Thanks for the advise. We did get seats but not without alot of angst.
1. Apparently, they assign the seats and when you scan the "Seat Request" card, it prints out your seat assignment.
2. We were traveling with a 2.5 year old in a car seat. They put my wife (who has a different last name than me and our son) in 1A and 1B and put our son in 12D.
3. When I informed them (prior to baording) that we had a 2.5 year old in a car seat, I was informed "Well, just deal with it on the plane" She had no interest in trying to change things ahead of time - which she should have been able to do since certain rows were blocked for airport control and the same people would not have received their seat assignments yet either.
4. Get on the plane - car seat does not fit in seats in Row 1 due to the arm rest in the tray table. Row 2 switches with us and the seat fits no problem.