Going to the zoo.

We have a wonderful zoo in town. Admission is even free. We took the kids several times last summer, but Ava was still a baby really. I'm pretty sure she didn't remember it at all.

We went yesterday and it was wonderful. We have family in town and so the ratio was four adults to two kids which is always nice. The weather was cloudy and cool which is actually better than blazingly hot and sunburn-inducing sunny. Neither child is taking a morning nap any more which allowed us to stay from 8am till noon for the first time.

Highlights of the day included the expression on Ava's face during the carousel ride. It wasn't her first one ever, but I think it's the only one she remembers. She loved it and the smiles and squeals of excitement were priceless.

The children were bored by most of the animals to be honest, but even the kids were excited to see the baby elephant playing in a pool of water. The water came up to about the chest of the baby elephant. The elephant was jumping up so that its two front legs were out of the water and then splashing down. It also would dive totally under the water and jump back up in a huge splash. The pool of water was extremely close to the fence so the view was perfect. You wouldn't have wanted to be closer to be honest. The whole thing couldn't have lasted more than five minutes, but it was amazing.

Car Seat Dilemma

There's been a lot of press recently about keeping children rear-facing in car seats longer. The statistic that is most powerful for me from the New York Times article is that "children under 2 are 75 percent less likely to suffer severe or fatal injuries in a crash if they are facing the rear." More and more often I am reading recommendations that you leave your child rear-facing until they reach the height and weight limits of your particular car seat. Depending on which car seat you buy, that can easily be until your child is four or five years old.

I had read similar recommendations when I was researching moving Michael from his infant seat to a convertible car seat back in 2008. At that time, I decided to buy the Radian 80 car seat because it would allow us to keep Michael in a five point harness until he was 80 pounds!! It also had the highest weight and height limits for rear-facing. Well, he's three and a half years old and still rear-facing. Ava is a little over two and she's rear-facing as well.

All of a sudden it occurred to me that I'd better check those height and weight limits, because I simply hadn't thought about it for a long time. We were just going on autopilot. Well, as it turns out, the weight limit for rear-facing on our model is 35 pounds. Michael currently weighs 33 pounds.

We have two choices. We can turn his car seat around. He'll remain in the car seat forward-facing in the five point harness until he's 80 pounds. That's a really long time. Or we can buy the newest version of the Radian 80 which has increased its weight limit for rear-facing to 45 pounds. That's the highest available in the US. The 50th percentile for 45 pounds is 5 1/2 years old. Buying the new seat would allow us to keep Michael rear-facing for at least another year and probably longer.

It's safer. We don't mind having him rear-facing. He doesn't mind being rear-facing. His sister is rear-facing and it is convenient to have them both facing the same direction. Pretty much the only negative is having to buy a new, very expensive car seat when I didn't expect I'd need to.

1. What do you think about the new recommendations to keep children rear-facing until at least 2 years of age and preferably to the weight limits of your car seat (depending on the seat, until your child is five years old)?
2. Do you think keeping Michael rear-facing for at least another year is worth buying a new Radian?

The Weekly Review: Week Eleven

Blog Post that Puts All of My Weekly Accomplishments Put Together to Shame:

Jessica at Balancing Everything posted about her new kitchen table. You know. The one she made. Enough said.

Weekly Blog Post that made me laugh:

Swistle describes the possible thoughts school personnel have when writing school dress codes. Trust me. This post is really funny.

Guilty Pleasure of the Week:

So, when I didn't like our second attempt at chocolate chip cookies and we had no other treats in the house I put a couple of spoonfuls of brown sugar in a bowl and ate that as my dessert. It was actually quite yummy and completely did the trick at calming down my craving for sweets. Still, I ate a couple of spoonfuls of sugar straight. Probably not something to be proud of exactly.

Michael's Questionable New Behavior of the Week:

Outright defiance. Sigh. He engages in some kind of behavior I wish to stop. Often, he knows before he even starts that the behavior is unacceptable (throwing heavy objects around the room, for example). When asked to stop he pretends to not even hear the request and simply continues on as if I'm not in the room. Seriously? Where is this behavior coming from and how do I stop it?

Ava's Cuteness of the Week:

At bedtime and naptime, the last thing I do as I'm shutting Ava's door is to say, "Good night sweetheart!" and make two kissing noises. This week she has started making kissing noises back to me. I love it.

Project of the Week:

I am responsible for our public library system obtaining two new very nice children's picture books. I am trying to use the library instead of buying books for the children. I discovered a very sweet series of books about a Mole and his friends, Rabbit, Hedgehog, and Squirrel (by Jonathan Emmett). The library had two books in the series, but Amazon told me that there were two more that the library didn't own. Our library's website has a form to request new books. I requested the two other books (No Place Like Home and Diamond in the Snow) in the series several weeks ago, and they appeared on my reserved list this week. I picked them up from the library yesterday. I was quite pleased. The other two books in the series are Bringing Down the Moon and The Best Gift of All.