Sturdy and safe, but not used with stroller We were so relieved that we were able to buy this product at last despite the lengthy delays prior to its release. It should be noted that once the seat becomes forward-facing, the famous "docking" car seat base, needed for the Orbit infant car seat, is not used at all. This went against my expectation of the Orbit system "growing with your baby". We had put off buying a forward-facing car seat, despite my child's discomfort with her legs significantly hanging over, as I had thought we would still use the base, so I feel a tad misled. This would have been less of an issue if the seat had been available towards the end of 2007 as was originally promoted.
Anyhow now that we have it in our car, our toddler enjoys being in her seat and the elevated position helps with her ability to see more out the window (which is helpful in keeping her entertained with the passing view and therefore less temper tantrum prone!)
It is well constructed as well as fairly easy to put together and install. Our only gripe is, similar to the Orbit infant car seat (but worse), the seat belts get tangled very easily. Given the earlier reviewers raves about Orbit's customer service, I'll be contacting them this week to see if they can help us resolve this recurring issue. We have not used it as a stroller seat (as advertised) because the forward-facing seat does not use the patented dock, and thus the convenience of being able to rotate the seat off the dock and into the stroller (like the infant car seat) is not available. For us, it is easier and faster to take her out into a more compact stroller, such as the Maclaren Techno Sport, rather than re-do all the seat-belt anchors when we return to our car.
Cute, sweet little Tad This is a great little Tad for babies. My son also has the Hug and Learn Baby Tad, but it is a little big for his hands right now. This is the perfect size for him! The pages are easy to turn and the different songs and faces about feelings (happy, sad and sleepy) are great!! This is a toy that will be around for years to come. Great toy!!
Flawed. The VTech Smart Key is a key shaped toy with four different buttons to push, which create loud obnoxious songs and sirens with no volume switch. There is a key ring on top with some cars that you can push around on it. My biggest gripe is with the ring. It does not function like a key ring should. A kid should be able to carry this toy by the ring and the key should dangle straight down. It is physically impossible to do this as the ring is too wide to go vertical in the slot provided on the top of the key. It doesn't even go up to a 45° angle.
Little ones like to push buttons and make noise, I guess this has some value for doing that. It could have been better though.