We finally decided on a car seat for Eliyahu after all our deliberations. I strongly dislike shopping for major purchases, particularly online. I like to be able to look at and touch the different products. (That's one reason I've shyed away from buying any cloth diapering things online.) And with major purchases, I always worry that I'm making the wrong choice.

But after lots of research and discussion, we decided that several factors also come into the picture.

For one thing, we don't do a lot of driving. We'll occasionally (like maybe once a year) make a trip of 2-3 hours. For the majority of the year, the children are in their car seats for about an hour each week. Ultra-comfortable car seats aren't really a necessity in our situation. The infant carrier I was using for Eliyahu had expired and was not very padded at all. (Less than any of the seats they sell these days.) So I figured anything we bought would be better than the one we had!

I really had just two main desires in a car seat, and that was that it would hold children in a rear-facing position up to the 30-pound range and have a 5-point harness system. We also don't have extra money right now, so I knew I needed to be wise. And from everything I read, spending more money doesn't necessarily mean greater safety.

These things considered, we purchased the Cosco Scenera convertible car seat.

Since this seat's weight limit is 40 pounds, I tried it on both Yehoshua and Eliyahu. I'm not sure of Yehoshua's height in inches, but at 2.75 years of age, he weighs 31 pounds. I was pleased to discover that the top setting for the shoulder straps was well above his shoulders and he would have plenty of room to grow in this seat, had I purchased it for him.

It (obviously) fits Eliyahu well, and was easy to install rear-facing in the backseat of our car. I'm actually very happy with the decision we made concerning which car seat to purchase. While this isn't a luxury seat and doesn't feature the extra padding or other perks, I think it will be suitable for our needs. :) Eliyahu loves it! And I'm just thankful for straps that don't squish him down in the seat. :)