We recently had to purchase a new car seat for Xander. As with most parents I have met/observed, we started out with a Graco SnugRide Seat. However, as Xander grew heavier, it became quite a project to lug that seat with him in it. For a little while we just left the seat in the car, and removed Xander, but he was quickly outgrowing the seat. So, I started to research new car seats. We decided to get a convertable seat - one that we could use rear-facing until Xander is old enough, and then flip around to use as a front-facing seat.
At first, I assumed that I would purchase another Graco seat, as we had been quite happy with our first seat. However, as I began reading reviews, and looking at seats, I discovered that there were lots of other brands out there, and that the reviews on the Graco prducts were not always the best. After several days of research, we settled on a Britax. I have not read a single negative review about these car seats. I initially planned to purchase the Marathon seat, but just before I made the purchase, I decided to splurge the extra $20 and get the Decathalon seat.
These seats are rated to hold children from 5 to 33 pounds rear facing, and 20 to 65 pounds font facing. The pasing is soft, and the fabric is warm and fuzzy. The main body of the seat has an easy to wipe fabric on it. The Decathalon comes with several pads one could attach for a smaller infant, but since Xander was already 8 months old when we got it, we removed the extra head support, etc. These seats also come with the LATCH system, which is really just a fancy way of saying that it’s got some nice clips to hook to your seat (assuming your seat is equipped for the LATCH system, which most vehicles are these days) instead of using the seatbelt. It’s supposed to make the seat more secure, and less likely to jiggle in case of an accident.
I also did quite a bit of price shopping before buying this seat. I looked at several online stores, but as often happens for me, I found the best price at the BabyCenter store. This was not a cheap seat, but when considering your child’s safety, I think that parents tend to worry less about cost.
Overall, we’ve been quite happy with the new seat. The straps tend to twist when removing Xander, but it’s not hard to straighten them out for the next use. It is black, so it tends to get a little warm in our summer weather, but the Decathalon comes in a variety of colors/patterns. My biggest regret is that Xander wakes up immediately when we take him out of the seat, so we no longer enjoy the luxury of putting him to sleep on a car ride, and continuing that sleep when we get in the house. Unfortunately, and seat we purchased would have that drawback, so until car seat companies include drop-down wheels on the removable seats, I guess we’re out of luck 
baby, babies, infant, infants, parent, parents, parenting, mother, mothers, motherhood, car safety, car seat, Graco, Britax, Baby Center
Around 6 months I bought Xander some sippy cups in the hopes to start transitioning him. Xander thought they were great fun to chew on, but didn’t really understand their purpose. I continued to give him the sippy cups every few weeks, but continued to get the same results. Now that Xander is getting closer to a year old, I thought that maybe we should increase our efforts. I did a little research on Baby Center, but found that sippy cup training isn’t as easy as it looks. One of the mothers who commented said that her child did the same thing with traditional sippy cups, but understood how to use the kind with straws right away. Inspired, I purchased a sippy cup that had a straw, with the hopes that Xander would just understand what to do with the cup. I should have expected that Xander would have just as much fun chewing on the straw as he did chewing on the older sippy cups. So now we’re back at square one. If anyone has any suggestions on how to convince my kid that drinking out of sippy cups is way more fun that chewing on them, I’d love to hear them!
