Check - another essential off the list!

Don't go thinking that Jamie and I are all about frog t-shirts and wall decals (ok, we're mostly about the silly stuff). We also realized that we had to get down to business and finally figure out which car seat to buy so they'll let us leave the hospital with PJs! It was kind of overwhelming every time we went looking, so eventually we resorted to the good old Internet for advice.

I am fine with not using the infant seat on the stroller frame, so we decided to go with a convertible model that will stay in the car and allow PJs to sit rear-facing for the full first year, regardless of his weight, and then switch around for forward-facing use. It also reduces the amount of stuff to buy (rather than an infant seat and a regular seat a year later). Of course, I'm also glad to reduce the amount of crap we have to chuck in a landfill, since you really can't share or sell a used car seat for safety reasons...

Consumer Reports rated the Britax Roundabout as the top choice in the smaller-sized convertible category. It's got a ton of safety features that go above & beyond, and it also doesn't look hideous (which helps, but on this one subject at least, I decided to go for function over form!). We chose the Onyx one shown above (not that heinous cow version!!).

The only trouble was that all the stores in our area have the seat on backorder! Luckily, Dave & Bonnie were still down traveling the California coast in their RV. We found a store that sold the seat in the area they were in, and they were so sweet to pop into the cutest kids store - Chicken Little in Santa Barbara, CA - and pick it up for us. Thank you!!!