I had to take my car in today to get it checked b/c my "check engine" light came on (thank goodness for extended warranty I only have to pay $200 of the $1700 work!). I didn't want to take both kids with me so I dropped my oldest (3-years-old) off at my friend's nail salon while she was getting her nails done and he went to Costco with her while I took my LO with me. She has two car seats in her car for her two girls already who are in school. That way, I didn't have to remove his car seat and carry that along with my 5-month-old with me to the loaner car. I'm sure they would have been happy to drive it up to my car and let me move it that way. But it was just a hassle. We have a Diono Radian convertible car seat and I LOVE it but it's heavy and I always break into a sweat installing that thing.

After I dropped my car off and got my loaner I drove to Costco to meet up with my son and my friend. We had a quick lunch and then I told my friend (who was happy to drive him back to my house) that I will just put my son in the back seat w/o a car seat since it's only a couple miles away from home. I felt so guilty doing it but I didn't want to inconvenience my friend any further. She was already doing me a HUGE favor and she also had cold stuff she needed to get home soon. The entire time my son had a ball sitting there. I had to kept telling him to sit straight and don't remove the seat belt, etc. He kept leaning over to check out his little brother who was crying. He even said, "Skyler, don't cry. It's okay." in a very sweet tone.

As for when I have to pick up my car, I'm going to see if my neighbor can watch him when I pick him up tomorrow. Hopefully one of them will be home! LOL!

Would you do what I did? I think I'm going to order a Diono booster for situations like this and for anytime I don't want to remove his car seat.