I am so excited!

[NanceXToo]

Were you ever driving along with your kids in the car and had to listen to a conversation that goes something like this?

 

He's touching me!

She's kicking me!

She's leaning on me!

Tell her to stop touching my carseat!

Don't touch me!

Move your legs!

This is my side!

Tell him to stop!

Get off of me!

Ow, he hurt me!

Mom!

WILL YOU ALL SHUT UP ALREADY?! I'M TRYING TO DRIVE! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT ANYMORE!!!!

 

...Cough. Yeah. You know. THAT kind of conversation? Where you start wondering why you ever wanted to take them somewhere to begin with and why you didn't just stay home?

 

I used to dream of driving around in a jeep or a convertible with the top down.

 

Now I dream of driving a minivan so I can split my kids up into different rows.... where nobody can kick, touch, lean on or annoy anyone else, encroach on anyone else's space, or otherwise make me want to smack them all (not that I would do that haha).

 

Well... TODAY IS THE DAY! We went to look at a used Dodge Caravan last night, left a deposit, and will be picking it up today! My Toyota Matrix (which is nice but try putting a teen, a tween, and a preschooler in a carseat into the back seat!) will become my husband's main car for getting back and forth to work (he was driving a way older one that's not in great condition), and I'll be rocking my "new" minivan!

 

We'll even be able to take along a friend or relative now and then with the extra room/seats we'll have, which a family of 5 never could do in a standard car!

 

I'm totally excited.

 

My husband is totally making fun of me. "Three kids, homeschooling, a minivan...you have arrived!" :lol:

 

ETA: Oh, and did I mention it's automatic? Yeah, driving a stick shift was kind of fun when I was younger, but now it's just inconvenient/annoying, especially in traffic, on hills etc, so that's going to be a nice plus, too!

Edited August 5, 2010 by NanceXToo

[katemary63]

:001_smile: Have fun with our new vehicle!

[Snickerdoodle]

My husband is totally making fun of me. "Three kids, homeschooling, a minivan...you have arrived!" :lol:

 

That made me laugh.

 

Enjoy!

[Country Mouse]

"Three kids, homeschooling, a minivan...you have arrived!" :lol:

 

:lol:

 

Congratulations, that is very exciting!

 

I have an only, but now we have two dogs and when they are all piled into the back of my Prius I hear a lot of "she's touching me! He just licked me! Ow! She stepped on me!" :glare:

I think I need a minivan for the dogs.

[Lisa in Jax]

Please. When we adopted two kids from India 7 years ago, our new daughter barfed every time she got into a car. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. After ten days of this in India, we traded my Honda Accord for a minivan one day after we got home, SOLELY to avoid having one kid barf on another one in the back seat. Keeping them from doing the "S/he's *touching me!* game was a side benefit. ;-)

 

Enjoy your new van! :)

[Guest Cindie2dds]

:party::cheers2:Good for you, Nance!

[JoyfulMama]

I have an only, but now we have two dogs and when they are all piled into the back of my Prius I hear a lot of "she's touching me! He just licked me! Ow! She stepped on me!" :glare:

I think I need a minivan for the dogs.

:lol:

 

Nance - Congrats! Maybe you'll have to take a road trip to that park to show it off to me. ;)

[Remudamom]

congratulations. I loove my minivan. And I intend on having one even when I don't need one.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Minivans rock! You will love it!

[Desert Rat]

Ha! When we bought our minivan 5 years ago, I made sure the car seats would be far enough apart that they couldn't touch each other. They are bigger now and can finally reach each other again. :(

[Dawn in OH]

"Three kids, homeschooling, a minivan...you have arrived!" :lol:

 

 

 

I love my mini van. I don't care what others may think when they see us. I need the space! I can't stand to be in a small car with all of us squished on top each other. I demanded a mini van when we got a new car last year. And I'm glad I did since we ended up having another baby.

 

Now I can fit the booster seat, the car seat, the infant car seat, the stroller, groceries and a cooler in the car.

[swellmomma]

I love our minivan for this exact reason. Austin sits in the front passenger seat, my 2 dd's sit in the mcaptian's chairs in the middle and Hunter gets the back row all to himself. OCcasionally I still get the yelling because Hunter likes to kick big sister's seat to drive her crazy but mostly our car trips are now great(which was a huge bonus on Monday when we had our 5 hour drive home from out of town).

[LibraryLover]

We broke down in the mid 90's. The first thing I did was put the baby's bucket behind the driver's seat, the oldest in his booster in the middle of the third row, and the toddler's seat behind passenger's seat (second row was captain's chairs--no seat even in the middle). First spin in that thing was sheer bliss.

Edited August 5, 2010 by LibraryLover
bad memory

[Dobela]

We gave up our minivan almost 3 years ago for a small SUV. I am now chomping at the bits to get another minivan. We don't have room for friends, my son's size 11 feet don't have any room, and well, I loved my minivan. Sigh.

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

congratulations. I loove my minivan. And I intend on having one even when I don't need one.

 

:iagree: Yep. We have stow-and-go too, so one of the second row buckets is always down. I call it "the ballroom." It's where the dog rides when he goes anywhere with us. DH wants me to trade in the van for a truck but where would Milo ride?

 

You know what I want in a van? A GPS screen JUST FOR THE KIDS, located right next to the drop-down dvd player. It would have a map screen with a cartoon van moving along in real time and a giant X for our destination and it would have a giant countdown clock displaying our ETA. Also, it would make audible, updated ETA announcements every 5 minutes, with a 3 minute, 1 minute and actual arrival announcement on top of that because if I hear, "When will we be there?" one more time, I'm going to rip all my hair out. We can be driving to the library (where they've been 1000 times) or a friend's house or the moon and, "When will we be there?" comes out every 4 seconds. :glare:

Edited August 5, 2010 by Alte Veste Academy

[elise1mds]

That's awesome! I hope all goes well for you! I have to say, though, that it probably won't stop the bickering. It took all of 48 hours for my son to work out that he could reach DD's armrest with his foot and shove it down, thus causing yet another "space invaders" fight. :banghead:

 

On the other hand, they can't reach each other with their hands!

 

I'll take what little I can get sometimes :D

[KathyBC]

 

ETA: Oh, and did I mention it's automatic? Yeah, driving a stick shift was kind of fun when I was younger, but now it's just inconvenient/annoying, especially in traffic, on hills etc, so that's going to be a nice plus, too!

 

A few years ago I left dh with the kids and the minivan, and took his pick-up to the homeschool convention. Rush hour traffic + stick shift + Tim Horton's coffee? Ya, not so much. Enjoy the automatic!

[lisamarie]

You know what I want in a van? A GPS screen JUST FOR THE KIDS, located right next to the drop-down dvd player. It would have a map screen with a cartoon van moving along in real time and a giant X for our destination and it would have a giant countdown clock displaying our ETA. Also, it would make audible, updated ETA announcements every 5 minutes, with a 3 minute, 1 minute and actual arrival announcement on top of that because if I hear, "When will we be there?" one more time, I'm going to rip all my hair out. We can be driving to the library (where they've been 1000 times) or a friend's house or the moon and, "When will we be there?" comes out every 4 seconds. :glare:

 

This is a great idea! You should market it to the automakers. I would buy it. My DD5 does this all the time. "Are we there yet?" when we just left the house. "Yes." "No we're not, mom. You're teasing." "If you knew we weren't there then why are you asking???" :glare:

 

I have 3 seats across the middle row of my van and up until 6 months ago I had all 3 kids across the middle row because it gave me more storage room for shopping, etc. Finally I'd had enough of their fighting and put my DS in the back row and the girls in the outer seats. Our road trips went from migraine-inducing experiences to actually pleasant. The first 3 hr trip with them split up they were actually quiet! I couldn't believe it! I will never put them all together again unless under extreme duress.

[KidsHappen]

Congratulations! I love my mini-van. We have the stow and go seats so we can go from 2 to 7 seats and any combination there of but alas, I have yet to figure out a way to keep the kids from intruding on each others' space. :glare: And then when you throw a couple of dogs and cats in the mix, it's tons of fun!

[NanceXToo]

Thank you all, for the replies and nice comments!

 

I was LOLing at needing a mini van for the dogs.

 

The GPS just for kids? AWESOME idea!!! I swear, I would totally buy that!!!

 

elise lol....well, I have my 9 y/o in the third row and she won't bother anyone in front of her. I have my 4 y/o in the middle row in his carseat, and he won't be able to turn around in that carseat and annoy his sister. My teen will be up front with me unless another adult is in the car, and then she'll sit in the middle with the 4 y/o since I think they'd be less likely to be on each other's nerves than the 9 and 4 y/o would be.... I'm staying positive here!

 

Anyway, I got the minivan today, drove it home...it is comfortable, rides nice, the automatic was a nice change, kids were excited.... I'm happy!

 

If anyone is even remotely interested, you can see pics in today's livejournal entry by clicking the link in my sig line :D

[zaichiki]

My DD5 does this all the time. "Are we there yet?" when we just left the house. "Yes." "No we're not, mom. You're teasing." "If you knew we weren't there then why are you asking???".

 

:lol::lol::lol:

I just had this exact same conversation with ds last week!

 

"Are we there yet?"

"Yes!"

"Hey! No we're not! You're teasing me!"

"If you knew we weren't there yet, WHY were you asking me???!!!"

 

:lol::lol::lol:

[Cindyg]

I thought you were going to say you bought a police car. You know -- you in the front seat, them in the back seat, sound proof glass between you. LOL!

[mammaruss]

 

You know what I want in a van? A GPS screen JUST FOR THE KIDS, located right next to the drop-down dvd player. It would have a map screen with a cartoon van moving along in real time and a giant X for our destination and it would have a giant countdown clock displaying our ETA. Also, it would make audible, updated ETA announcements every 5 minutes, with a 3 minute, 1 minute and actual arrival announcement on top of that because if I hear, "When will we be there?" one more time, I'm going to rip all my hair out. We can be driving to the library (where they've been 1000 times) or a friend's house or the moon and, "When will we be there?" comes out every 4 seconds. :glare:

 

 

I will be the first in line to get one of those babies!!;)

[NanceXToo]

I thought you were going to say you bought a police car. You know -- you in the front seat, them in the back seat, sound proof glass between you. LOL!

 

Ha! Not a bad idea!

[Guest Cindie2dds]

Anyway, I got the minivan today, drove it home...it is comfortable, rides nice, the automatic was a nice change, kids were excited.... I'm happy!

 

If anyone is even remotely interested, you can see pics in today's livejournal entry by clicking the link in my sig line :D

 

Ooh, it's red, too! Got to feel just a little sporty still. :lol: Congrats, Nance.

[beccad777]

Yay! Congratulations! We have a mini van, but now I want a full size or 12 passenger van. I dream of more room, especially with #5 on the way now!

[ChristusG]

I swore I'd never be a mini van mom. I'd never drive one of those. I'd stick with an SUV and go that route. I was way too cool for a mini van.

 

Well.....three years ago when we were expecting #2, I did it....I :::gulp::: purchased a mini van. :glare: I picked a Nissan Quest, one of the "sportier" looking ones, if there's such a thing in the mini van department.

 

There is so much room in there! The trunk dips down so there is so much room, even with the third row seat up. There's plenty of room for adult sized people in the backseat, if we need it. Our humongous Britax Regents fit well in the two captains chairs. The only problem that I foresee is if we ever need to fit one of the Regents in the third row seat if we have another child.....I have tried to get them back there and they just won't fit. I need to try it again and see if I'm doing something wrong.

[kwickimom]

congrats!

 

I went from my cool Impala to my light blue Dodge Grand caravan and got made fun of by everyone I knew :001_smile: I really wanted a cool SUV type thingy but alas a van is all we could afford. It is really nice to be able to fix extra people though!

Edited August 6, 2010 by kwickimom
typos

[NanceXToo]

LOL Cindie... my husband continues to tease. He says "Well, one cool thing about you at least, is you have a husband who is a tattoo artist."

 

I guess I could tell him: Yeah, but I also have a RED minivan! So there! :tongue_smilie:

[Dawn in OH]

LOL Cindie... my husband continues to tease. He says "Well, one cool thing about you at least, is you have a husband who is a tattoo artist."

 

I guess I could tell him: Yeah, but I also have a RED minivan! So there! :tongue_smilie:

 

I'm secure enough in myself and my own "coolness" to not be stigmatized by the extremely practical vehicle I drive.

[NanceXToo]

I'm secure enough in myself and my own "coolness" to not be stigmatized by the extremely practical vehicle I drive.

 

LOL well I'm sure we all are! It's just a bit of harmless teasing and joking around.

[Teachin'Mine]

:lol:

 

Congratulations, that is very exciting!

 

I have an only, but now we have two dogs and when they are all piled into the back of my Prius I hear a lot of "she's touching me! He just licked me! Ow! She stepped on me!" :glare:

I think I need a minivan for the dogs.

 

:lol:

 

 

Nance enjoy your minivan!!! :)

[LibraryLover]

In fact, I do think I would look sexier in a black Mercedes than I do in a Sienna. That said, my brother used to own what he called an 'Arrest Me Red" sports car. He got pulled over constantly in that thing. When he switched to a gray Volvo sedan he became invisible to police. According to him.

 

LOL well I'm sure we all are! It's just a bit of harmless teasing and joking around.

Edited August 6, 2010 by LibraryLover

[Dawn in OH]

LOL well I'm sure we all are! It's just a bit of harmless teasing and joking around.

 

Oh, I know that HERE it is. But I've actually seen/heard people in real life quite seriously state they would not drive a mini van because of the "image" it brings to their mind.

 

To me, it's like choosing practical shoes for a day at the zoo. I'm not going to the zoo in 2 inch heels. I can't cram 4 kids, car seats, stroller and groceries into a Toyota Land Cruiser.