The Shallow End

Chorus: May Result in Injury or Death

It is amazing how frustratingly difficult the "simple" operation of installing a car seat (excuse me, "child restraint") has become. Last night, I spent the better part of 2 hours reading (yes, I did) the instructions (i.e. WARNINGS, WARNINGS, WARNINGS) and working on the actual installation. Trouble is, the actual install instructions were surprisingly missing from the 39 pages of warnings that were repeated over and over throughout the booklet. The simplest of tasks, like "How to Adjust the Height of the Shoulder Straps" and "How to Attach the Headrest to the Carseat" were nowhere to be found. Like most things mechanical, I became frustrated to the point that I was ready to return the thing to Babies R Us and go restraintless. But then, there's Julian's life at stake, and according to the "instruction" booklet, I could spend the rest of my life in jail if I did what my parents did and let him run free in the back seat. My brother and I used to play hide-and-seek in the back of the station wagon which was outfitted with lots of hiding places for the small and agile...every once in awhile, we had to "pull over RIGHT NOW(!) and let you out HERE(!)" because we got a little loud. But then, my parents didn't have to go through the agony of installing child restraints in their car.

And since when has our garage become the habitat for CRAWDADS (crayfish, crawfish, baby lobsters, nasty insects, whatever)?! I swear, there was a 4 inch long crawdad crawling around a corner of the garage as I worked on this project. Sometimes, life in the country stinks a little bit.

At last, the bigger, better child restraint appears to be installed (possibly correctly) and we're going for a test ride to the park today, to go swinging! June Bug, surely you know how much I love you!

Labels: Baby Spartacus, The Absurd

posted by Gwynne @ 8:11 AM