Glad I Checked.
Well crap. The infant carry-around car seat expired in '09. Yes, car seats do have an expiration date. The extreme temperature shifts inside of a car can break down the plastic after so many years. We were planning to use that one until the baby out grew it and then do a massive car-seat shift, Alta to a booster seat, Lilly to Alta's seat, Next Baby to Lilly's seat.
I'm super paranoid about car seats and kids being safe in a car. When I was 12 my Aunt and her whole family were in a bad car wreck and my two youngest cousins, 7 and 8 at the time, died. While booster seats didn't exist 14 years ago when the accident happened, from what I know of their injuries at least one of them may have lived had they had a booster seat. And Lilly coming out of the car accident (tow truck vs small car, guess who won...) a year ago with out so much as a bruise furthered my resolve to have my children firmly buckled into their car seats at all times.
I guess that means we just do the swap now (or in march, whatever) rather than next fall. Poo. That was a $50 expense that we thought we could put off for a while. I guess on the plus side it's good that we just have to get a booster seat rather than another car seat. Much cheaper.
Actually... now that I think about it, I need to check Lilly's seat too. We've had that one almost as long as the infant seat. Double Poo. I don't want to have to replace two car seats, but I'd rather do that than be short a couple kids.
I'm super paranoid about car seats and kids being safe in a car. When I was 12 my Aunt and her whole family were in a bad car wreck and my two youngest cousins, 7 and 8 at the time, died. While booster seats didn't exist 14 years ago when the accident happened, from what I know of their injuries at least one of them may have lived had they had a booster seat. And Lilly coming out of the car accident (tow truck vs small car, guess who won...) a year ago with out so much as a bruise furthered my resolve to have my children firmly buckled into their car seats at all times.
I guess that means we just do the swap now (or in march, whatever) rather than next fall. Poo. That was a $50 expense that we thought we could put off for a while. I guess on the plus side it's good that we just have to get a booster seat rather than another car seat. Much cheaper.
Actually... now that I think about it, I need to check Lilly's seat too. We've had that one almost as long as the infant seat. Double Poo. I don't want to have to replace two car seats, but I'd rather do that than be short a couple kids.