June 11, 2000
Safe and Sound

I've been worrying about Bear lately. There's been all this press about kids needing booster seats and I was thinking that Bear was pretty tall and that his seatbelt fit him okay and then I read this article and started worrying about if he was too slim and therefore would slip out if we had a car accident. The kid is basically butt-less and always wears a slim cut of pants, so it's a reasonable worry with regards to him.

So yesterday we bought him a booster seat. We'd considered buying one online, but I didn't want to wait for it to get shipped because I was too worried about him and Mike agreed. We have an Eddie Bauer stroller because my folks gave us the money for it and the accompanying baby seat and now, we have an Eddie Bauer booster seat that we can use for both kids. By the time Bear is 80 lbs, we figure Genny will be able to fit into it. I've got one of those bench type seats for her to get through toddler hood anyhow and by the time she outgrows that, I know Bear will have outgrown the booster seat.

It was a relief to see that Bear's legs didn't go out further from the seat, which is what Mike was afraid of. Leg room in our car is a commodity. (Recall that Mike is 6'7".) And I was glad to see that the belt fit him perfectly.

But the whole booster seat discussion has brought up the need for a bigger car. And what sucks is that we're broke, so a bigger car isn't financially going to be simple, so we're contemplating it right now. Ruminatin' if you will. I know Mike has been looking things over on IMotors.com because they are based really close to us and they offer auto loans, I think.

My credit sucks, so Mike will have to convince them he can swing it himself, while in school. I told him I thought we could get through another year with my car, but I know it's bugging him a lot, so therefore, it's bugging me.

If my raise came through at work sooner rather than later and stuff, we might be able to swing it. The other thing is that he could possibly consider getting a student loan to handle it, which would be a cheaper loan than an auto loan. I just know we could even use a Dodge Neon about now.

Whelp, Piggygirl is snorting and making desperate hungry cries from the bed, so I need to bring her the lactation buffet.