Just a box?

Since I am going back to school, we will need to buy a second car (finally) and so we need a second set of carseats (Calvin and I will be sharing daycare drop-offs and pick-ups). Babies R US had their great trade-in event going on and if you traded in a piece of baby gear, you would get a 25% coupon for one item. This was great for us, because we have this old toddler bed that we bought for $15 used with mattress, but is now falling apart. Grandma and Grandpa H are giving Matthias a twin bed soon and we were just going to throw away the toddler bed, since Ezra's crib can be changed into a toddler bed. We also had an umbrella stroller that has a broken wheel, so we traded in that too.


So two trade-ins = 2 coupons = 2 great deals on carseats. Yeah, if only it was that easy. Trade-ins were accepted and so we were given two coupons. Great! We went to get the carseats. First stop, a new Graco My Ride 65 Convertible carseat for Ezra! They have two or three in stock, so we grab one. Next stop. Graco Nautilus 3 in 1 for Matthias. Out of stock for the boy/neutral one. They ask if we want the pink one. Um, not so much. So what are our options (we have to use the coupon on the day of the trade-in)? Can they order one for us? No, warehouse is empty. They have 12 in Brookfield, almost an hour away. Well, we decide that saving $45 is worth the drive, so Calvin drives up to get the carseat. Ok, so a bit of a hassle, but we are successful, right?


Not quite. we get home and go to take out the carseats and get them ready to put in the car. Pull out the My Ride 65 and notice that it has a defective latch connection clip. Now, if you don't know anything about carseats, this is what keeps the carseat in the car if you choose not to use the seatbelts. Now we could have just kept the seat and just used seatbelts with it, but when you are paying $125 for something, you want it to work 100%. So we packed it up and I went back to BRU. (which is like 20 mintues from our house) Haul it in the store and they say no problem, we can exchange it. Clerk goes back to get another one. They are now out of stock in this seat too! Crap! Can they order one? No, the warehouse does not have this seat in stock either (I guess we picked two of the most popular carseats). They start calling around. The BRU in Gurnee, IL (about forty minutes from this BRU and twenty from our house) has six. So I drive down there. And finally am able to get a good carseat.


So anyways, the boys didn't really care one way or another about getting new carseats. What they loved was getting new boxes! These carseats came in these great big boxes and they are having a ton of fun climbing in and out of them, jumping on them, and putting them on top of each other. Who knew how much fun a box could be? With the amount of joy they are getting from these boxes, the boxes themselves are almost worth the $300 we paid for the carseats.