Cleaning the Carseat...1.5 Hours I'll Never Get Back

***Disclaimer: My friend, Lindsay, advised me that I need a disclaimer. This post is about my kid, and his umm puking in his carseat. Really, it's not that graphic. But she would have rather not read the post, right after eating dinner.***

Angry Husband took my car on Friday night to take Angry Toddler to my parent's house. He's been going to my parent's house, every Saturday night for the past month. Angry Husband and I both work on Sundays.

He mentioned something about going to Target. I think Angry Toddler was rambling something about getting a "kid's game" for the Nintendo DS. The DS is actually Angry Husband's but I think it's somehow been taken over by Angry Toddler.

About fifteen minutes after Angry Husband called me. He rambled, "he's puking everywhere, it's gross, ugh". Angry Toddler is known for his puking. Unfortunately. He was a reflux baby, and always had no gag reflux. I called my mom to warn her, and to have her prep by getting towels, and a bath ready.

About an hour later, Angry Husband arrived home. He had removed the carseat from my car and brought it into the garage. Seriously, the smell was AWFUL...I think every inch of that carseat was covered. I love the carseat, a Britax Regent, but seriously, there's like a million parts to it. Angry Husband said that it was flowing like lava out of the kid. Angry Husband also said, that Angry Toddler was coughing and said that he had a fly in his throat, aka phlegm. I wrapped baby wipes around my hands as make-shift gloves, to take it apart. It took me over an hour to dissect it all. I was making gagging motions during this, seriously, it was that bad.

I finally got all the "washable" parts into the machine. I realized that the body of the car seat was still covered in ick. Good times. Seriously, one point five hours later, I was finally done cleaning the carseat. Angry Husband was laughing at me. He knew how long it would to take the cover off the seat. He also knew that I had never taken it apart before.

Last night, I sat down to put it back together. I had pieces everywhere on the floor of the garage. I was on the phone while assembling the carseat, of course. I'm a master multi-tasker. Or maybe, it's the ADHD. But then again, it took me another one point five hours to put it back together.

P.S. This post was sponsored by me, my Britax Snobbery, and my unwillingness to clean up kid vomit.

Britax Regent

So I went shopping Friday morning with my mom. We went to our local baby store to check out the restraint systems carseats for Angry Toddler. My mom kept asking when he could he fit into a booster like our friend's daughter. Umm, this kid is going to be in a 5-point booster seat as long as he fits in one.

I see all kinds of car accidents daily at work. I'm a total car seat freak. Everyone at work sees the same car accidents, yet they put their kids in crappy seats. I just don't get it.

We ended up getting the Britax Regent. It's a great seat and goes to 80 lbs. Angry Husband helped me install it in the Tahoe. We centered it in the rear bench seat. It's alot better than my previous seat, a Britax Marathon.

I left my Tahoe with Angry Husband last night so that he could put AT in the new seat and try it out. AH said that AT did not like the seat and he wanted his old one back. Well gee, I wonder why? Angry Toddler was pissed because he couldn't figure out how to get out of his carseat. I thought that it was very funny.

I took Angry Toddler for a haircut earlier this morning. He sat in the seat fine. I even asked him if he liked the seat. He said he liked the seat and that it was just like Stella's. Stella is the daughter of my BFF, Stacey.

Oh and the haircut, he asked for it to be short in the back and spikey on the top. He looks like he came straight out of the US Marine Corps Bootcamp. Actually, he kinda reminded me of Angry Husband when I met him. Angry Grandma, my mom, flipped when she saw his hair. She thinks that we should grow it out. Umm, nooo, he has major cowlicks in the back.

Engineer or Career Criminal?

I think these are the future career options for Angry Toddler.

Seriously, this kid is very smart and figures out how things work easily. Last year, we got a new carseat, a Britax Marathon. Well, there's a flap on the front on the front of the carseat. The flap covers a metal mechanism which ables you to loosen the chest straps and/or make them tighter. He figured out how to reach forward, and un-velcro it within a week of getting the carseat. So he was able to loosen the straps and get out of the seat. I promptly used some industrial thread and sewed the flap down.

Well about two weeks ago, Angry Toddler figured out how to completely removed the cover while he was strapped in, so he can reach the metal lever to release himself once again. I've tried everything and there's no way I can secure the cover to make it safe. So I am going to go shop for another carseat today. Angry Husband did not believe me that Angry Toddler was doing this again. Well he saw it first hand last night. I can't drive around with AT doing this, it's not safe.

Here is a picture of how the carseat looked after I dropped him off at preschool this morning. This happened during a 5 minute car ride.


This is not the first time, we've had to deal with the Little Evil Genius. We've had to Angry Toddler Proof anything. I went around our house and took some pictures of how we've had to make "improvements" in our security.

Let's start with the kitchen/dining room area:

We had to tie the chairs to the dining room table. He would take the chairs and move them around the house. He would use them to climb into things and over the baby gates. He would also pull them up to our salt water fish tank so he could dumb things into the tank. Not a good thing. Angry Husband used some rope and tied all four chairs to the base of the kitchen table.



Next would be the baby gates for the actual kitchen entrances. There is a fixed one in the hallway. We had to put a screw in it, to permanently keep it closed. Angry Toddler figured out how to open it. The main kitchen entrance one is secured closed with a black zip tie. Angry Toddler knows how to open it and we had to secure it closed with the zip tie. Now we have to hop over it to get into the kitchen. When Angry Toddler is not home, we cut off the zip tie and leave it open.





He also figured out how to open door locks. He knew how to unlock the access door between the garage and the house. We caught him one day. He unlocked both locks and went into the garage. He then figured out how to pop the garage door open.

We had to mount the garage door button higher. Angry Husband also had to flip the locks on the access door. There is now a keyed lock on the inside of the house. We put the key on a hook way above the door so that Angry Toddler cannot reach it. It's a real pain in the butt, but at least he can't get out.


Office:

We have a gate across the office also. He loves to get into our computer equipment. We used to have a screw holding the gate closed permanently. We took the screw out because he hasn't realized that the screw is gone.


And one of my favorite pictures of all time. Angry Toddler "breaking into" the bathroom. We used to lock all the interior doors in our house. This was before he was potty trained. Now that he's trained, we leave the doors open. But he found a screwdriver one day, and used it to unlock the door.