The Importance of Rear-Facing

About a month ago I decided to start the search for a new car seat for Adwen, as she was nearing 20 lbs and 1 year old. How excited I was to get her forward facing. Well, the result of my research did not end with a new car seat for Addie. Instead, Eva has a new car seat and she is again rear-facing. We actually bought a new car, one big enough for Eva to rear face in for at least another year- probably more, until she is four or five. And when Adwen grows out of her infant carrier, she'll get a seat just like Eva's and also face back for the next three or four years. Why? It came down to this for me, kids are 500% safer rear facing. In Sweden, they have almost 100% use of rear-facing car seats for kids until they are 4 and as a result their mortality rate for children under 4 in car accidents is nearly ZERO. Between 1992 and 1997 there were only 9 deaths in the whole country. I found most of my information on this Swedish website: http://www.carseat.se

Now, I am one to get on the bandwagon in my own head frequently, in conversation on occasion, but on my blog... well never. But this, well, watch the video. It speaks volumes.

And just so you know, Eva thinks it's cool to face backward again. She doesn't mind having her legs bent one little bit, even for long trips. That's only something old knees mind, it turns out.

Another note - we bought the Sunshine Kids Radian car seat for Eva. We bought this one because it has the longest back and the highest weight capacity - allowing for the longest time rear-facing of all American sold car seats. We chose this one for Eva because she is already three (and the base of her Britax was breaking). Because of the long back, it won't fit in most cars - fits great in a minivan, but wouldn't work in the Sub, by a long shot. However, a Britax seat would work. So I'm saying all this to let you know that buying a new car is not a part of the rear-facing package.

So, you can turn your kids around when they are 1 year old and 20lbs- OR you can keep them rear-facing. It's at least worth your consideration.

Aarrrrgh, Matey!

When deciding on a Halloween costume for Eva, we came across this adorable little pirate costume. Since Eva likes to take up pirate airs on a regular basis (just ask her to sing you the pirate song..), it seemed obvious this was the right choice. So we all joined in, and were a family of pirates... well, with one baby pumpkin in the lot. It was fun. Our night out was at a trunk-or-treat at the church and then she got to don her costume again at preschool.

Her pirate phrases were funny - though well said - with lots of good strong guttural exchanges. Things like, "swab the plank, matey", or "arrrgh, walk the deck!"

Addie was the cutest little pumpkin out there... now I know there were a lot of little pumpkins out there, but I stand by my own. Maybe I'm biased... but then again, maybe I'm not.

Eva is THREE!

What a year for our girl. She is now three. One of my favorite things about this last year is watching Eva learn the English language... not just to talk. She had a lot of words before she turned two.. but then she had to start putting them together. It's quite the process. Kids must process language in their sleep, because Eva would wake up some days with better grammar, or a new grasp on some abstract idea. Now her sentence structure can be quite complicated and her sentences quite long AND she has A LOT to say... to just about anybody.

My sweetest girl. Here's to you.