Hi, I'm originally from Finland but England has been my home for the last 4 years. I'm married to Dave and we have two adorable, cheeky boys together, Christopher 2 and Adam 1. Prior to maternity leave I was busy working long hours in IT but now I like nothing better than to spend time with the boys as a stay at home mum. When we possibly can, we divide our time by driving to South West France or flying to Finland to spend time with family.
First Impressions
Today was the day we've all been waiting for, I think even Christopher understood that something special was going to happen as today was mentioned so many times over the last week or so. A very nice man from RECARO showed up behind our door at the agreed time carrying a huge box.
Installing the Monza Nova IS was super easy, it even comes with these little plastic guidance pieces that you put on your isofix in your car which allows the car seat to just glide in to place. There's 11 different ways to adjust the headrest itself so it'll always suite the child perfectly and I can't believe there's speakers on the headrest, can't wait to test that function out during our holidays at the end of July!
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As Christopher is around 16kg now we're using the seat with the impact shield (you can use just the seat belt once the child is 18kg), we asked Christopher to try the seat and he seemed to love the idea of the impact shield so that's a bonus! Lets hope long gone are the days when he could open his harness and wiggle in his car seat, put the light on, grab his brothers stuff etc.
Really looking forward uncovering all the amazing features the Monza Nova IS offers.
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July the 25th 2013
We've now had the Recaro Monza Nova IS car seat in use for a week and still keep on finding new benefits while using it.
Christopher has always enjoyed being in the car but since he got his new seat he has wanted to go on extra drives, Daddy was going to go and run errands on his own but as soon as Christopher noticed he was leaving our little man was at the front door, holding his shoes and repeating the word car. When he gets into the car he pulls the impact shield to its right place on his own and really seems to like it.
Since the weather has been really hot lately we've really put the air circulation system (ACS) to the test and to our huge surprise it does seem to really work. The only negative thing is the impact shield that molds to Christopher's legs relatively tightly thus making his shorts stuck to his legs after a longer drive. Due to this we're still undecided if we'll use the impact shield next week when driving to France, especially if the weather carries on throwing us more hot and sunny days. We will get his current weigh tomorrow to see how close to the 18kg he is which is the weigh when you can start using the seat with just the cars seat belt.
August the 2nd 2013
On Monday we got the boys up at 6am and started the car engine towards Folkestone from where our journey continued to Calais, France. By the time we got to French soil we had already spent a good 3 hours in the car (in the first photo Christopher and Adam are waiting for our boarding notice for the train), the car seat proved itself again as being very comfy for the little passenger, Christopher's old car seat we had to use an additional pillow on the seat as after couple of hours sitting on it, it wasn't too nice of an experience anymore. The Recaro Monza Nova IS seat is very well padded and served well throughout the whole 600 miles of traveling we did without any additional padding!
The impact shield works as a little table and hand rest, Christopher was playing on it with his little cars, laid his etch a sketch on it and even took couple naps either sitting upright or having his arms and head on the impact shield.
During our prior trips to France after arriving here Christopher has been a bit reluctant to go into the car for few days but this time he was more than ready to go to the shops, he climbs in on his own and pulls the impact shield to it's right place :)
The only slightly negative thing we noticed during our long drive was the MP3 speakers on the head rest, the volume even on max is very very quiet, we hooked the system on to the DVD player in front of Christopher but the noise got lost underneath his brothers dvd player which was relatively quiet but used freely without any headphones.
August the 9th 2013
We've now had the car seat for almost a month so getting pretty familiar with all aspects of it by now. As we're on holiday at the moment we haven't been driving around France much in the last week, only going shopping and meeting up with people. Christopher still likes his seat, as soon as he steps into the car he pulls the impact shield on to him and knows exactly how it goes. We did try to have him with just the seat belt on a very short trip but he's clearly not ready for that yet as his little Houdini arms were moving double speed and he ended up having the belt just on his waist which means he can reach far beyond what he could when he's properly belted in, so we're back to using just the impact shield.
On a very hot day while doing our rounds at the local shops we did notice that his legs get awfully hot underneath the impact shield, the seat itself has a brilliant air circulation but there's not much space for that between the shield and his legs. In the instructions it says you're supposed to use the impact shield until the child is 18kg I wonder how much longer we're able to do so as he's already quite tight and he's still under 16kg.
Next Monday we're heading towards home again and have the 600+miles of driving ahead of us, we will be packing and getting everything ready with the knowledge that Christopher will be fine and very comfy on the way home - obviously we were a bit apprehensive before we started our drive to France as it was a brand new car seat but now we know it works as it says on the box!
August the 18th 2013
We started our journey back home from France on Monday before midday and arrived home at 9pm, another long drive but our little troopers did really well again. While we were packing the car up Christopher was more than ready to hop in and start driving, it was almost impossible to keep him away until it was time to go! Must mean he finds his car seat really comfy :)
Since we got home I've been suffering with a nasty flu, still managed to drive to the beach for the weekend and the boys had their first experience with real sea and sand. After the drive back home from France and the trip to the sea the seat cover and especially the impact shield needs a serious clean, with all the snacks and drink that has gotten into it we shall see how it gets through our next challenge.
August the 25th 2013
This weeks mission was to get the seat and especially the impact shield cleaned after our trip to France and the sea side. The impact shield showed all the marks of snacks eaten while in the car and
wet wipes couldn't fix the mess so I took the impact shield cover off, put it into a washing bag and did a fine wash in 30 degrees celcius. I'm very happy to say it looks as good as new again.
The seat only needed a quick wipe so luckily we didn't need to figure out how to remove the seat cover and battle it back on afterwards.
Today we were supposed to drive to Southend on sea to celebrate Christopher's Gotfathers 40th but due to the flooding and loads of roads being closed down in Essex we have to cancel, didn't want to risk it being stuck in traffic all day, besides they had to cancel the bbq part of the party anyways as their garden is flooded, what a summer this is turning out to be!
After getting the impact shield washed, the car seat looks like it was just how it was 7 weeks ago when it was first installed.
We haven't done anything really special during this week, took a few shopping trips and went to a little farm where the boys saw ducks, chickens, sheep, lamas, goats and little bunnies. Enjoyed the day out and did a bit of shopping in the farm shop and had a very lovely dinner at home with fresh, amazingly tasting lamb :)
Been thinking of pro's and con's when it comes to using the impact shield and here's my thoughts so far,
Pro's
Feels very secure and sturdy
Child stays in the seat as no room to wriggle out
Child has a lot smaller area of reach so no playing with door handles, windows etc
Can be used as a tray for games and toys and little snacks
Can also be used as a pillow when needing a nap
Con's
Can get really hot underneath it as not much air circulation around the legs
Very hard to drink while using the impact shield as straw cups don't have any room to go anywhere
As it's right in front of the child it catches everything if eating while in the car (but very easy to pop in the washing machine)
This upcoming week we'll be trying the car seat without the impact shield and see how that goes!
September the 8th 2013
This week we have been using the car seat without the impact shield. It has been challenging at times but in general Christopher likes his added freedom and enjoys how easy it is to drink from a straw cup. The seat belt is sturdy due to the clip next to his shoulder but at times he still manages to pull the belt over his arm which allows him to move more and quite a few times we've had to tell him to put his arm back to the other side of the belt, I suppose this will get better the more he is seated without the impact shield.
The car seat itself doesn't really recline but if you recline the actual car seat on which the Recaro Monza is installed, it does tip back slightly allowing more comfortable sleeping position and you have less of a chance of the child tipping his chin to the chest when nodding off.
All in all we're still very much happy with the functions and usability of the Recaro Monza Nova IS! :)
September the 15th 2013
This week has been slightly different, the idea was to just keep on using the car seat without the impact shield and stick to the normal routines but things didn't go quite as planned.
Early part of the week was fine, Christopher was happy to go into the car as usual, to show how much he likes the car, he keeps saying "Our car" several times a day when we're at home and pointing to it from the front room window :)
On Saturday we went on a road trip to Birmingham to pick up something Mommy had found on eBay as well as to see a good family friend, we managed to pick up the item and started driving towards our friend Eric when all of a sudden the car started to make a noise. After an hours wait for AA and another hour and a half wait for the recovery truck and we were on our way back home, boys enjoyed the ride on the recovery truck even though it took a long time to get back home! Tomorrow we'll find out what's the problem with the car and how long it'll take that we get it back.
Once we got home we noticed the Recaro Monza Nova IS is actually even more versatile car seat than what we thought it would be, both boys have been using it as their personal seesaw!
Today the boys have spontaneously been climbing into the car seats that are now stashed in our kitchen waiting for the car to come back home, even Adam got to try out the Recaro and was very happy sitting in it! We hope it's a minor fault with the gear box of manifold and we get our car back early this week, we all miss the comfort of having a car!
September the 23rd 2013
Or should I rather say lack of an update, we've now been without our car for whole 8 days and none of us can wait to get our beloved motor back from the garage! Both boys keep looking out the window on a daily basis and Christopher keeps saying "Our car" but it's just not parked in front of the house. AA recovered us all the way from Birmingham a week ago on Saturday and since then it's been all about finding a garage that can give us a quite for a new gearbox for a price we can afford. Finally found one that doesn't quite break the bank (but close, can pretty much say bye bye to our saved holiday money *snif!*) and we should be up and running in couple of days so will not miss out on another whole week of testing the Monza Nova IS YAY! :)
Stay tuned for more adventures and especially Christopher's joy of finally being able to sit in his seat in a moving car again and not just play in it on the kitchen floor ;-)
September the 30th 2013
Finally the day arrived when we could go and pick up our car from the garage! The original few days had turned into 2 weeks without a car and our family was already heaving to get it back as we needed to do some serious supermarket shopping (nappies being the biggest thing on the list). Adam was taking a nap while Dave, my husband went to get the car and I explained to Christopher what was going on and for the next half an hour he ran between the window and front door repeating the words "Daddy, car and home". He got the impact shield from the kitchen, brought it to the front room and let his soft toys use it as seesaw.
Once the car was safely parked infront of the house again, car seats installed back to their rightful places and both boys had seen the car from the window it was time to go shopping. First time ever both boys were moaning when it was time to get out of the car :D
Things are finally starting to get back to normal :)
Our family has enjoyed enormously having our car back and being able to get around, go shopping and on top of it all, see friends when we want to! This week a good friend of ours popped down from Scotland and we were able to go and pick her up from the airport. On Saturday we drove to the other side of London (over 3 hours round trip) to see more friends and the boys got to spend a lot of time in a local playground. On the way back home he had a good nap in the seat again. We rarely use the impact shield now and he's getting really good with just the seat belt and doesn't play with his arms as he used to when it was a brand new thing.
Christopher is wondering a bit why we constantly take photos of him while he's seated in his car seat and he thinks we're taking them for his Nana thus this time around he wanted his beloved Teddy to be in the photos too :D
We're all saddened by the thought that the living with program is soon coming to an end, especially Christopher as he really loves his Monza Nova IS car seat and we're hoping we can add a few more adventures to the list before the 3 months is over <3
October the 15th 2013
We are blessed to have such a caring little boy as Christopher, half way through this week he was happy to let his little brother Adam try out the Recaro seat. Adam is a perfect tester as well as he's 17 months now and over 12kg in weight. We weren't really expecting our "baby" to not like the new setup immediately, perhaps he's seen Christopher without the impact shield and wondered why he was stuck so profoundly in the seat, even his beloved race car toy didn't help. Down the road few miles later he was fine and giving little smiles already :D
Personally I was rather surprised how well the seat molds to such different sized children, Adam felt really snug in the seat and the impact shield gives perfect protection. Now we have a battle to get little Adam to go back to his own car seat which I can tell is NOT going to be easy!
The Recaro Monza Nova IS is a brilliant car seat that truly grows with the child. We have never had a car seat that has such fancy implementations as this one, the mp3 input socket which allows the child to hear music or the sounds from the in-car dvd player through the headrest or the fact that you can pump more air to the pillow behind the childs head to make it comfier are amazing. We put it through the ultimate test by driving 600 miles (one way) down to France and Christopher didn't moan or complain unlike with his old car seat to which I had to add padding. The Monza is soft, well padded and comfortable as it is and didn't need anything extra on it even for such a long journey.
The impact shield, which at the beginning thought might cause problems as our little travelers have never had anything similar proved to be a good support, comfortable and works as a snack & play table as well. The only negatives we found with it were a. it gets quite hot around the childs legs during summer as there's no air circulation due to it being snug (safety comes first), b. it's nearly impossible to drink from a straw cup when using the impact shield as there isn't space to put the cup upright anywhere and c. the impact shield needs cleaning rather often due to it catching all the bits from snacks (very easy to pop in the washing machine though so not a problem). Using the impact shield gives the added security of knowing your child is unable to wriggle away from the seat belt and grab items from the car. When we started to use the car seat without the impact shield it did take a few goes for Christopher to keep his arm under the seat belt and play ball but gradually he did grasp the concept of having to stay in the seat.
Our smaller boy, Adam also got to give the car seat a go, at first he did not like the idea of the impact shield at all and cried quite a bit but few miles down the road he was happy to be in it and played with his favorite toys. Going back to his old seat was a difficult step to take though!
As a final thought tonight we asked Christopher his opinion of the Recaro Monza Nova IS and the attached photo says it all, he's one happy chappy <3
