Gimme a boost

Chris leaves on Sunday for another week of conferences in St Louis, so Taylor and I are taking a roadtrip down to Birmingham to hang out with Libba and Dirk, my Granddaddy and the Graffeo family for a few days. And even though we’re only going to be visiting until Wednesday, I’m already making mental lists of all the baby gear, clothes, food and toys required to keep my little princess a happy girl on our trip. Because if she doesn’t have her entourage of baby dolls, or her baby-stroller, or her Dora and Boots figurines, or her purse, or her fake-keys, or her bubbles within an arms length at all times, we’re looking at one wicked melt-down. The other day I tried to run a quick errand with her and just grabbed one baby and her purse to bring with her, and then had to listen to her whine, Doh-wah, and, Booooots, from the back seat the entire outing. And I was all, Hey, what about that BABY you’re holding? And she would scream, NO, and slap it out of her lap like it was on fire. And then she did the same with her purse. And then I turned up the radio.

So when I started gathering all the stuff we need to survive away from home, I realized that the only thing we had for a travel high-chair was one that clipped to the side of the table. And because T is a good 5-6 pounds heavier than the last time we used it, I decided it was time to just pull-the-trigger and buy her a booster seat. She had used one successfully while we were visiting my parents at the farm last month and, unlike the bottle to sippy cup fiasco, I didn’t think this would be a hard transition for her. I mean, come on, as long as there is macaroni and cheese on her plate, I don’t think she’s gonna care what she’s sitting on to eat it. Plus this way she has easier access to grab things off other people’s plates. And a better chance of knocking her own plate full of food on the floor. So, needless to say, Ruby is VERY excited about the booster seat.

And last night was the maiden-voyage with the new seat and she did awesome. And she looks like such a BIG GIRL in the booster, just sitting at the table with us, eating off her plate like a grown-up.

And this seat is about a million times easier to clean than the high chair, and I’m pretty sure there aren’t any crevices or cracks on it that can house rotting fruit. GROSS. That high chair had so much food-debris stuck and smeared on it that it was like a standing science experiment. But as much of a pain as it was to clean, it was a little sad to put it out in garage with the rest of the baby gear that Taylor has outgrown. We have a lot of memories and milestones that took place in that chair.

So long, high chair. You were good to us.