Graco Snugride 40 Event Recap!

Last Saturday I helped co-host an event* at a local Babies-R-Us store here in one of the Dallas suburbs and had a great time getting to meet new mommies and fellow bloggers. We had two parties that day and, while I was worried about attendance, we had a decent number at our first event. I wish I could say the same for the second, but, alas, it was pretty empty. Maybe if I'd been given more notice than a week to participate this number could have been amplified, but it is what it is!

What I really enjoyed was getting to learn about the new Graco Snugride 40. We already have the Snugride 35, which we intend to use again with Ellie. I'm a bit jealous of the two attendees that actually won carseats at Saturday's events! Since this new carseat lasts until the age of two or 40 lbs., it would have saved us a ton in the new baby spending department.

My co-host was Rach from Life Ever Since and she was great to work with on this event. I'm always a little weary meeting fellow bloggers (especially of the mommy persuasion) because, well, some can just be plain snotty. I guess that you never quite escape the high school mentality with most things in life. Luckily, Rach was awesome and we had a few really great chats between events and setup. It's nice to meet a fellow mom who shares your mentality on parenting - and is more realistic about things and not trying to act like a "perfect" parent.

So, back to the point of this post... the actual carseat!

What I learned from the new carseat, as opposed to my old one, is that it seems much easier to adjust. It just takes the click of a button or two to change the positioning of the seat in the base as your child grows. Same thing for the actual harness. Instead of having to take everything apart to move the straps, it's a simple click from the underside. These are lifesavers for a person like me who somehow seems to find the most simple of carseats completely intimidating.

There were, however, a few things that I wasn't so keen on. Mainly that there are only two color options and, while they are pretty neutral and I'd use either of them, my preference for black or grey plain items of these types wasn't totally satisfied. Also, they didn't properly clarify if the carseat would snap into current adapters for strollers, which is a big deal in my world seeing as I've already dropped the investment on not one, but two nice strollers for my kiddos.

The biggest seller, though, was how long this thing would last. Since we moved HUT from our infant seat to the next size up, well, before he was even a year old, the extension of the original investment in the infant seat category would have been a huge help for these new parents trying to adjust to the budget and life changes that come with adding a child to the family. I cannot for the life of me remember what we paid for our Snugride 35 back in the day, but the Snugride 40 retails for $219.99 which I don't think is that outrageous as most good carseats tend to be a hefty investment.

Here are some images from Saturday's event that I snapped with my camera - I was all over the place trying to tweet, Instagram and take images with my own camera that I sometimes feel like I missed a lot of the event...

And here's a better description of the carseat, as provided by Graco...

The Graco SnugRide® Click Connect™ 40 – the first and only newborn to two-year infant car seat that actually grows with your baby from four pounds all the way up to 40 pounds. The car seat is designed for a parent on the go. The infant car seat can be easily removed from the base and used as a carrier when the infant is small, providing portability and convenience so you can easily move your infant in and out of the car without disturbing them.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently made the recommendation to keep all children in rear-facing car seats until the age of 2. Graco set out to make this product so parents can keep infants rear facing longer while still keeping them comfortable.

Anyone else attend a Graco Snugride 40 event in their town?

* This post is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Graco. However, as always and with all of my posts, the opinions that I've shared are my own.