Road trip approved

First I should disclose that I am a kids products snob. I loved the Britax Roundabout (in cow-moo-flage!) but my girl outgrew that thing like it was going out of style. (uh..nevermind) So when her head was a good 2 inches over the top of the thing, I went looking for a Britax booster with an internal harness, but there wasn't one to be found! Curses! Since my little giraffe was only about 2 1/2 years old, she was too young and too light for a real booster seat. So I had to buy another freakin car seat.

I brought her to Babies R Us to test the seats they had. We tried out all the boosters that had internal 5 point harnesses as well as the seatbelt positioner thingies. I was bummed out to see all of the seats (besides the regular booster seats) had sewn-on plastic seatbelt positioners instead of built-in-to-the-seat positioners such as Britax has. But I havent heard of these things tearing off, so I will just live with it. And I am sure it will be handy to have different positions available as The Monkey grows.

There were several versions of the Graco CarGo, priced at 60-100 dollars, some similarly priced Eddie Bauers. There was a very nice looking Century, some Coscos, and a few gross leather ones that I didn't even consider. (by the way, wtf were they thinking, with leather? Leather gets hot, geniuses!) Plus, how exactly does one clean a chocolate milk shake off of a leather seat?(oh well..)

We pulled all the car seats down and lined them up to see how high their backs were and compare them. I tried to buckle my daughter in to each of them. The Eddie Bauer seats and the Cosco seats all have a hideously irritating puzzle buckle and I could see that even the floor models had twisted straps. I put them all back up on the shelf.

The Evenflo Comet looked so pathetically shoddy that we didnt bother with that one. My daughter remarked, "thats a funky one mama, I can't yike it." My thoughts exactly.

It came down to a standoff between the Century Next Step and the Graco Platinum CarGo. I like Century a lot. I've noticed that Century infant carseats are comperable to Britax, without the nice fabric choices, for a fraction of the price. They also have nearly the same type of fasteners, and adjustment method, making them the easiest seats to adjust on the market. And in fact, Graco and Century are the same company now, since Graco recently bought Century. But the CarGo won because it had the had MUCH better padding. I dont know about you, but if I was going to be secured to a seat for a long drive, I'd want some decent cushions underneath me. The CarGo had the softest padding of ALL of the seats we looked at, hands down. So we bought the CarGo because it had basically the same features as the other ones, just better. Better padding, nicer straps, better buckles, easy adjustment (I had a century seat and they all work the same, straps-positioning-wise) I only wish that the CarGo had better fabric. I have a white and black car with grey interior. Our CarGo is a quite ugly royal blue and black with fake leather detail, which fortunately, does not get boiling hot in the sun, but we live in Maine, so keep that in mind..

Features of the CarGo: (as listed on the box)
"2-Position recline for added comfort
Plastic framed mesh pocket for storing kid gear
Soft head pillow provides a cushy, comfy place for growing minds
Front adjusting harness straps make securing your child simpler
One cup holder for snacking on the go
5-Point harness for a snug fit in five places
Deep, wide sides and high back for added comfort and support
3 belt positioners give you the flexibility to adjust your automobile's lap/shoulder belt to the right height for your growing child
LATCH equipped for easy installation"

According to my daughter, it is comfy. She loves the cup holder and the toy holder. Right now we have a milkshake spill on ours but the cover pops right off and goes in the machine so I honestly don't know what I'm waiting for. One thing my daughter does not appreciate about the seat is the airline-esque velcro-on pillow. It might be good for a kid approaching the height limit, but for smaller kids, it is pretty useless. The good news is, theoretically, my daughter can can use this thing until she is 100 lbs or 54 inches tall, whichever comes first. Hopefully she wont be in a car seat at 100 lbs. But who knows. Maybe by the time she's 14, it will be recommended to keep kids in giant hamster balls until they reach adulthood.

But really, could it be, that I am finally done buying car seats? Probably not. I have an inkling that when she's big enough, I'll probably grab one of those flashy Britax Roadsters.