Holy Cow(seat)!

At Kaylani's 1 year doctor appointment, she weighed in at a whopping 17lbs (2nd percentile) and 29". While she's technically underweight, she's completely healthy. Other than recommending we try to fatten her up a bit with yogurt, lard, and butter soaked yogurt with lard (kidding), they said she was fine and to keep doing what we're doing since she actually eats a lot. Both Mommy and me were (and still are...kinda) both "skinny", so its possible she just picked up our metabolism. While not a bad thing, it does mean that we didn't get the green light to flip her around in her carseat yet.

Kaylani actually doesn't mind facing backwards. She goes in alright, stares at us through her jungle mirror, plays with her toys (or shoes and socks), and looks out the window. She even falls asleep just fine still when we drive her around. The only problem is that she was getting too long for her infant carseat, which meant her legs were pushing up against the seat. Since we had already bought her convertible carseat, we figured we'd at least install that, even if it was backwards.

We bought a Britax Marathon carseat in none other than the Cowmooflage pattern. It installed just fine, with the super convenient latch system. It's definitely bigger than her old one, but Kaylani seems to like this one too. But for us, there are 2 main problems. First problem is that there's no longer a shade over her head. Since it sits up straighter, that also means that light can get in from both sides. And with a shade only on her window, she gets blinded whenever the sun is on her left. I'm thinking we need to buy another shade, because its getting difficult to find routes where the sun doesn't shine on the left side.

The other problem is that the cowseat is anchored into the car. Gone are the days of having her pass out on the way home from somewhere and easily transferring her into the house in her carseat. Instead, we play a game of chance to see if she'll stay asleep when we pick her up. And like gambling, or the lottery, our luck (and our chances) aren't good.

The cowseat says we shouldn't turn her around to face forward until she hits 20lbs. At the pace Kaylani's going, we'll be able to turn her around when she turns 2, if not a little later. Maybe she fattened up a little bit while we were at Disney (I know I did) and we'll be able to turn her around sooner. It's supposed to make a big difference for her since she'll actually be able to see where we're going. But since backwards facing car seats are safer for her, she'll just have to deal for now. And if she doesn't like it, well then she better start gulping down her butter soaked yogurt with lard. At least, that's what my advice would be.