Boxy but good: The Evenflo Momentumâ„¢ 65 carseat

Our UPS man carelessly left the enormous box containing our new Evenflo carseat on the pathway between our driveway and our front door. It was half-hiding under a bush. I wasn’t worried that he had mistreated the package, however, because hey, it’s a car seat. It’s supposed to protect a small baby in the case of a car crash; therefore, it’s unlikely that a rough delivery would damage it. And it didn’t.

I put the car seat in the middle of the living room and my 3-year old gasped. “Is dat for me?” She sat herself right down in her new throne and buckled up. Terrific, now I can make dinner, I thought, and walked out of the room. (Kidding!)

I could see why she was so excited: the many levels of padding, which are actually super high-tech solutions to potential side-impact accidents, feel luxurious and cushy to the touch. I was excited by how easy to remove the upholstered parts were. Cleaning the seat in the case of say, vomit, would be easier than cleaning our current model.

I also appreciated the little reminders imprinted on the seatbelts which state “armpit level”. I know the grandparents are frequent violators of correct car seat adjustments. (Only two fingers should be able to slide between chest buckle and chest. And the chest buckle? Should be placed at the chest, not the abdomen.)

The seat reclines nicely and I looked forward to our upcoming road trip during which I felt certain Scarlett would be sure to nap immediately in her new spa chair, I mean car seat.

We optimistically planned our departure time around her nap.

Surprise! She did not nap immediately. Instead, we drove from 1 pm to 6.30 pm and her only snooze began at 5 pm. Not exactly the start to my vacation I had hoped for, but the complaining from the back seat was minimal, so I won’t dwell on it.

The Evenflo carseat is ginormous. The downside to its bulk is that its presence in the back seat may be an obstacle to other things you wanted to put back there. Like Grandma. Seriously, we were afraid that our two children wouldn’t be able to see each other very well when Scarlett rode in this carseat, but it was fine.

The seat is advertised as being as easy-as-pie to install, but sadly for us, we don’t have one of those new-fangled automobiles with LATCH, so we were unable to take advantage of the magic installation process.

We were, however, able to enjoy the easy-to-wash upholstery because guess what!? Scarlett peed in the seat during our vacation. While napping in it! You see, this carseat is THAT COMFY!

Disclosure: Evenflo sent this carseat to use and review because Heather and I are writing for their Savvy Parent site. It would not have occurred to me to buy a fancy new carseat for my 3-year old, but she did enjoy having the sweet ride for a few weeks. It has been donated to a church.

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Whitney

RookieMoms.com co-founder Whitney lives with her husband, son, and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area where she writes about parenting, crafts, and activities that moms can do with babies in tow. She and Heather also publish 510Families.com, a site for East Bay parents.