I'm probably just being over protective then. My only concern that has real validation I guess is that he does still fall asleep in the car. He hasn't in the booster yet because we haven't made a real long drive or one when he was tired. Maybe I'll just keep the extra radian in there FFing as an option when it is late or we'll be in the car for a while. Seems like a good compromise. With summer coming up we'll be making day trips to the beach and stuff.
also I read something yesterday that said that the AAP is recommending kids be harnessed until 8? So that made me think maybe I was being lax or something.
I think that's a good compromise. Most children can benefit from a transition time where they use a booster for shorter trips but have the harness for longer times when they're likely to get squirmy or sleepy.
We all have different opinions on the harness vs. booster recommendations. AAP is recommending children in the 4-8 age group remain harnessed until they outgrow it. The reality is that most people don't have Radians in their car and their kids will outgrow their harnessed seats at around age 5 anyway. The recommendations aren't really taking into account average-sized kids with giant-sized car seats. They're thinking about tiny kids in average-sized car seats that won't be well protected in a booster because they're like 36" tall and weigh 28 lbs at age 6.
Personally, I lean on the side of "harness as long as possible" but I have to admit that it's my
personal opinion and I have no strong proof or data to back it up. There are good arguments on both sides of the issue. But since you already promised your child that if he does well in the booster he can continue using it, and since boostering at his size and age is a reasonable choice to make, I'd probably stick with it. Keeping a child safe for THIS trip or THIS month or THIS year is only one of the goals we have as parents. The other goal is to instill good habits and make the child feel good about making appropriate safety decisions. If you go too far overboard in the safety department without any good reasons to back you up other than being nervous, especially when the decisions you make go against what the child wants, you risk having the child blow all your safety concerns off on you being overprotective. When your child is 16 and has to make a choice about piling into the back of a friend's pickup truck because the cab is full, or whether to ride with a friend who's been drinking (the alternative being risking your wrath when he calls home for a ride or for confirmation that you'll pay for the cab home), you want him to think something like "Mom said this was dangerous and she's always given me good advice in the past" instead of "Mom said this was dangerous but then again she thinks everything is dangerous and never lets me do anything fun." KWIM?
Go with your gut Mama and don't let anyone make you feel bad about it! As long as there is a harnessed seat that my kids fit in that's what they'll be in 
