Our car seat is installed!

Today was VERY productive! That's because we completed the only baby-related task that MUST be done in order to bring our little Lima Bean princess home from the hospital. We installed our car seat! (Thanks to Grandpa Howard and Wanda Bean for the car seat!)

You might think this is a very easy thing to do. But car seats now days come with thick instruction manuals and lots of straps and buckles. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as many as 85 percent of all car seats are improperly installed.

But you can't just drop by a Fire Station to get your car seat installed. In Montgomery County, Md., where we now live, you need to make an appointment -- and there's a two-week wait to be seen! I took the earliest possible appointment date, which was this morning at 9:30 a.m. at the SAFE KIDS Child Safety Seat Inspection Station in Silver Spring, Md.

I am so glad we went! They showed us how to buckle the baby into the car seat. And they made us practice with a doll! We both passed. We also learned how to use the carrier handle and snap it into the base. Then they showed us how to install the base into our car using the LATCH system. We also learned how to use a seat belt to secure the seat without the base. So we're all set! 

We also installed a mirror so that the driver can see the baby without turning around. And we put up a sunshade on the window next to the car seat to protect our baby from the sun! 

To find a car seat location near you, click here for the NHTSA search engine.

And speaking of cars... Our new VW Tiguan was just named one of the 15 safest cars by Forbes magazine! 

We have a new BABY! This one has four wheels and a lot of ZOOM!

That's right... We are just got a car! Well, not just any CAR... We got a cross-over SUV. The most gorgeous in its class. The amazing, beautiful, stunning Volkswagen Tiguan! 

The Tiguan (cross between a "tiger" and an "iguana") is NEW this year. It's smaller than VW's regular SUV and runs on a GTI engine. But not only is it a stylish, solid build, the car is very safe for our growing family. It just won the IIHS Safety Award, after sailing through the front and rear crash tests with little damage.

As some of you recall, I used to own a GTI named "Baby." But when I moved to Washington, I didn't drive her much and ended up selling her to a co-worker. Well, I am back on wheels and remembering just how fun these cars are to drive! (And I think Lima Bean likes the new ride, she was kicking in excitement on our drive home!)

Our beautiful Tiguan is silver and came with a GPS navigation system so that we'll never get lost in our new hometown of Bethesda, Md. We plan to test out her directional capability tomorrow morning as we head to Sibley Memorial Hospital for our birth class!

UPDATE: Just so you know, we did do as much research on buying a car as we did on baby products! It's just that Papa Bean did the research, not I, so it wasn't blogged about. The other brands we researched and test drove were the Honda CRV, Subaru Forester and Toyota RAV4. All were in the cross-over class and priced similarly. We just liked the VW Tiguan better!