On the Bunny Trail

And none too happy about it.

Have I mentioned how much Peeper loathes the carseat these days?

She always seems to enjoy going places, being out and about in the world, and having adventures, but the getting there, she can do without.

At first, she cried when we put her in the carseat or took her out, but settled down once she was all strapped in and on her way, and usually just fell asleep.

Then she went through a period of being awake in the car, but just staring out the window, watching things go by.

Now?

There is screaming and wailing and the gnashing of gums, until (when we are lucky) she falls asleep from the sheer exhaustion of it.

Once we reach our destintion, within seconds of getting out of the carseat, she's happy as can be - until it's time to go back in.

Sometimes, I can get her strapped in and she's still hanging in there, not quite pissed yet, and I think that maybe, maybe, this time, she'll just be happy with it, but it usually doesn't work out that way.

It helps a tiny bit - but not much - if Shrike and I are together and one of us is in the backseat with her, doing a song and dance, offering toys, or offering a finger to suck on.

I've not yet tried offering a boob while going down the road, but it may well come to that on Tuesday, when we will be driving an hour to the cardiologist's office.

Today, we went adventuring (more on that in a moment) and on the way home, I just gave up and decided to think of it as a very loud, obnoxious car-sound.

She's not being harmed, she's not in pain, she's just pissed, and there's no talking her out of it right now, so I've decided to just turn up the radio (balance set all the way to the front speakers), say something reassuring to her every few minutes, and hope that this phase passes quickly.

Yeah, that's all much easier said than done.

Note: This photo was actually taken in the house, before we really got underway.

Yes, I did snug the chest clip up to its rightful place at armpit-level and made sure that the straps were well up on her shoulders before driving.

(The straps-on-shoulders thing is difficult, because her shoulders aren't much wider than the straps are.)