Judecorp.

1. I turned my kid forward-facing in the car today. It's... weird. But she outgrew the RF limits of the seat, and I don't have an extra $250 floating around right now. So, it is what it is. She says it's "tall."

2. I realized today that I have been giving my kid vitamins for 4 year olds and up, and that I was supposed to give her half a vitamin. Dang. Whoops. I over-vitamined her. And she LOVES them and is going to get pissed if I give her half a vitamin, so I guess I will go out and buy her new vitamins. Boo.

3. Our church puts out this advent devotional that has daily scriptures and reflections for all the days of advent, contributed by church members. I wrote one this year. I think my day was this past Friday or Thursday. Apparently it was very popular! I think 5 different people stopped me in church today to tell me they loved mine. It was kind of neat to be "church popular."

4. I know kids don't need vitamins, and Punk is a good eater. But she LOVES medicine. She is kind of a medicine addict. Anyone have any vitamin recommendations for the 2-year-old set?

5. We got a tree today and now the house smells delicious. And now I have boxes of holiday stuff everywhere. I hate clutter. Argh!

6. I am running out of places in the living room to put the Elf on a Shelf.

So I decided to get my car seat professionally installed by a cute fireman. Hey, why not, right?

Anyway, I have the Graco SnugRide with EPS Foam or whatever, and the base is usable with seatbelts or LATCH. The LATCH system for my car (Neo the 2007 Toyota Matrix) has LATCH anchors properly spaced for the two outside rear seats (behind the driver and behind the passenger), but the anchors are improperly spaced for the rear center.

Cute Fireman and I had a discussion about which is better - using the LATCH system and installing the seat on one of the sides (thereby increasing risk in a side-impact collision), or using the seatbelt and installing the seat in the center. CF said that the seatbelt should not be any less safe than the LATCH system because the seatbelt has that funky locking mechanism. But I'll be honest, I've watched that sappy YouTube video about that kid in the booster seat too many times. (You know, once is too many.)

So... what do you think? Is LATCH safer than the seatbelt? Right now, CF has the car seat in the center with the seatbelt pulled and locked tightly, and it really does feel nice and snug and tight. And I do feel better having the seat in the middle for crash purposes. But I'm interested in your opinions.

Do you choose "LATCH on the side" or "Seatbelt in the center"?

[Poll #1006608]

Thanks!