This is a DARLING photo!! Trixie has a prize winning smile. When I saw her on MSNBC her smile was even more noticeable because we got to see her smile in action.

Here we go with the fashion again, but I can't help it... I want those boots!!! Her whole outfit is smashing!!!

Car seat question to parents: Did you choose your car based on the fact that you would be using a car seat in it? How complicated is the car seat routine for you putting your baby into your car? We don't have kids yet, but the next vehicle we get will be baby friendly. So, what kind of vehicle is best for putting a baby into a car seat? I always thought that a 4 door car would be easier than a 2 door car, but the other day I saw a father bang his toddler's head into the roof of the car as he tried to put him in. Whoops! Is a mini-van any easier?

Mary,
Minivans and SUV's are so much easier. We have an older Suburban for our 3 kids, and it's great to be able to get them in and out of car seats without having to bend over. There are times that I wish we had a new car with the newest safety technologies, but we're just stuck driving older vehicles right now until all of the kidlets are in school. Good luck with your next vehicle, oh and future kidlets, too!

I agree with Mary - it was so good to see Trixie's cute grin on MSNBC. She looks like one happy little girl, not that long time TTUers didn't already know that!

Oh my, I can't imagine trying to get a car seat into a two-door car, but I have never had any trouble with my 4-door Saturn (only one kid). Otherwise you should just make sure that your new car had the latch system (top latch tether modeled above by Trixie).

We have a Subaru wagon with a seat like Trixie's in the middle and a child booster behind the passenger. It's been great for us, but it's eight years old now my husband wants a Toyota Scion XB (I think it looks like the box a car comes in).

Actually, we just bought a new car (Ford Focus Hatchback), and it has the bottom seat latch system (the previous 2 cars i used a seat in had the top), and it's taking us quite a lot of effort to figure out how to use the bottom latch. I don't see anything on the car seat for it.

We didn't really do much planning when it came to the seat: we did want a hatchback, so we got one of those 60/40 fold downs intentionally so that we could fold down part of the seat with the car seat still intact. Other than that, our "baby planning" consisted of more normal features: ABS, Side Air Bags, etc.

benmac, are you saying that trixie has BREECHED the holy grail of buckles??? can she undo the five-point, race car harness?? if so she is SO advanced. eliot unbuckled his for the first time yesterday, and he is three!

mary, we have a hyundai elantra (4 door) and i have no problem getting aiden in and out. my husbands 2 door honda civic on the other hand!! the car seat was in there ONCE and i will never fight with it again! so now the parent with the kid gets my car...poor James, he has to drive the mom-mobile. our cars dont have the latch system so that is the first thing we are looking at when we get are new one...SOON!

and ben....she looks like pure trouble in that picture!

I’d recognize that Evenflo seat anywhere. We have the same one for our 16-m-o. Great seat.

Mary, go for a spacious vehicle. We have a 4-door Saturn sedan and the (albeit relatively large) car seat takes up almost the entire back seat. It’s a pain in the royal you-know-what wedging her in and out of the car. Heaven forbid the driver’s seat should be pushed back! Infant seats are a snap (literally, if you have a base) of course, but once you upgrade to the stationary convertible seat, a spacious vehicle can save you multiple hernias.

Ben, loved the MSNBC clip, but was bummed it was so brief. But I guess that just means Trixie’s still got like 8 or 9 minutes of fame left in the bank. (That is, unless she spends them on Oprah, in which case the minutes of fame bank account will become seriously well stocked.) But we still didn't get to hear Trixie's voice! =(

To car seat question, we have an SUV and a two-door Honda.
Don't consider a two-door if you're going to be taking a kid in and out of a car seat. It's too hard to squeeze behind the front seats.
As for the SUV, while there's plenty of room for a car seat, the kid necessities and for mom and dad to reach in, it can be a stretch from a car door to a car seat that's buckled in the middle back seat position, which I'm pretty sure is where infants should go.
The reaching and the awkward positions I've gotten into while buckling babies gave me pulled muscles, that kind of thing. I'm only 5'4'' and having a C-section with each baby, it was especially hard to do that car seat stretch.
As you car shop, why don't you try practicing by pretending your putting baby in a car seat. Also, sit in the front driver's seat and test the reachability from front to back seat. It's not the safest thing to be reaching back there while driving, but it's necessary when baby drops bottle or something like that.
BTW, it's easy to bang the baby's head on any kind of car. Sad but true.
Good luck.

Does Trixie have someone knitting for her? She's just adorable.

Mary - obviously a bigger car will be easier than a smaller car, but any 4-door will do. We have a Volvo S40 (small) and a Chevy Impala (larger) and no serious problems getting our daughter in/out of either. We have the fairly large Britax Marathon carseat, too. Yeah, okay, we've bonked her head once or twice, but I think that is bound to happen no matter what. The LATCH system isn't necessary (if you're considering older cars) - both of our cars are 2000 models, the year before LATCH, and it's not all THAT hard to install the carseat. A car without LATCH can still have the rear tether anchor - my Volvo does.

Ben - she is SO CUTE in this photo! as always.

haeshu: Thank goodness, NO. She can buckle them, but she can't unbuckle yet.

michele: I know. Sorry about the no voice thing. I guess the ball is back in my court.

Liz: I think the hat is LL Bean, a gift from Trixie's great grandmommy.

aiden's momma...we bought a hyundai elantra last may hoping that it would be a good choice for future babies...glad to know it is :o)

Ben, Trixie's grin is adorable! Mischievious (sp?) I love it!

Mary: I dont have kids but I have two neices (4 yrs and 3 months) I own a 2 door sunfire and havent had a problem with it yet. When the front seats fold forward the entire seat moves forward as well. You do have to climb in the backseat but I find you will do that anyway. When the eldest was born I owned a 2 door beretta and it wasnt as spacious but they arent made anymore.
I have already decided that I will still own a 2 door car when I have kids of my own. It is what I am used to carting the kiddies around.
Look more at safety features of the car, ABS, Traction control and the "stability" control too that is on new cars.

I think that the NYTimes article was very unfair about mom bloggers. Now we're supposed to feel guilty for still having a personality when we're mothers? How horrible of us! Self-expression is so ugly on a mother I guess.

Ben,

Does your digital camera have the "shoot short MPEG movies" feature? If so, maybe it would record sound, which you could extract using QuickTime? Or, your iMac has an internal microphone - it's the unlit hole on the bottom left of your screen. It's sensetive enough to pick up Trixie's voice if she's sitting in your lap at the computer. You can use SoundStudio to record it.

Reading the post about reaching into the back seat, I came up with a great idea out of necessity last month, while taking a 5+ hour ride alone with my 2-year old daughter. I have a long handled snow broom with an ice scraper at the tip (I live in Syracuse, NY, where that's a necessity from October to April). When my daughter dropped something that I couldn't reach, I was able to pull it along the floor with the scraper end to a point where I could reach it!