but it will be the last CARSEAT that you would need. You would just need to buy a booster afterwards. Which in my personal opinion isn't a bad thing. As for the most part deticated boosters are better than the combitnation seat boosters, well except for the Frontier.

The Radian65 is available is available all over the place for $199.
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Or if you want the high weight, and cushier version, you can get the Radian 80 for $250.

In my personal opinion, there is no better option when it comes to travelling. This is coming from someone who flies with her daughter at least twice a year usually with a few layovers. I wouldn't even think of buying another seat. In fact we are buying another one for our baby once he outgrows the snugride just because it works so well for travelling. I hope this helps!

PS. Have an awesome trip!!

If you have the $, Radian... what kind of vehicle would it go in? It takes up quite a bit of room RFing and has some issues installing in SOME vehicles FFing w/ seatbelt, so that would be something to consider Also, the Radian would last much longer than the Uptown and slightly longer than the Britax convertibles.

If you are on a budget, I also got the Safety 1st Uptown for $65 at Big Lots it's VERY light!! esp compared to the Britax seats. So that would be a plus for traveling. However the benefit of the Britaxes is they'll be easier to install wherever you go. MUCH easier. It takes me 20 minutes to do the Uptown, and 3 to do my Boulevard.

Thanks for the advice. I'll have to go check out these seats and see what we're going to do.

The seat is either going to go in my car (98 Chevy Tahoe) or DH's (2008 Subaru Legacy).