All Aboard the Safety Train
I'd like to come clean with all of the ways I'm a terrible human, so while I'm admitting that I put playoff hockey above a child's possible broken finger, I should probably admit that Mila's new car seat is absolutely her birthday present.
What? She's going to be two. She doesn't care about gifts. She has more than enough toys and car seats are expensive. It absolutely makes sense to charge that expense against her birthday account.
Mila agrees with my thinking, for the record.
The first time I went to stick Mila in her new car seat, she literally "ooooohed!" and then she "aaaaaahed!" and I'm not kidding in the least. She smiled ear to ear as she scooted her tiny butt into that new space then proceeded to check out the head protection by shaking her head back and forth and grinning. "Pillow!" she declared.
And then. AND THEN. Once Mila was safely buckled in, she noticed that there are buttons on the car seat. She can't actually press them, but she thinks she can. And HOOBOY does she get excited about buttons. "Ook! Mom! BUTTONS!" came out of her mouth that morning.
She's had the same reaction each time I've put her in the car.
And then came this afternoon. We had a bunch of running to do because the end of the school year is all about the hectic. Unfortunately, toddlers are really bad at cooperating when the hectic sets in. Thus, Mila was in no hurry whatsoever to walk across the parking lot. She stopped to climb a curb. She bent over to see if I'd let her eat a rock. She hopped up and down because she can. If it had been Alexis dawdling, I would have said "Focus, please" and that would have been that.
Mila ignores my requests for her to focus. It's as if she has her own ideas and thoughts and mine don't matter.
After a good three minutes of trying to convince Mila to either let me pick her up or to start walking in the right direction, it dawned on me that I had another option. "Mila, do you want your new car seat?" I said.
She took off running towards the car. "YES!"
As I strapped her in, she applauded.
Go ahead and tell me it's not appropriate to buy a kid a car seat for her birthday. I'm pretty sure Mila disagrees.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Reader Comments (3)
When my daughter was 3 she loved my Sonicare toothbrush. I was going to buy her one anyways but she was so excited about it, it ended up being a gift from Santa. She couldn't have been happier.
The car seat absolutely counts. My son's bed was his 5th birthday present. If they enjoy it, it counts.
By the way, I saved my sanity with my dawdler child by "racing" him places. A walk to the front door went from five minutes or more down to fifteen seconds. The only time he's faster than molasses is when he gets competitive. So different from my firstborn pleaser.
I don't think she can get any cuter. If she does, my head just might explode!