We're very lucky.
Jack is the sort of child
we all assume we'll have
when we decide to have children,
and the sort of child
less experienced parents
congratulate themselves for.January and February 2004
March and April 2004
May and June 2004
July and August 2004
September and October 2004
November and December 2004
Blogs we read:
Monday, Feb. 02, 2004 - Mamma
The car has never been Jack's favorite place. From his first ride in the car when he was 24 hours old to the present, as often as not, we have had a bain sidhe along for the ride whenever we have gone out.
It got a lot better when we got a new car seat for a bigger boy -- apparently the infant carrier was very uncomfortable -- but we can still not say that Jack *likes* the car. He usually just puts up with it as long as we play Hayden and Bach for him.
Lately, though, it had gotten worse. Usually he screams his displeasure for 10 minutes, and then goes to sleep or listens to his music for the rest of the trip. The last few days, no. The whole trip has been awful.
The heater fan in the car is broken -- effectively meaning we have no heat in the car -- and it eventually occurred to us that maybe that was the problem. A little investigation revealed that Jack had recently gotten tall enough that his feet now stick out the bottom of his snow suit...and even though he's wearing three pair of socks his feet are indeed cold when we get him home. Aha!
So, set off to find a solution. I know I raised two kids in this climate before -- and we took buses everywhere, which involved hours of standing in the snow and cold -- but I can't remember what we did...
Leather boots seem like a possibility for a solution. After all, leather shoes are the major difference between how Jack is dressed and how we're dressed, and we're OK. But Yikes! Baby boots -- which are good for about three months of growth -- seem to cost about $25-50.
I had heard about e-bay and even have friends who buy everything for their kids from there -- and then sell it all there to finance the next load. So, I checked it out...and found a pair of brand new leather baby boots for $4.99. Now that was a price I could relate to!
So, I have just made my first purchase on e-bay. Meanwhile, we toss a wool blanket over Jack's lap for the trip, and that seems to work ok until he manages to toss it off.
UPDATE: Well, the boots arrived quickly. But Jack had already gotten too big for them. I guess the trick will be to drag him to a baby shoe store and get him fitted.
Meanwhile, though, it's getting warmer, so there's less problem than there was when we started the hunt. And by next year, Jack will be really wearing boots!
