2009 August Happiness Challenge, Day 10

August 10: Today’s happiness is actually related to Saturday’s.  Here’s an excerpt from the nice follow-up note that our Safe Kids coordinator sent out today:
“In continuous torrential rain, you made 98 cars and over 196 children safe … I believe that event could very well be the catalyst that leads to a dramatic improvement in [...]

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2009 August Happiness Challenge: Day 8

August 8: Today’s happiness was pulling into the location for a big seat check event – it was pouring rain – and discovering that it was an indoor location. Probably our only one of the summer.
Actually, there was quite a bit of happiness related to today’s seat check:

We had plenty of good translators! The event [...]

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So …. What Now?

I know, I know, I haven’t blogged in a few days. And I should have plenty of time to blog now, right? (Of course.) I’ll try to be better.
OK, so that’s a rhetorical question. I don’t really need someone to tell me to update my resume (er, update?), make dr/dentist/eye doctor appointments before our insurance [...]

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Wow

120 cars. 220 seats checked.
100% misuse coming in (among the kids that even arrived in car seats).
Of the 14 or so kids that I checked:
2 barely 1-year-olds turned back rear-facing.
1 majorly broken (as in missing the metal piece that holds the straps on!) seat replaced
1 expired seat replaced
8 – at least – kids who arrived [...]

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Looking Forward to Tomorrow

I have a car seat check event tomorrow, in Detroit (well, just outside of Detroit, but it’s a very urban area). I’m really looking forward to it – I did one event in August, but it was very slow (albeit interesting – I’ve never put an adult in a car seat before!). I like the [...]

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Check, Please!

I’m going to ask you all to do me a favor. Those of you with kids in harnessed car seats, that is.
Humor me.
The next time you go out to the car, please check to make sure your car seat is actually buckled in by the seat belt (or the LATCH strap, if you [...]

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Final Celebrity Baby Blog Car Seat Article Posted

For those of you who are still interested – meaning my mom and maybe my sisters – Celebrity Baby Blog has posted my final car seat article. This one addresses when it’s safe to move a child from a booster seat to just the adult seat belt. Featuring, of course, my handsome model, Book Boy.
You [...]

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Celebrity Baby Blog Continues Series on Car Seat Safety

Celebrity Baby Blog – that fun “brain candy” site – is continuing their series on car seat safety. The latest article talks about not moving kids to booster seats too early. It was written by yours truly, and features pictures of Book Boy to illustrate points made in the article.
 This will apparently end up being [...]

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Why Your 4-8 Year Old Needs A Booster Seat*

Here in Michigan, children are required to be in a child restraint until they turn 8 years old, unless they hit 4′9″ first. (Just for reference, that’s the height of the average 11-year-old boy.)
I took these pictures of Book Boy last week to illustrate why a child of 4 – or 7, in this case [...]

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Be Back Soon

Sorry I haven’t blogged lately. I’m writing another car seat article in my “spare” (haha) time, and it’s taking much longer to write than the previous articles did. Will be back soon – give me another day or two!

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