Ilias had his first bath on Thursday. Newborns have a uniquely lovely smell, a scent that supposedly aids bonding, so we like to let it sit for a week or so after birth. He was looking a bit flaky, though, so we decided it was time for a bath to spruce him up a bit.
He wasn’t terribly impressed with the baby bath, but a couple of days later, Sarah put him in the shower sling and took him under the shower with her. He seemed to really like that and didn’t mind the water spraying all over him.
Today, we took the children in the car and went to the Amsterdamse Bos, more specifically the goat farm there. This was an important confirmation of the new car’s ability to seat the three children in a row with with plenty of room to spare. Lucas and Ilias were in ISOFIX child seats, with Eloïse seated on one of the collapsible booster seats that we had built into the outer seats of the second row.
The real test, however, was for Ilias. How would he cope with being driven in the car? Neither Eloïse or Lucas had enjoyed their first journey, that’s for sure. Even now, it’s always touch and go whether Lucas will manage to keep the contents of his stomach on the inside.
Well, I’m pleased to say that Ilias currently leads the board in the easy car baby stakes. He didn’t wince, either on the way there or on the way back. Perhaps he was too distracted by his big brother and sister staring at him (at this young age, he faces backwards in his car seat).
Before we went out, I managed to catch some nice shots of Ilias sleeping.
glad to read it went well. Perhaps Ilias is a little guy like Lucius, always easygoing 😀 Would be great!
He looked so cute and tiny when I saw him yesterday. (Babies are addictive hehe).
I never heard of these build in booster seats? I was looking into a maxicosi fero (isofix) carseat (this is a new one) which is from 15kilos and up (up to 8 years I think) does your carseat for Eloise look the same or is this just a little extra cushion kind of thing where the child sits on top? I have also seen those in the carshop but those don’t have the sides which do look safer to me (or maybe I am just being an overprotective parent).
Any thoughts on this? Also does the car park easily? I do find that 7seat cars looks very wide and difficult to manouvre.
At the pull of a handle, the booster seat slides up and out of the main seat cushion, forming a perch on top of it and including a footrest for the child. The mechanism is quite ingenious and we can demonstrate it the next time you’re here.
Although the booster seat offers no side protection for the child, it comes with a headrest replacement that goes around the child’s head and shoulders, protecting them in the event of a sidewards impact.
Having at least one child in such a booster seat does offer some practical advantages, however. If one has ISOFIX car seats on both the left and right side of the middle row, neither seat can be folded down to allow a passenger entry to the third row. Using a booster seat on one side, however, means that one has only to press the booster seat back into the main cushion to be able to fold that seat down.
It also means that either an adult or a child can routinely use that seat, whereas an ISOFIX seat has to be removed and stored to allow an adult to travel.
When we put together the order for this car, we also took the option of extra side air-bags in the back of the car. These would hopefully compensate for the lack of any side support from the booster seat in the event of a crash.
The Sharan can also park itself. It has proximity sensors to detect when it is close to other objects, so it can actually manoeuvre itself into a parking spot. We haven’t actually used the feature yet, but it supposedly works. The driver uses the accelerator and brake, but the car steers itself into the parking space.
The car itself isn’t as wide as you’d think, anyway; and it’s less long than our Audi A6 Avant was.
wow those booster seats sound very nifty, I would love to see how it works next time I will see you. I have never seen your car in real life (although I think I might have parked next to it hehe, was it the dark greyish coloured one?) I thought you had a blue one (when I saw the pics from when you got it).
We don’t have a big car (actually not a car at all hehe) but we are looking into options to buy one (in a few years). I don’t know how it will turn out and perhaps we need a small car to start with but I would love to have a bigger one as with two kids and loads of stuff to bring a small one is just really tight.
I saw a peuguot 5008 and I thought that one was so convenient having the option of 7 seats or at least 5 real seats (instead of the fake half seat in the middle). Is your car like this?
well I guess we will see what the future brings (and it won’t be a sharan hehe) but looking forward to seeing your car 😀 Too bad you had to get rid of the audi because I really liked that one! (I do understand why but it was a great car to look at).
Most seven seater cars have a third row that is only really suitable for children; for example, the Audi Q7. The seats in the third row of the Sharan, on the other hand, are suitable for adults.
All three seats in the second row and both in the third row are ISOFIX, too. Most cars of this description don’t have ISOFIX in the third row.
It’s little details like that, plus the ability to stow the seats in the second and third rows without sacrificing any space in the interior, that made us choose the Sharan.