Car Seat Mystery Treat

This is Bug's car seat. A beautiful Britax. I hated to spend the money, but who can put a price on safety? It has seen a lot of miles, and consequently, a lot of snacks, crumbs and spills. The cover has yet to see a washing machine, and it's been in use for approximately two years, so you can imagine the filth...

We have never had any problems with this car seat up until about 3 weeks ago. The belts began to get harder and harder to tighten or loosen. Even Bug got used to the struggle of tightening the belts. One day when I was having a particularly hard time securing her, she said "Mommy do it like this" and scrunched up her whole face while screeching "EEEEEEEE", which is a tactic I have used in the past. Funny how kids remember and re-enact things you'd rather them not....

Anyway, the whole situation was getting ridiculous and I was worried about being out with Bug by myself and not having the strength to tighten her belts safely. So Jay took the car seat out to investigate. He no more than pulled it out of the van than a shower of bits and pieces rained from the seat. Raisins, goldfish crackers, cheerios, and things yet unknown. Check out the big brown mystery treat:It's not a leaf. It looks like a leaf. But it's not a leaf. It appears to be the shed skin of a small fruit bat, if only small fruit bats inhabited car seats and periodically molted. They do neither. So what is that?! Anyway, the belts on the car seat properly tighten and loosen again. Jay surmises that a raisin or two was stuck in the seatbelt mechanism jamming up the works.

On a side note, I once found a brown plastic stick in my purse. Except it wasn't a brown plastic stick. It was a 3 week old half-eaten petrified string cheese. These, and other petrified mystery treats, will probably plague my purse, car seat and life for the next few years. Yummy!