"I need a BIG girl seat!"

Ahhhh, the time has come. My little girl is now a BIG girl, thank you very much, and she outgrew her "baby" car seat. "I need a BIG girl seat!", I was informed, at the loudest volume her little piping voice could produce. Well, I got the message, did the research, counted the pennies under the couch cushions, and came to the following conclusions:

1. Yes, she does need a big girl car seat
2. I am NOT spending $150 on some Britax monstrosity
3. She only needs a car seat for 18 more months
4. I love Combi products

All that researching and soul-searching led me to purchase the Combi Dakota booster seat in the color Marina. Okay, I won't lie, I chose that particular color just to give my daughter a kick, as it's her name. (We play this game when driving long distances...I'll say, "What color is your car seat, Marina?" And she'll say "Marina!" And I'll say, "No, I KNOW your name, I PICKED it, what color is your CAR SEAT?" and so forth. Well, I guess you have to be there. Anyway...)

I chose a booster seat because my in-laws love to borrow the car seat when they come over (EVERY Saturday. Oy!) and I got very tired of lugging a huge car seat back and forth every week. I have previously owned a Combi stroller and other products and have been impressed with their quality and safety features, so I figured I might as well award them with another purchase. In nearly a year of usage, I can't say I'm regretting that decision.

The Dakota is built of very thick, very tough plastic as most car seats on the market are today. The plastic base is backless and has two armrests that double as seat belt holders and positioners. The base is covered in nice, easy-to-clean, VERY well-cushioned fabrics in navy and turquoise (and thus the color designation of "Marina", I suppose, since "Marina" means "of the sea"). The armrests have extra cushioning, which my daughter informs me "rocks". Where does she pick up these expressions?

The nicest feature about the Dakota is that, since it's a booster seat, there are no stupid little "alignment balls" in the base that have to be positioned just so in order for the seat to be in the proper position. No more messing with rolled-up towels for me! You basically toss the seat in the car, be sure the base is flat, toss your kid in it, belt 'em up, and hit the road. I love it when children's products are so uncomplicated!

The purpose of a booster seat is merely to raise your child to the correct height for an adult seat belt. The Dakota of course fulfills this promise, but just in case your child is too tall for an infant seat and not tall enough for a real seat belt, Combi helpfully included a seat belt positioner. The positioner is attached to the car seat by a cord in the middle of the back of the seat, and can be used on either side of the seat. Nice! The positioner is a clip made of really durable red plastic. It slips over the shoulder belt and you just raise the positioner to the proper height and clip it to the lap belt. Easy! Soooooo much easier to use than the dreaded locking clip! We used the seat belt positioner for about the first four months until she suddenly grew three inches when I blinked for a second and she was able to fit the adult belt without it.

If your child is tall enough that you don't need the seat belt positioner, then getting your child in the car seat is a snap. You just place the lap belt under both armrests, place the shoulder belt over one shoulder, and place the end of the shoulder belt under the opposite armrest. The armrests keep the belts in place just fine. The seat belt positioner is on a long enough cord that you can loop it over the side of the seat and it will never be in the way.

The Dakota includes a cup holder made of the same fabric as the seat. It is shaped like a half-circle and can be attached on either side of the seat by means of extra-heavy-duty jumbo snaps. It's very easy to remove, as my daughter is happy to demonstrate every single time she sits in the seat. Replacing it is a tad bit difficult, as you have to worm your hand under the seat fabric to hold the snap base in place while your other hand pushes the snap in. It's more difficult than it sounds, especially as I'm usually hunched over trying not to hit my head on the roof of the car when I'm doing this, and my daughter is wiggling around in the seat claiming I'm tickling her.

The cup holder is about four inches across and three inches deep, so it can hold deceptively large containers. (Not that you'll want a deceptively large container on your trips, especially if you don't like having your child shout "I have to make TINKLE!" in your ear every ten seconds!) We've successfully used the cup holder to hold a standard size juice box, Kool-Aid Burst containers (which are impossibly skinny!), sports bottles full of water, chocolate milk from McDonald's, various toys, pennies my daughter finds on the floor at the grocery store, pine cones, and once, a large cricket on a leaf that my daughter picked up on a camping trip and insisted had to come home with us. Was there ever such a long, loooooong drive home? *chirp chirp* I still have nightmares about that trip! So don't think that the cup holder is just a cup holder, not by a long shot! We've never had any drink spill when it was placed in the cup holder, not even open containers. When my daughter drinks from the container? That's another matter!

The fabric that covers the seat is tougher than steel. The base fabric is a plush navy that takes a really severe scrubbing, and the fabric that covers part of the seat where you stick the little tushies is a turquoise fabric that is webbed, for lack of a better term. The fabrics have been covered in all those drinks that get spilled due to the hole in my daughter's chin, vomit, mud, an occasional "accident" when Mommy didn't respond to the battle cry of "TINKLE!" fast enough (See? THIS is why you don't want the deceptively large drink containers!), poster paint, and once, a bit of dog poop that my daughter unfortunately tracked into the car on the bottoms of her tiny little sneakers. Oh, that was nasty to clean up. Little poopie footprints all over the back of the driver's seat! Anyway, I have successfully scrubbed all of that detritus off the fabrics and they look like they're fresh out of the box. Just let the mud dry and brush it off before you attempt to wash the cover, Moms! As for the rest of the mess? Toss it in the washer on the gentle cycle! The base is also very easy to clean. A sanitized wipe, a wet paper towel, a garden hose, they all work just great to clean the base.

How does the Dakota hold up in the event of a car accident? Unfortunately, I can tell you about that. About two months after we bought the Dakota, we were tapped in the bumper by a newly-minted teenage male driver on his first solo excursion. I, of course, freaked the heck out and immediately jumped out of the car to check on my daughter. Her only complaint? "Mommy, my juice spilled!" Okay, so ONE TIME the juice spilled in the cup holder. Not Combi's fault! My daughter was just fine (Thank any nearby deities!) and barely even felt the impact. She didn't even lean forward because the seat belt positioner held so well. I would give the Dakota an "OUTSTANDING!!" rating in the event of a car crash. I'm just thankful it wasn't a worse accident that I have to tell you about!

One of the best things about the Dakota is that it is so lightweight. As I told you, the in-laws come over every Saturday (Oy!). They brought over a car seat they purchased at a garage sale once and wanted to put my daughter in it. (Ummmm, hello? NO!) Since my nuclear explosion at that incident, they have always mooched my car seats. We used to use Century car seats, and those puppies must be made out of cement, they're so heavy. The Dakota weighs about five pounds. That's it! I can hold the Dakota in two fingers of one hand, and use the other three fingers to lug four bags of groceries and the car keys. (The other five fingers are reserved exclusively to keep my hyperactive kiddo from roaming parking lots with abandon!)

The Dakota is meant to be used for children from 33-100 pounds, so chances are, your child will have no problem being comfortable in it. My daughter is so skinny that pants fall straight to her ankles if they're not held up by a belt with three extra buckle holes punched in it, and she fits in there just fine. I have also transported one of my daughter's Daisy Girl Scout buddies in the Dakota. The Girl Scout buddy was nearly a foot taller than my daughter and weighed about 95 pounds, and she was also quite comfortable in the Dakota. The reason she was so comfortable? The Dakota has an extra-wide base. Combi's reason is that the extra-wide base is good for stability. I think they just made it extra wide so bigger tushies can fit in it!

All in all, we've been VERY pleased with this car seat. It's as tough as nails, holds my daughter in luxurious comfort, and most importantly, it kept my precious baby safe during that minor car accident. The Dakota is very reasonably priced, too. It usually retails for $34.99 but we picked it up at BJ's Wholesale Club for $25. In fact, we picked up two of them at that price, because my mother, who DOESN'T mooch my car seats, wanted one as well. (And she knows better than to shop at a yard sale for something as crucial as a CAR SEAT. Gah! In-laws!)

What I LOVE about this product:
~It kept my baby perfectly safe during a minor car accident
~Very comfy
~Very easy to clean
~So simple to put in the car
~Easy to use seat belt positioner

What I HATE about this product:
~Putting that cup holder back on!