Mango 'Ritas, Here I Come!!!

We finally got a new carseat to go in Michael's truck so he can pick her up whenever it's necessary. Like whenever daycare calls because Sweet Pea is sick but I can't leave work and he can OR like whenever a group of co-workers decide to all get together at Baby A's for happy hour. Of course I'd only go for 1 mango margarita since I need to be home in time for Sweet Pea's bedtime routine. (Michael gets her riled up and wanting to play instead of ready for bed whenever he's in charge of her bedtime routine. Something we'll have to remedy, eh, Michael?)

Anyways, I'm very excited about the new carseat. We didn't want to spend $$$ for another Britax knowing that it really isn't going to get a lot of use in Michael's truck since I drop/pick up Sweet Pea at daycare and whenever we go anywhere, we use my truck. But I ended up finding a carseat that gives us the best of both worlds!

While I was doing research on a good, reasonably-priced carseat for a secondary vehicle, I also decided to post on the Car Safety Tips Babycenter Message Board for some recommendations. A lot of Child Passenger Safety Technicians post there and the board host is one too.

They recommended 3 carseats, and of the 3, I found out that one is actually made by Britax but sold under a different name. It is the Fisher Price Safety Voyage Deluxe. This carseat is essentially a dressed-down Marathon. It has the standard Britax base and really does look like the Marathon if you didn't know any better. This carseat has been discontinued because of poor sales but there's absolutely nothing wrong with them safety-wise. Britax is still manufacturing them and when I mailed in my registration card, it was addressed to Britax. The fact that it was recommended by CPS Technicians makes me feel really good about it too!

I was actually able to find it on sale at Albeebaby.com with free shipping. I'm so happy I found this carseat because, like the Decathlon, this one will last her till she's 5 or 6 also and we'll be able to keep her rear-facing longer too!

We have an appointment next Wednesday for a CPS Tech to install it in Michael's truck for us while showing us how to properly install it too. It'll be just like when we had the appointment to have the Decathlon installed in my truck. It makes me feel leaps and bounds safer knowing that an expert installed it, especially given the numbers out there for carseats installed incorrectly!

Here are some pictures of the carseat and of Sweet Pea playing around with it:




manly colors ... suitable for Michael's truck




See! it has the Britax base




she was eyeballing it the moment I pulled it out of the box




just like the other Britax carseats, it comes out of the box ready to go (no worrying about trying to put it together and hoping that you're reading the directions right!)




she likes to climb up into it (she likes to climb into the carseat in my truck too)




she decided to stand up in it




I told her she needed to sit her tooshy back down!




all strapped in! I wanted to make sure that they were all at the right settings for when we go to the appointment on Wednesday