Gabriel and Julian's carseats, take 2

More carseat-shopping this weekend revealed some excellent news for us: Not only will be probably be able to keep the car we have, but we might well get away with carseats we already have!

Dave's car has two identical narrow Graco carseats in it, one of which Gabriel is about to outgrow, and the other of which Julian can use in my car. The convertible/booster we keep in the pickup will work for Gabriel in my car, and Miss October gets the Britax Roundabout, rear-facing (after a few months of infant bucket carrier that is). Yay! Then, when it's time to forward-face the baby, Julian will be almost 4 and Gabriel almost 6, and we can re-evaluate and juggle carseats and/or boosters again.

We might want a bigger car at some point, but it's nice to know we won't be forced into it right away.

And are we the only people in the world who don't think a DVD player is utter necessity in a new car?! I overheard a mom talking about their drive to Disneyland, how the DVD player was essential for the 4-1/2 hour trip. She added that now, her 3-1/2-year-old wants to watch DVDs on the way to the grocery store. Well, yeah! No, I just don't see us going that route. Call me old-fashioned, but some amount of boredom is part of a kid's life. Part of anyone's life. Geez, would we have shouted Beatles songs at the top of our lungs for hours on our cross-country trip when I was a kid if we had a DVD player?

(Of course, it's very easy for me to say all this, since both Gabriel and Julian have always been very good in the car. Baby#3 might teach me a thing or two about the value of DVD players. Similarly, it'd be easy for me to think that it's because the boys don't watch TV or videos regularly, and have had almost no electronic toys, that they both have such good attention spans, but really, I think that's just the way they are. On the other hand, suppose we'd Baby Einstein'd them from day one? I thought about this again tonight as they took a bath in our huge Jacuzzi downstairs, since our upstairs bathtub is leaking (argh). So many households have toys all over the bathroom, but G & J were quite entertained with only a single cup each. Cause or effect?)

In other news, not only can I feel Baby#3 all the time, but now I can actually see the baby moving. Last night, the baby was particularly active, and I lay there and watched my tummy bulge out as tiny elbows and knees poked around. It's amazing, really -- many women don't even feel the baby at 18 weeks, and here I am watching it. Baby#3 has not let me forget he or she is here from even before the moment I knew about it.