forward facing

Tonight I had the baby right ff'ing. It was extremely weird. (he's over the minimum, he's 15 mo, 24 lbs..etc). But I could not get his seat installed tight in their van rear-facing. So, it was either the wiggly rear-facing, or the tight tight forward facing. (It wasn't MY carseat, it was the same as mine, but belongs to them, for him...so it doesn't stay in the van, because they don't always have my kids)

Anyway, I'm not making a habit of it, because I still prefer him rear-facing (especially in my car, which is an escort... ). I don't know why I feel the need to confess this.

At the end of the month, it'll be legal for my oldest to ride without a booster... I tried him in the seat last week, to see how he fit, he's just slightly bigger than the average nearly 6 year old...and he was no where near passing the five step test. Which is fine, he's got his booster. lol

I have to tell you, you could tell the baby was delighted to be forward, but when we got back in my car to go home, he was fine rear-facing...(though usually he stands UP in the seat and won't bend his legs...or at this torso--so he was better than fine. lol. I don't recall having to fight with my oldest to get him in the car seat at this age).

We did the same thing once when Piper was 15 months (though I doubt she was over 20 pounds then). We had to fly to Louisiana for my FIL's funeral and the rental car didn't have an anchor for a RFing tether, and I had forgotten my D ring. So not knowing that only Britaxes tethered RFing, I panicked and installed her forward for the short ride (literally short ride, like a mile from airport to hotel) and then got online and asked for help. LOL I didn't realize she didn't have to be tethered, and that if I could hook the tether to something that was better than nothing (I hooked it back on itself, I wasn't hunting for springs or anything). She was the same way, she was enthralled FFing, but then perfectly happy RFing. Even now she goes back and forth between them without a question. We installed FF the other day coming from the airport (we're on vacation right now and I'm using the Radian. FYI I got a GREAT seatbelt install outboard in a Lincoln Towncar, though it was a lousy LATCH install) and she'll be FFing tomorrow in our rented Honda Civic (which should be fun, the last time she was in a right drive vehicle she was 15 months old, so now FFing she can freak out about being on the "wrong" side), then back to RFing on Thursday in my truck.

Wendy

Evan rode ffing last week too! lol We took a trip to GA, which was about 22hours one way so about 6 hours into the trip we turned him b/c he wsa really getting mad and we didn't want him to wake AJ. He did great and was in awe I think of what he saw. He got turned right back around though when we got to GA, except for a few times he rode in AJ's seat when he wasn't in the car b/c it's so dang hot there!

My usually ff 35# nearly 4 yr old rf this past weekend. He loved it. We were traveling with another family in a sub outback and the only way to get 3 seats was to puzzle ff, rf, ff - which I only thought of thanks to this site. Initially I put the youngest rf,but the mom kept pestering the kid about rf and upsetting her, to "prove" that she did not like rf (I rf her in my car, no problem). Anyway, I ended up moving E to the middle rf, and he begged to stay that way. I have him in the husky in my truck, and at 35# combined with the hassles of trying to get in and out of the truck, so I will just stick with that. Anyway, just though that I would share.