Rides in the car with the kids are usually packed with little surprises. For example: when Alex throws a temper tantrum, he will often unbuckle his seat belt so I'd have to pull over and buckle him back in. Dana usually sounds an alarm when she sees him move his hand towards the latch ("MOOOMMMYYYYY!!! Alex is trying to unbuckle his seat belt again!!!" or "ALEX, NO SEAT BELT!!!). We got a car seat that has a 5 point harness that can go up to some 65 lbs. Unfortunately, he's already learned how to undo the top part. I can now either duct tape him to the seat or consider getting this one which goes up to 105 pounds and comes with a buckle guard at a jaw-dropping $800... http://www.elitecarseats.com/Columbia-Medical-Orthopedic-Positioning-Seat.pro#specs
One of the other reasons he will tantrum in the car is music. I have a selection of some 15 cds in the car, the majority being lots of different artists mishmashed together. One cd having over a hundred mp3s on it. Alex has memorized the tracks on all of them. He'll either ask for two or three random seeming track numbers or look at the number of the current song playing and from that know which cd it is and which songs he likes on it. I've had some of these since before he was born and I don't know what song is on which cd. The conflict usually happens when Dana wants to listen to one track and Alex another. If it doesn't get resolved then I end up doing one of two things... turn off the bloody thing or put on the soundtrack to Romy & Michelle's Highschool Reunion. I don't know why that works but it does. That probably says something about 80's music though I couldn't even begin to fathom what. The last time I did, Dana sighed, "Mom... can you put on some real music now?" "Not until you two knock it off."
