While we were eating said sweet lunch, she mentioned that she'd had to decline an invitation for us to join some friends for dinner this evening. This friend had reminded her that this would be our last Valentine's Day sans bébé; however, she kindly noted that it is quite easy to take a baby along to dinner when he/she is still young and can sleep in the carseat.
I joked that today's babies must spend most of their time in carseats. Carseats have turned into little baby-pods, appropriate for every occasion. The trend has even extended to toddlers.
Perhaps you will remember (from the stroller madness post) my rudimentary illustrations of the ultimate compact stroller, which were based on something I'd seen in the O'Hare Airport in Chicago:
Well, I found the real thing. It's called the GoGo Kidz Travelmate, and it's basically a luggage cart designed to hold carseats. I'm pretty sure this is what we saw in Chicago, because that one had orange inline skate wheels, like the Travelmate.There it is, folks. If you want to be on the cutting edge of stroller technology, you have to consider getting one of these. For $89, you can cruise through the airports with the greatest of ease, removing your child from the carseat only for occasional "bio-breaks". You could even keep one in your trunk and use it as a back-up stroller -- since you would always have the carseat on hand. The carseat makes it all work.
Is there anything that you can't do with a car seat?
Pretty soon, children won't have to budge from their carseats at all. Parents could wheel their carseat-children to class, where they could be clicked into a carseat-friendly desk. There will be no need for cribs, highchairs, swings, etc. Just modular attachments for carseats.The carseat will become THE baby item to replace ALL others. This is an exciting time to be alive.
5 comments:
That toddler looks like he's going to be dragging his feet through the airport!
Exciting time indeed! I often reflect on how blessed I am to be born in such an age where technology allows us more and more to move less and less. Pretty soon all we will need is our brains plugged into some central computer and we can sit or lay and be fed through and iv. Then the self aware computers we make will take over the world as we know it and start harvesting our offspring and plugging them into this central computer that will create a virtual reality for them. The computer will feed off our bio-electric and thermal bodies and… This sound eerily familiar doesn’t it? Exciting indeed.
And now they want the babies to sleep on their backs and in the car seats and so they get these funny shapes on the back of their heads, they look flat. Then you have to hold them and not let them lay on their back so much. The worse cases have babies wearing these helmets to round out their heads again. Go figure. Helen
So how is that baby coming along. Dad sure seems to be the proudest soon-to-be daddy around. I'm sure both your moms are waiting with anticipation. I know I sure was for each one of our grandkids (3 plus 2 more in May). How fun:) Hope to see you we're coming to town this weekend for Tom's mother's 85th birthday.
If you are not already aware, there was a recent study in New Zealand that resulted in a warning about letting babies sleep in an inclined position for too long (as in car seats, swings, etc.). When their heads tip forward for too long the air supply can be cut off. I heard about the study on a national tv news program moments after hearing on the car radio about a year old child being rushed to Primary Childrens after being found not breathing in a car seat. It's tempting to leave them in the seat if they have fallen asleep in the car. If you do, it's important to tip the seat back to keep their head from falling forward. If they fall asleep during a long car ride there should be some way to monitor their breathing and head position - mirrors, person in back seat, etc. An ounce of prevention etc.
Having worked at an airport I saw a lot of kids & kids in car seats riding on luggage carts. Interesting to see how the idea has been marketed. I still say it is best to hold the child till they are too heavy to do so! No prolonged attachment to seats of any kind!
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