A New Milestone Reached

When I shared a picture of Zoelle forward facing in an InstaFriday post a few weeks ago, I stated how I would share more on this in the coming weeks.

Car seat safety is one of those taboo topics that no one wants to touch. Many feel that it is right up there with vaccinations, circumcision, breastfeeding, you name it! However, before I post, I want you to know my heart. This is what we have chosen to do for our family after much research. I know it's not for all familes, and I have dear friends who choose to extend rear-face and many who choose not to. I love them both.

I share today because this week is Child Passenger Safety week and it is a great way to have all the info on Extended Rear Facing in one place. You can read a larger post I have on the importance of extended rear facing here. I also share, as always, because this is a record book of the lives of my girls and for Zoelle, a new milestone was reached!

Up until a month ago, we chose to have Zoelle sitting rear facing in her Sunshine Kids Radian (now Diono) carseat. The great thing about this seat is that you can start using it at 5 lbs. and use it all the way up to 45 lbs., and that is just for rear facing! Zoelle was at about 40 lbs. but she was getting very close to outgrowing the seat in height.

I'll admit, turning her forward facing was a sad thing for me, and I still think it's weird to look in my rear-view mirror and see her face. She loves it, although she has a hard time with where to put her legs so she tries to sit Indian style as much as possible.

This picture really has nothing to with this post. Rather I found it, and thought it a cute one to share! :)

I can say now, five years later that I never once regretted our decision to extend rear face. It wasn't any more of an inconvience to us, or her, than it would have been had she been forward facing. As she got older, she would mention to me that she noticed a friend sitting forward facing and would ask me why they got to sit looking forward and she did not. I explained to her, as I do on other things, that each family chooses to do things differently, and in this case, we chose to keep her and her sisters rear facing until they are older. She seemed to accept it just fine and never complained or had an issue with it.

So here we are in a new milestone of our life and I thought it would be something fun to remember in the years to come!

Have you ever reached a milestone in your child's life that was hard for either you or your child?