The post where I admit I made an ignorant decision...

Sunday I was in the car with a friend.

Our 4 and 5 year olds were in the backseat chattering about the birthday parties they had all day long.

We were all jacked up on cupcakes and cake and slowly crashing from our sugar high.

My friend and I began talking as we made our trip back home.

"Hey, why did you move Caroline to a booster seat?"

Ummmm.

Ahhh.

Yeah, I don't know.

"Well, she is 4 and she is 40 pounds so I moved her."

Caroline was in a high back booster seat.

My answer bothered me to no end.

I thought about it the rest of the day and night.

Why is Caroline in a booster seat?

Because it is easier to move from car to car?

Because she is 40 pounds and 4 years old? What does that even mean?

What stupid answers, Hailey.

I finally had had enough of beating myself up.

I did what all normal parents do in a crisis such as this... I googled.

After spending a few hours researching, reading, watching youtube... I decided that moving my 4 year old to a high back booster seat was one of the most stupid and ignorant things I have ever done.

Caroline needed to be in a 5-point harness car seat.

I simply switched her to a booster for the convenience and because the law said it was "ok".

Not once did I realize the extreme danger I was putting my child in.

I guess I thought "She is safe. She is in a seat belt."

Then I saw this video... (for the record, there is no sound. YouTube removed the music.)



WOW!

What was I thinking is all I could ask myself over and over again.

Then, I watched this crash test...



The child on the right is in a 5 point harness car seat while the child closest to us is in a booster.

With a child in a booster seat, the child is at risk for "submarining". This happens when the seat belt is not properly in place. During a car crash the child slides under the seat belt causing serious injuries.

Other things that was drawn to my attention during my research:

- Pay close attention to the maximum weight and height restrictions on ALL seats.
Being that Caroline is 41 pounds, she exceeds the weight max on all of her 5-point-harness car seats. Therefore, I searched and found a decently priced Graco that holds up to 65 pounds. I also know that Sunshine Kids makes a 5-point-harness car seat for a maximum of 80 pounds.

- Make sure your child's harness is snug. Per federal requirements, current instruction manuals define a snug harness as: "A snug strap should not allow any slack. It lies in a relatively straight line without sagging. It does not press on the child's flesh or push the child's body into an unnatural position." Do the pinch test. If you can pinch a fold in the harness above the chest clip, the straps are too loose.

- A friend saw a picture of Bug on my FB. He immediately messaged me to let me know that I had the shoulder straps on Bug's car seat set too low.
Moving from rear-facing to forward-facing was very confusing to me. I knew that in a rear-facing seat Bug's straps needed to be at or below her shoulders. Therefore, I assumed it was the same with forward-facing. However, for forward-facing car seats, you use harness slots at or above child's shoulders.
Thank goodness he pointed it out to me. (His wife is the friend that brought about this whole post ;-))

- The chest clip was also not a big deal to me. I thought if it was clipped, the children were fine. Pshhh! Wrong again. Make sure the chest clip is fastened at armpit level.

- Seat belts DO fail so use LATCH and Top Tether when available. There is conflicting findings on the LATCH system. Some say it will hold up to 40 lbs. After that, the use of a seat belt to hold the car seat in place is necessary. Some findings say that 48 lbs is the max. If you have any information on this, please share with the rest of us.

I point all of these things out for the simple fact that I thought was doing everything right. My 2 year old was in a car seat. My 4 year old was in a high-back booster seat.

I am not saying that you are doing it wrong. But as a parent, we do everything we can to keep our children safe.

I learned so much in 2 hours of googling than any car seat manual could ever teach me.

I also learned that just because the law says it's "ok", doesn't mean that is what is best for your child.

My not having a good answer to the question, "Why did you move Caroline to a booster?", was reason enough for me to move her back to a 5-point harness.

My hope is that at least one of my readers questions and tests there child's car seat.

Driving is the most dangerous situation we put our children in everyday. It takes seconds to make sure they are properly strapped in and hopefully your child will be in a 5-point harness.

PS- Caroline has a new Graco Nautalis 3-in-1 Car seat on it's way. And yes, it is pink and is complete with pink and purple flowers.



** And thanks to my friends, the Laws, for opening my eyes ;-)

Jehovah's Witnesses

My husband has given up holidays this year.

Seriously.

I only write about it so that I can remember exactly when he decided it was time to give up holidays.

After my surprises at Christmas, he has not acknowledged any type of holiday.

February 14th passed without a "Happy Valentine's Day" much less gifts.

March 26th (my birthday) passed without a "Happy Birthday" much less gifts.

My 5 year anniversary is a week away (April 21st).

If he doesn't acknowledge this, that is it. I will began telling everyone he is a Jehovah Witness.

"Hey! Meet my husband. He's a Jehovah Witness. No need in worrying with his name."

Jerk.

Sun Hat

Guess what??

It is time for sun hat season! I couldn't be more excited!!


Be sure to order yours from Cole Baby Tutus. ;-)

**Picture of Bug in the hat are coming soon!

Venting

I could have sworn that it was full moon.

I just googled, it's not full moon.

Gosh! I was totally hoping it was. My children are acting like nutjobs and I always love to use the full moon as an excuse for that. Otherwise, I blame myself for being a bad parent when they act so crazy.

Right now, I am running on very little sleep.

Aunt Flow came to visit this week causing extreme mood swings and headaches like no other.

My ear hurts.

Caroline does not listen to a word that I say.

Emma eats constantly.

If they slam another door, I might combust.

My house is a disaster. By disaster, I mean that there is half a bag of Cheetos spilled in the middle of my kitchen floor, half a box of nerds also in the kitchen floor and the other half is in Caroline's carpet.

I've cried twice today and it is not even 3pm.

Ryan you ask?

Oh, he's napping.

Hoover is back!

I have a terrible hair loss issue.

I swear, some days I wonder why I'm not bald.

After googling, I have come to the conclusion that I don't lose an extreme amount of hair. It just appears that way because my hair is so long and black.

Anyway, with that said you can only imagine the pain and suffering my vacuum cleaner goes through.

We have been married for 5 years (on April 21st to be exact) and I have had 4 vacuum cleaners.

I wish I could bring myself to buy a Dyson. Any time I go to Lowes or Target, I take a stroll down the vacuum aisle and affectionately pet each Dyson I pass.

When we moved, I announced it was time for a new vacuum. Reason: I could have made a wig with the amount of hair that was wrapped about the spinning brush on the old one.

No Dyson, but Ryan did purchase me this bad boy. It's a Hoover. I am partial to the name Hoover for the simple fact there is a Dr. Hoover that could pass for McSteamy. No joke.

Anyway, we took her out of the box and carefully put her pieces together.

I vacuumed... three times and she broke down.

Of course when I yelled that she was broken, Ryan said choice words and ultimately blamed be for breaking her.

I cried... knowing it wasn't my fault but still very sad that a vacuum that I used three times BROKE! (FYI: The spinning brush would not spin and neither would the belt. The belt was not broken, it just would not spin.)

She sat in the corner for a week... alone with a canister full of dust.

I finally found the receipt so that Ryan could take her back and get a new one.

I was so excited.

I put the new one together and gently placed it in the corner so that she could set sail on her maiden voyage the next morning.

The next morning, on my way home from preschool drop off, Ryan called.

"Hello?" I said.

"You've broken the damn vacuum cleaner again." he forcefully said into the phone.

"I haven't even used the damn vacuum cleaner yet so shut your face. What is wrong with it now?"

"The cord. It won't go in and there is no button to make that happen." he said.

"Pshhh. Are you kidding me right now?"

Silence.

In my best mocking tone I said, "Slowly, pick up your left foot. There will be a lever on the vacuum that you will hit when your knee and hip are almost level. Hold that button down with your foot and..."

I heard a loud "ZZZZZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPPPP"!

I started clapping.

CLICK!

He hung up on me.

I'm married to a man that can do insane math in his head but can't figure out how to work the retractable cord on a vacuum.

Be jealous.

Caroline and Jesus

For those of you who have ever wondered about Caroline's personality, here you go...

I overheard a play session between Caroline and Emma.

Emma: "Let's play babies. I be the mama. You be the sister."

Caroline: "NO! We are not playing babies again."

A few moments of silence.

Caroline: "Ok, I know! Let's play Jesus. I'll be Jesus. You can be Jonah. He got eaten by a whale, Emma. A big fish came and ATE HIM!"

Great, Caroline. You be our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the rest of us are just peons.

Obviously, she thinks very highly of herself.

daily laugh

In our new house, we have a pretty big master bath.

I'm not talking like Mariah Carey's closet BIG but it is bigger than the shoe box of a bathroom we had in our apartment.

I can do jumping jacks in my bathroom which is a big deal to me. Not because I'm going to exercise though. I just enjoy having room to dry my fro every 3 days.

Anyway, in this new bathroom we have a window. Again, this is something I'm totally not use to. We had 8 windows in our apartment. That is it and of course NONE were in our yellow and gold 1974 bathroom.

So, today was day 3. The hair had to be washed, dried, straightened. This in itself burns about 2000 calories.

Anyway, I was stepping out of the shower and realized I hadn't shut the blind.

There stood my neighbor's boyfriend.

Classy.

He just turned and went about his business.

I stepped away and wrapped myself up.

I ran out (dripping water all over the house) and yelled to Ryan.

"What?" he answered.

"Our neighbor's BF totally just saw me naked getting out of the shower."

Ryan just shrugged his shoulders and went about his business. He could care less.

"Well, obviously the neighbor didn't care either because he just turned and went about his business. Damn you saggy boobs and stretch marks. Damn you."

Reason #85 I need a boob job and laser stretch mark removal therapy.

Maybe then the husband will care if the neighbor's BF sees me naked.

No need in rubbing your eyes... it's really me.

February 9th. That was the last time I blogged.

Do you know how many posts I have started and never finished?

I have been extremely negligent to my BS.

Our lives haven't changed much in the past few months.

- We are in our house and loving it. I mean who wouldn't when you were moving from a 2 bedroom apartment complete with a 1960's yellow kitchen and wood paneling throughout. Pimp! I promise to post pictures soon. I just feel like nothing is complete enough yet to post the before and after pictures. I am actually getting pictures on the wall which makes things seem so much more homey. So give me a little more time.

- The girls are still the same. Bug is as clumsy as ever and Big is wild as ever. Most days, I don't know how I survive... seriously. I count down the minutes until bedtime and drink wine.

- Emma is doing great in school. However, she does not talk. Yep. You heard me. The girl goes to school and will not say a word. It's her way of saying to me, "Look, I know you are going to make me stay here but I will be damned if you can make me talk while I'm here." Her teachers asked if she talked at home. I sure there was a little concern with her being 2 and 1/2 and they have never heard a word come out of her mouth. I laughed. Yep! She talks.... and talks... and talks at home.

- Caroline is going through a clingy stage. I walk her to her classroom every morning and every morning it is the same song. I have to peel her off of me. I am pretty sure her teachers have seen my boobs more than they would have ever liked to. Her teacher pulls her off of my while she rips the clothes from my body. Why this is happening? I don't know. I feel like if I ignore it, it will stop. Who knows. No biggie now since her teachers have seen me almost naked. It can't it any worse than it already is.

- During my time of being incognito, I have read a few books and expanded my vocabulary. I feel so good when I read. Some people exercise to feel good, I read. It doesn't elevate my heart rate and it doesn't make me lose my breath. It's much easier. Ryan Someone said recently that they had never read an entire book, cover to cover. How they made it past the third grade is beyond me. Then I had another person ask what was so great about reading. Ummm, well... you can get lost in a book of Chelsea Handler's one night stands and stories of her smoking the reefer with her dad. Fun times people... fun times. That is what is so great about reading. Now, Chelsea is my new BFF.
I have ordered The Hunger Games, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Pioneer Woman's: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, and of course Chelsea Handler's newest book Lies that Chelsea Handler Told Me. What is on your reading list? These were going to be my summer reads but I have a feeling they will be read before summer.

- I have done some photo shoots in the past few months. It was nice to finally pick up a camera again. I think I went a little over a month without holding a camera. Thank goodness, it is like riding a bike... you never forget how to do it. I will share those pictures in another post.

- I hope I haven't lost a lot of readers. Everyone asks for me to blog again. I hope I haven't lost my sense of humor either. These last few months, I just haven't felt funny.

- I'm making no blogging promises. Here is a post. You are welcome.