Today was a momentous day in the Ragtop household. We said goodbye to one of the last vestiges of babyhood:
Yes, Belle was officially moved up to booster seat status today, a full 9 months older than her sister was. Which is slightly ironic, since Belle is about 2 inches taller than Krystal was at the same age, although she probably weighs less. Still, she does fit the height/weight guidelines on the booster, so it was time. After all, she starts Pre-K on Tuesday! Can’t have a Pre-K’er in a 5-point harness now, can we?
For any safety-mongers out there: yes, she still fits the height/weight guidelines on the 5-point car seat too, but a girl’s got to have her dignity. It has not escaped her notice that all her classmates are in “big kid” seats already. I’m just a teensy bit worried about what the extra mobility will mean in terms of trouble she can get into, but that will just be another episode in Extreme Parenting to report on.
Niceties and Nasties from New England 
If she takes inappropriate advantage of the extra mobility then she’s really not ready for the booster, is she?? And you’ll be glad to put her back in the 5-point harness and let all her preschool pals see that she’s still in a baby seat.
Yeah — we all know I’m a mean mom.
I can’t wait to get rid of that 5-point harness. We left the Queen in hers until she could undo it herself. She was well past being tall enough for the booster (we got convertible carseats). She occasionally gets out, but we pull over and don’t go anywhere until she gets back in. We’ve been known to sit by the side of the road for 20 minutes. She hasn’t done it lately.
DeBoy isn’t tall enough yet. I hate that 5-point harness – it’s VERY difficult to fasten, and I hate to think about trying to get him out of it in a hurry in an emergency.
Oh, I know! I’m thrilled to be done with the 5-point! And even though it is very rare that my girls are ever driven in anyone else’s car, it’s sooooooo much easier to move the boosters than the car seats.
Krystal is, shall we say, height-challenged, so I fear she will be in the booster until she gets her license. Or longer.