Mr. L's issue

Last night I received a call from Selma.  She was on her way home from work and stuck in traffic.
"Could you pick up Mr. L from day-care?" she asked. "They changed my hours and I tried another way home and now I don't think I'll make it in time to pick him up. I know you've never done it before, but you are on the list, so the daycare center shouldn't have any trouble with you picking him up."
"Yes.  I can go now," I told her. "Jay is off today and we can take his car."
She seemed a little relived.  I'm not sure if it was because we would be able to pick up Mr. L before the day-care closed or because we could take Jay's car. You see, if it was only me and my car, it's hard to obey the child seat laws if:
a) you don't own a child seat
b) you don't have a backseat to put it in
My car, a sporty two-seater, is perfectly legal to sit in the driveway with the top down and play (Yes, me and Mr. L did that a couple of Saturday afternoons ago while I was watching him for a few hours) but not so good for picking up your two-year old grandson with the car actually moving. Not owning a car seat is one thing, but adding the fact that there is nowhere to sit except the front seat doubles the fun. Luckily, I didn't have to deal with that issue. Mr. L had an entirely different issue that never crossed my mind.
I made it to the center, showed my ID and received entrance to Mr. L's classroom. He was the last one in the room sitting at a small table with his teacher. As he turned and saw me, he slowly stood up from his pint-sized chair and began walking away from me. I heard him mutter, "Oh no," as he proceeded farther away. I glanced down at the teacher as she got up from her own pint-sized chair and told him, "You're not in trouble." The thought that he might frequently be in trouble flashed quickly in and out of my mind but I put that thought aside when the teacher gathered her items to close up for the day. He might not have done anything wrong but somewhere in his two year old mind, his routine had drastically changed by me showing up. It was an issue he was trying to process.
Mr. L finally turned around, smiled tentatively and gave me his hand, and we made our way out of the day care toward Jay's car where Jay was waiting in the backseat. Even before we made it to the car, I could tell the gears in Mr. L's head were clicking, and grinding, and spinning, as he tried to figure out what had happened to his routine. More importantly, I think he was trying to figure out what happened to his mother! We made it to the car and Jay strapped him into the backseat next to him as I took the wheel and got all of us safely home. The serious look of mild panic stayed on Mr. L's face until he finally recognized our street. He seemed considerably less apprehensive when he realized we weren't going to kidnap him to some never-seen-before location. He was even more relived when he saw his mother's car already parked and waiting in front of our house as we pulled up the drive. He scrambled out of the car, Selma scooped him up, and he waved and uttered forceful goodbyes as he was happily deposited into his mother's recognizable car.
So all was good. I had forgotten that one small change in a toddlers routine could cause such an issue. I won't forget the utter look of confusion on his face when I showed up at his classroom and all the way home. He was definitely not sure what was going on, but it all worked out well in the end. I should probably do some research on car seats for sports car.
It's great he was so quickly able to get over this issue and I don't have any issue. I mean, whenever I show up anywhere for anyone, I'm sort of used to getting a response of , "Oh no".
TT

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Is it legal to allow a child to ride in the front seat? 
"...law does not specify where in the vehicle a child is required to ride – BUT – the law does require that all child safety seat systems must be used according to the owner’s manuals."
It sounds like in my state, I only need to get the right car seat. Good to know!