Day 337- Upgrade to First Class

Back in January, we upgraded Nora from her infant car seat to her convertible car seats. We agonized over choosing seats that were safe yet affordable because, ideally, she would be in the same seats until she turns 4: Rear-facing until she's at least 2, Forward facing with the 5-point harness until she's 4, and then maybe in the same seat even longer if we could find something we liked that could convert to a booster.

We ended up choosing the Graco MyRide 65 for Brad's car. It's rated well and is affordable. You can get it on sale for about $130 most of the time. For my car, we chose the Graco Classic Ride 50. This one runs in the $80-100 range.

We don't *love* either of the seats, but they've served us well to this point. Recently, though, I had to watch some videos related to car wrecks for a class that is taught at my school. They had nothing to do with car seat safety, but something in the pit of my stomach told me that we needed to replace one of our seats- the Classic Ride 50. I can't explain why. It was just a gut feeling that I thought I would be unwise to ignore.

Thankfully, we're in a good place right now, and we were able to splurge a little bit on what is considered to be one of the best and safest seats out there- The Diono Radian RXT. It's a little more expensive, but it is the most solid seat I have ever put my hands on. I love the way it insalled into Brad's car, and Nora looked very comfy in it on her first test ride. Another bonus is that it is reclined a bit more than her others, which has allowed her a little more leg room.

A final benefit of this seat is that it is FAA approved, so next summer when we actually have to purchase a seat for Nora on the airplane ride to Nova Scotia, we can take the Radian with us.

Here she is, riding in style this evening.