The Importance of Seating

If you read my last post, you may recall that I mentioned running into an old friend with her little grandson in tow at the local store and Maya's first words to him (after giving him quite an eyeballing) was to inquire about the kind of seat he has to sit in. I don't know how "Aunt Sue" came to have so much intuition about what Maya was referencing, but she knew, automatically, that Maya was talking about the type of car seat she has to sit in -a booster chair -vs the type that Kurtis has to use, which is the traditional type of car seat. Still.

Who would ever have thought that something an innocuous as a car seat vs a booster seat would become something for a five-year-old to obsess over?

But that, it would appear, is exactly what she is doing.

I was telling Samantha, Kurt's tss, who is here every morning, Monday through Friday to work with and observe Kurtis, about the episode at the store on Wednesday and Sam said that last Friday, when she brought her dog, Aspen, down here to meet the kids, the first thing Maya wanted to know was what kind of seat did Aspen sit in for the ride from Sam's house down to ours. Why in blazes would it sit this heavily on her mind to even think of a question like that?

Anytime Maya is going someplace with me or with Mandy, she knows which seat she is to sit in -the pink floral booster chair seat -but she will frequently hop into the car and slide over and get in Kurt's car seat although she knows full well the straps will no longer fit around her legs without pinching her! No matter how many times we tell her she is too big for that carseat, she will inevitably try to sit in it again. I think it may be a tad of jealousy that Kurt is still a "baby" and she probably thinks this is a way that warrants more special attention or something.

She spent last night at Mandy's friend's place and today, Jen-Jen is taking one of her baby boxer puppies to see the vet or something along those lines so she called a little while ago to tell us that Maya is asking her the "Twenty Questions" stuff now about what seat the puppy will be riding in to State College. She will no doubt get more than earful about the seating arrangements for her and for the puppy over the next couple of hours.

All this obsession brings to mind that Mandy and I have to go to Pittsburgh on June 5th for a doctor's appointment I have there that day and if we take both the kids with us, are we really ready, willing and able to listen to Maya's discussion for a three-hour drive (one-way) about her seat?

But even more, this gives rise to the idea of a long trip -say to Florida or even to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Can you imagine riding those distances with a child constantly chattering about her booster seat and her brother's carseat?

Kind of puts a damper on my feelings about long trips right now. That's for sure!