Car Seat Guilt

This weekend Chris and I were trying to make the very hard decision of buying a new car seat for Emma. If you have children you know that picking the right seat that fits you child's weight, height - has high safety ratings, is priced right and of course is super cute for your 3 1/2 year old wanna be princess can be one of the most challenging endeavours of childhood. Seriously though, you have to take into consideration the manufacturer's recommendations, the requirements of your state laws, comfort, fit, longevity and price, and you only have about 50 to choose from. So Sunday we ventured out to Babies R Us to see that they had. Right away we saw that there weren't alot of options and there were two basic types - one with a 5 point harness and one without. Of course we were leaning toward the one without the harness since that is what Emma is too tall for now. And the one without the harness was the only one that came in a 'girl' style. Emma of course went right for that one - it's purple her favorite color she said. So we looked at all the details - the manufacturer recommends 30lbs, at least 37 inches and shoulders above a certain point (Emma is 35lbs and 40 inches) when sitting in the seat. We got the display off the shelf - Emma squealed in delight! We strapped it into the sample car seat in the car seat isle, Em crawled in with the biggest smile in the world - we buckled her in with the shoulder/lap seat belt and it was a perfect fit. Emma was ready to pack it up and head home with her new seat...but something just didn't seem right. I kept thinking - is she really big enough for this seat? Will this keep her safe if God forbid we are ever in an accident? Chris kept pointing out that Em exceeded the minimum manufacturer's requirements and that she would be fine - but something was just nagging at me. I decided - much to Chris and Emma's dismay to look at one of the 5 point harness seats. All the recommendations were the same - but the seat came equipped with the Latch system (the other one didn't), it seemed more sturdy since this was just one piece (the other converts to a simple booster - no back) and the harness just seems safer. I wanted to try it out and see how Emma fit in it. Much to everyone in Babies R Us surprise - Emma wanted nothing to do with this new seat. She started screaming that this was a boy's seat and that she wanted her purple seat - it's a girls seat. I truly believe they heard her back in the furthest corners of that store...but after much negotiation and promises of a Popsicle when we were done she begrudgingly got into the "ugly boys seat". It just looked better - i.e. safer. As I try to start to explain to Emma that we put some fun girl stuff on this car seat to make it a girls seat - she starts to melt down again - this is impossible. Chris says lets just get the purple one - it will be fine - she meets all the requirements - but I'm not feeling good about it. Just then - a sales person - finally (you can never find one in that store when you need one) - I asked her opinion and she states matter of factly that Colorado state law states a child can not be placed in a non-harness booster seat until they are 4 years old and 40 lbs...we're 6 months and 5 pounds off. We go back and forth about would it still be safe to put her in the non-harness seat? The manufacturer has guidelines that have been tested - they have high safety ratings - surely 6 months and 5 lbs to make up the difference in CO state law couldn't be that big of a deal - could it? In the end we bought 2 "ugly boys" seats and I feel much better and am confident that she is as safe as she can possibly be - just unhappy about having to sit in an ugly seat.