Big Enough

This has made it's way into the back seat of my car...

And at some level I am excited. I have to admit that...after all, I am the one who purchased it. And it's hard not to be excited. The five-year-old has been anticipating it for a long time.

And who can blame him? The law says you can ride in one of these when you are four. However, it also says you have to be forty pounds and that has been his problem. What it means is that for the last year and a half (yes, he's officially five and a half as of this week) rarely a day has passed without him getting on the scale.

"Mom, I'm 38.2!" he'd say as he came back to the table to eat another helping of dinner.

We've gone through this routine day after day for the last three pounds and 18 months. Just the last few weeks he's consistently been 39 pounds +. And finally the day came when he got on the scale and saw 40.0 and 40.2! (We had told him he had to be 40 pounds twice before moving into a booster seat) You can imagine his joy.

So, last night I took out the car seat and replaced it with the above pictured "safety device." And I told the five-year-old that I had a surprise for him that he would see today.

And he was surprised and overjoyed...at least I think that's what, "AWESOME!" means.

But then I put him in and showed him how to buckle up and all I could think was...

Is he really big enough for this?

Technically, by law, he is. But suddenly he seems so small and so big all at the same time.