Linda and I have talked for a while about getting a child’s car seat for our Ford Escape Hybrid. Linda, who has made a point of claiming she’s not the cuddly kind of grandmother, nevertheless is visibly delighted by the presence of one Grace Getze, just turned two, in our midst.
Indeed, the last time Grace spent the night with us, her grandmother’s biggest regret was that we couldn’t take her to church for a ‘viewing’ – we had no car seat. Recently, friends from that same church found themselves no longer needing their car seat, their last child having graduated to the proper age and/or weight, and Linda pounced, bringing home the seat this past Monday.
The former owner was mortified at the condition of the seat cover after years of use by a succession of tiny hands and bodies, but Linda insisted that she, with three still-young children, not lift a finger. Linda would take care of it.
Turns out it’s a bit complicated to disassemble a car seat’s many belts and other features to get the seat cover off, so granddad, realizing this would fall to him one way or another, decided to just get it done this afternoon. Getting the seat’s components apart was relatively straightforward, and I figured an industrial vacuum, spray disinfectant, a strong (but eco-friendly) detergent and lots of hot water would address the tiny-hands issue.
Sure enough, a couple hours of vacuuming and swabbing and three wash cycles later, we have sparkling, scrubbed seat components that we feel will do our princess proud. Now, all I gotta do is re-assemble it and install it in the car – with a final safety check by Menlo PD, of course…
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