Etienne demonstrated his skill at hooking the seat belt all by himself. My life just got a little easier; only 1/4 of the entourage needs to be buckled in! Seemed like a momentous occasion except I should have known that it was too good to be true. Can we say "freedom?" AGH!!!! Etienne can not, can not, I repeat, keep his hands off the seat belt. Driving with him has now become a game of which sibling is in charge of regulating how far out he has stretched the belt, if he is sitting sideways/hanging off the side/completely tangled within the belt; or if the boy has just stretched it so far it doesn't function. What do I do besides scold?
When Blake was 2, he wasn't easy. There was a stretch where a friend actually used duct tape on his car seat during a road trip so that we could avoid constantly re-hooking him in. I have done a little searching and there are car seats for very large kids but they are super-duper expensive because they are designed for children with physical disabilities.
If you see a black minivan with some Will Smith blaring pulled over on the side of the road with a blonde woman pulling her hair out, please don't honk. Just keep moving.
There's a pretty easy fix! It might not solve all your problems, but when he gets buckled in, have him pull the seat belt all the way out. If you do that, the belt locks, so that when he buckles it and it retracts across his body, it's locked there and he can't pull it out and get twisted up in it. It might also help him stay in the carseat a little better. It will stay locked until he unbuckles and the belt goes all the way back in. I hope that helps you!
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