God, what a morning.

If you had asked my opinion on what sort of day it was going to be at 6:30 this morning, I would've told you "Unicorns and Rainbows, baby.  All the way!"  Zac slept for an 8 hour stretch, and spent the last 2:30 of his sleep snuggled up beside me, so sweet and cuddly.

Unicorns and Rainbows!

He was chatty and inquisitive during Mama-gets-ready time, very pleasant company, with hardly any protest screams while I showered.  He enjoyed his breakfast, smacking his lips and making YUM sounds.  Getting dressed was a bit of a struggle - he had a very sticky, bright green BM (Mmmmmm, spinach for lunch!) and was not particularly interested in being cooperative while I cleaned him up and got him dressed.

Then came the carseat.  And things went south.  QUICKLY.  We made the mistake of putting a car seat in forward facing when we were on vacation in early November, and he has not forgiven us for not instituting this practice at home.  He stands in the seat, arches his back and SCREAMS as loudly as humanly possible when you try to get him to sit down for strapping.  He flips around the other direction (facing toward the front of the car), grabs hold of the headrest of the front seat and SCREAMS some more.  He kicks, he squirms, he pulls hair, grabs glasses and generally freaks out.

After a few minutes of fighting him, I just sat still beside him, taking deep breaths, trying hard not to scream back, or to burst into tears.  Seriously, we do this 3-4 times a day, how can it be so traumatic and such a battle EVERY SINGLE TIME?  He calmed down some, I calmed down some, and while it was still a fight, I finally got him strapped in and we were on our way.

There are a couple women around Seattle who bill themselves as "Car seat experts", up to date on the latest safety regulations, recalls, and they know how to install in pretty much any car.  We had one of them come to the house to get the custom-ordered-from-Japan car seat installed in Mark's TINY car.  I know what these ladies would say if I called and asked for advice on flipping my 14 month old to the forward facing position.  I'm going to call Z's pediatrician today and see if I can get some reasonable advice.  I have to believe that a calm, focused Mama who doesn't have visions of driving the car off a bridge because she's so frustrated with a forward facing 30 lb baby HAS to be safer than the rear-facing state I was in this morning.

I'm also fairly sure there's a blob of baby shit somewhere on my body, I can't clear the smell of it from my head.