Neither rain, nor seat, nor utter humiliation will keep a grandma from the swift completion of her appointed rounds.
Am I right?
The seat came first. I ordered it in anticipation of Margo’s upcoming visit and shook my head when I pulled it out of the box.
“Do you know how to install this thing?” I asked Margo’s grandpa.
He did not.
So, I made an appointment through the Outagamie County Public Health Department’s Car Seat Check Program. They confirmed that they would both assemble and install the car seat. I sent them a virtual gratitude hug and felt pretty proud of my problem solving abilities.
Yesterday, I rolled up to the Grand Chute Fire Department for my appointment. About 30 kind souls stood poised like a pit crew ready to jump into action and I greeted them with an over-the-top level of enthusiasm.
“Thank you so much for doing this,” I gushed as I jumped out of my truck. “My granddaughter is flying in this Sunday and I want to make sure we’re all set to pick her up.”
They greeted me kindly, handed me a clip board and went to work. As I filled out the information sheet, I heard a concerning murmur.
“How old is your granddaughter,” they asked.
“Oh, she’s 18-months old,” I said and prepared to whip out my collection of adorable pics.
More murmuring ensued.
“How much does she weigh?”
“24 pounds,” I said.
“I’m so sorry. This is the wrong car seat,” they said.
“Oh, no, it’s okay,” I said. “That car seat is for 22 pounds and up. She weighs 24 pounds.”
“Legally, she can sit in this car seat, but the Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children sit in a rear-facing car seat until they are two-years old,” they said.
“But….I think she might be tall,” I said lamely
The absurdity of my argument dawned on me pretty quickly. Who makes an appointment to make sure their car seat is installed correctly and then tries to talk the installer into strapping in the wrong one?
So, I hightailed it to the nearest Walmart to buy a new car seat, discovered they stock about a thousand different varieties of car seats, quickly selected some sort of three-in-one model that definitely faced backward, realized I forgot to grab a cart, hoisted that bad boy aloft and lugged it through the store, briefly scanned the lot for my vehicle, hauled that giant box through the rain, loaded it into the truck and dashed on back to the fire station.
Once I got back, a whole team unboxed and assembled the carseat. They even popped in the cup holders for me. Then we climbed in the backseat and they explained exactly how to install the car seat, tilt it properly and adjust the straps.
They did a great job. That car seat is not moving until Margo (and any siblings or cousins she ends up having) graduate high school.
The moral of this story is this:
If you have any questions at all about car seats and how to safely install them, don’t ask me.
But, you can make an appointment with the Outagamie County Health Department Car Seat Check program and they’ll make sure your little loves ride safely.
Thanks very much to the whole team.
And, Margo, I’ll see you soooooon!
