I want a new carseat. Yes I know we’re getting one sometime in the next month, if there are no more delays. But I don’t like ours. I don’t feel safe using it. Scott is not feeling nearly as uneasy. But I am. I just keep hearing more and more negative things about Dorel. I wanted a backup seat anyway, so this could be it, when we get the new one. Freedom to install it in other cars without the pain of having to reinstall before we can go anywhere in our car again. I know. I worry too much. I acknowledge it. But that isn’t changing the way I feel right now. Dorel is the same company who kept a carseat on the market after a little girl received a life long injury due to an indention in the side of her seat. The continued to manufacture this seat for five years after the fact, even though this little girl will never walk, talk, or even be able to eat by herself! The trauma nurse finally determined that the injury on the x-rays matched the indention under the seat cover of the little girl’s Touriva. Evenflo neglected to recall an infant seat, even after a crash test showed the seat shattering on impact and flying from the seat. A little boy died in an accident when his seat did just that. Evenflo still admits no guilt, yet the family is being awarded $10.4 million dollars. Yeah.

Britax made a cheaper version of their Marathon for Fisher Price. It was discontinued, because it didn’t have enough sales. Not many people recognized that it was made by the highly coveted Britax, and I don’t think it was sold at many of the mainstreet stores like Walmart, Target and Babies R’Us. I know where I can go get one right now for $99. I’m seriously considering it. I might even just do it and tell Scott I can’t return the clearance item. I guess I’m in trouble if he decides to read this. I love you honey. Please bear with me. I will sell that software I’ve been meaning to sell for two months. That would pay for it! Did I mention I love you?

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A huge recall involving over one million carseats was just released by the leading carseat manufacturer in the United States. We are blessed to have one of these seats. Lucky us. As soon as I get the recall repair kit, I will be installing it according to directions, and selling this bad boy. I don’t feel that comfortable using it anymore. Please hurry up Recaro. I’m begging you here.

Is your seat involved in the recall? Click here to find out.

Our seat looks exactly like this one pictured:

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We have more toys than one child could possibly need, but I got to thinking today. What has given us the most bang for our buck? The most tried and true favorites in our house. As I listened to Caleb’s infectious laugh this morning, I realized I was holding one of them. I can’t say it gets played with every day, but it my wear out the fun if it did. A Baby Einstein hand puppet that I bought at Babies R’Us for $5.99. I think they have them at Target as well. I think ours is a dragon (?) Caleb thinks it is absolutely beyond hysterical to feed this thing all sorts of toys and watch him spit them out.

Second, we have “Push Car.” This thing must have at least 100,000 miles on it. It has been run into every wall, over every toy, and through every puddle. Auntie Nadine spent $10 on it I think. I told Scott if we had a penny for every mile he has put on it, it would still be paid for. I thought his interest in it would die down after he mastered walking and running. Nope. Every single day, every single time I’m on the phone, he goes barreling around the house with it. We have one of those safety gates that is a pressure mounted walk-thru gate. I joked that I put him a speed bump in and my dad say “Well it didn’t slow him down any.” Without further ado, I introduce….”Push Car.”

Last but not least, these toys have something in commom with our beloved push car. They have wheels. Anything with wheels. This kid could be perfectly happy if you spent $20 on him for Christmas by purchasing 20 $0.97 Hot Wheels. We find them in the couch all the time. Right beside the crumbs. In our shoes, under the furniture, they are taking over our house. One Christmas present this year will be one of those huge over the door Hot Wheels storage thingys. It has tons of pockets so you can slip the cars in there to display them. Or avoid a few curse words due to stepping on the constantly.

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August 2005

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Last night was awful. At nearly the exact same time as Monday night (and within 20 minutes of me falling asleep again), Caleb had what I can only assume was another night terror. He was a little more responsive last night though. The first time. That’s right. It happened twice last night. Scott came in there the first time, and we talked to him and passed him back and forth to no avail. Scott went and got a little penny racer car that we bought at the hobby shop last weekend. He reached out and took it after a minute. I asked him if he wanted to lay back down and he shook his head yes. So I laid next to him as he clutched his car and drifted back off into a restless sleep. I crawled back in bed at 1:00am, noting that this episode hadn’t lasted as long as Monday’s, only 20 minutes. But at 3:00am, he cranked back up. I retrieved him and brought him to bed with me. I rubbed his back, talked to him, did everything I could think of. Nada. Finally he scooted very close and begin to settle down. 30 minutes this time. Ah. I’m tired.

I have been stressing about the carseat. I just had my heart set on it, and now it is looking like it may not work out. One of the key features, the rear facing tether, may not be an option after all. Nevermind the fact that the Recaro customer service person has told everyone that it would since March. I’m bummed. It may not be as big as previously thought either. There is concern about the head wings, which are part of the side impact protection, being to constricting. At this point we’ll just have to wait and see. There has been a lot of confusion about the expiration date as well. Just a lot more uncertainties than I expected here in the bottom of the ninth. Especially from a company such as Recaro. I’m glad I didn’t preorder. We’ll just be waiting to see how the rear facing tether thing pans out, as well as seeing the seat in person, and how he fits. Supposedly it should be in a Raleigh store in mid September. There is always the Britax Regent. I will still be getting one at some point anyway (or whatever similar model is available at a later time), it is just a matter of whether we get this carseat in between.

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mon-mers (monsters)

Aug 27

Posted by: Rachel in: blog, caleb isaiah, family, parenting, ramblings

Caleb seems to have night terrors on occasion. I mean as far back as 9 months old. Is that even possible? The first one followed a round of shots that day at his 9 month well baby. I sobbed, thinking surely he was having an adverse reaction to one of the shot cocktails. He screamed and screamed with his eyes shut tight the majority of the time. For the first time in his life, I could not console my baby. A few months passed, and we had another similar episode. At two and a half, I would estimate that he has had about 7 or 8 of these. I happened to get an email from BabyCenter one morning after one of these dreams. It compared and contrasted nightmares vs. night terrors. After probing a little deeper on alternate websites, I came up with the following: Nightmares frequently occur in the latter part of the sleep cycle, close to wake up time. The child wakes up fearful and can remember the dream. With night terrors, they seem to more often occur early in the sleep cycle, within the first few hours of falling asleep. The child may appear to be fully awake, with eyes open, but cannot be consoled, and is actually still sleeping and dreaming. In the morning, the child will not remember anything. Caleb fits the second bill to a tee. Sometimes his eyes are shut tight (not in a restful state, but squeezed tight), sometimes they are open, but he appears to look straight through us, never making eye contact. He is very fearful of his surroundings, as if he is seeing things that we obviously aren’t. And nothing, I mean nothing we do helps. We talk to him, rock him, hold him, hug him, I even got him to take a sip of water last night. But he just sobs. It takes 10-15 minutes (has taken over 30 before) to get him to stop crying. Then another 10-15 to regulate his breathing again from crying so hard. I asked him this morning, if he remembered having a bad dream last night. He said yes, and when asked what it was about, he said ‘boo-boo’ but I have no idea whether he understood the question. But he wakes up just as happy go lucky and full of energy as he does any other morning. I, on the other hand, look like I’ve been raised from the dead. After a night of being woken up, stressed out, and kicked in the gut for the remainder of night, I feel drained for the rest of the day. The pediatrician’s solution? Put child to bed (did I mention this takes up to an hour most nights?). Determine approximately how far into sleep cycle dream occurs. Go in and wake child up before this point. When child returns to sleep, they will fall asleep in a different sleep cycle, thus skipping the time when the dream would normally occur. Um yeah. That sucks. Got any other ideas?

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My cousin Elizabeth is on her way to Georgia so that her 8 month old could meet our grandmother. Caroline’s great grandmother. She is the fourth great grandbaby, Caleb being the third. I had a talk with Caleb before they got here and explained that he had to be very gentle and she was fragile, etc. Well I couldn’t have forced him to be any sweeter. He wanted to read all of his books to her, and teach her how to count. And he desperately wanted her to like his huge Hot Wheels monster truck. She stayed wide eyed the entire time. They were just precious together. My mom and Aunt Mary are sisters, and they are holding each others grandchildren in the pictures below.

Holding Hands

Mom, Caroline, Caleb and Aunt Mary

Reading to Caroline

“One, Two. Free”

“This is how you count”

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yuck

Aug 24

Posted by: Rachel in: blog, ramblings, rants

So….I hate summer. I can’t stand it. I feel disgusting. Apparently I sweat just by looking out the window. It is only 81 (feels like 85) outside, yet I am miserable. I just put a bunch of stuff in the storage building…SO MUCH for showering! Sweating is gross and unattractive. And this just sucks. I will never, and I mean never, retire to Florida. I will retire in New York. I hear Alaska is nice. Bleh.

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contemplating life

Aug 23

Posted by: Rachel in: blog, caleb isaiah, family

Okay, okay, you got me. He’s actually just watching TV.

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