carseat

we are parents. more importantly, we are new parents. when I was in the hospital the day after ella was born, butch mentioned that he was going to run to the mazda dealer and have the car seat installed. my parents, who were sitting there, glanced at each other and had a bit of a chuckle. “installed!?” my dad said…”let me get this straight, your getting the car seat installed? it’s not rocket science!” i laughed, and then tried to explain that i think car seats are a bit different than when i was a tot. (actually, I was probably lucky to get an arm thrown across my chest while sitting in the bench seat if my dad hit the breaks too fast.) these days, you need a masters degree to figure these things out…they are spiderweb of straps and buckles that you have to insert A into B, C into F , D around your child’s cranium, E around their big toe and then insert it in their ass…it’s borderline ridiculous. And god forbid you get one wrong, because it states in the manual that your child will surely be seriously injured or die if you do.

anyway, we got that one installed.  ella is alive and well after many, many car rides since. however, this past weekend, it was time to “install” (i’m using this word loosely) the ‘big kid’ carseat. Butch decides to do it himself this time. So he goes outside for like 20 minutes and when he comes inside I say “so it’s all ready to go? safe?” he says…”yes, piece of cake! all strapped in.” i also gave it a little looksee before putting her in it.

fast forward a few days to today and I take a (sharp) turn into our driveway after coming home from work. i hear ella giggling in the backseat and then hear “UH OH!” I turn around to see this:

 “UH OH!” is right kid…rocket scientists we are not. FAIL.