We went and got Eli's new car seat Sunday. What a relief. It is a convertible car seat(Evenflo Triumph Advance LX) that will take him up to 50 lbs. Of course I researched for hours :-) looking for the best one. This one is in the middle as far as price range and ranked in the top 5 right up with the extremely expensive ones. Right now we still have to keep it reversed because he isn't a year old or 20 lbs....but he is close (18 lbs right now). We tested it out on a trip to the grocery store last night, and it was AWESOME! He can see out the back and side windows and I could see his little eyes just taking everything in. Although Eli is pretty small for his age, the infant seat was just getting too cramped. We can hardly get him in the straps with his heavy coat on, which has been totally annoying. He liked playing with the box...another fort! Rica liked it too! Eli is walking all on his own now. I just follow him around all day avoiding catastrophes. We play "find the stairs/couch/Eli's room/coffee table/high chair/etc." game all day. He just goes from one thing to the next. I have discovered if I need a break that he will sit for as many books as I'm willing to read. As long as I let him pick out which ones. So cute!