Friday, June 26, 2015

Swagger Wagon


Welp. We turned in our cool cards…well…more accurately, we gave up any delusions that anyone even mistakes us for cool these days, and we bought a van.
Aw yeah. We joined the ranks of pretty much every American parent, and got ourselves a Honda Odyssey. Otherwise known as: mom jeans on wheels.

But if we’re being honest? I straight up LOVE IT.
The comfort. The ease. The convenience. The 1 billion cupholders. These van designers have got my number.

Everyone jokes that purchasing a minivan is the death to any non-parent identity. People hold on to their cars/SUVs/crossovers like a badge of honor, snootily looking down their noses at the minivan crowd. “I’m not like other moms, I’m a cool mom.” But then….you get pregnant with your third kid, and realize that cool might have to be sacrificed in favor of other factors…like…fitting all the children in one vehicle.

Sure, you can go with a SUV with a third row if you’re trying to hang on and prove a point. But that involves climbing over two kids just to buckle the third one, likely exposing you faded tramp stamp tatt, and scratching the car next to you with your wildly swinging door in the process. Who’s looking cool now?

So as we prep for baby b #3 we realized there’s just no way around it…it was van time. Dustin was actually the hold out, moreso than me. I don’t have much (any) of my identity wrapped up in my car- I’ve pretty much driven some sort of black sedan since around 2002. I did become unnaturally attached to my 1998 Corolla (all the way through 2011) but that wasn’t because of its awesomeness…it was actually because of its neutralness. It was nothing special, and nothing bad. It did things like: drive. And had features like: a radio. And that was alright with me. But Dustin felt stronger about his choice of vehicle, and had a tough time separating van from lame. Honestly though, he flipped to pro-van pretty quickly after we got pregnant with #3. I think it was quite simply our only option, so rather than fight the inevitable, he threw himself into the task of finding the BEST VAN EVER, and he got pretty excited about the swanky features they offered (gadgets=key to a man’s heart). Plus, as Parenthood taught us: These miniature vans have full size power, nowadays. (a quote Dustin uses...liberally.)

We made the decision to trade in Dustin’s Toyota Highlander, and keep my Nissan Versa, so we’ll really only have one vehicle that can accommodate us all simultaneously. The Versa (which Dustin refers to…fondly?…as the mini-minivan) is now our cool-couple-about-town-car. Yeah….

We did do a quick farewell photoshoot to the Highlander, before moving on to greener pastures (actually "modern steel metallic" pastures),,,It may not be his original Wrangler love, but I think he's still going to miss her a bit...









So much humoring of me. So much. 

We've had the new ride just under a month, and it's already gone on its first road trip (holla, Philly!), and been puked in (thanks, Fin!), so, you know, we've pretty much christened it. And now we're looking forward to many years of loading up, piling in, and generally riding off in to our future. With 3 car seat accommodating swagger.

P.S. Check out the history of Dustin's vehicle love or read about that time I almost crashed the car without even starting it.
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4 comments :

  1. I have to laugh, I'm one of those who refuse to ever get a minivan. The horror haha!! I only have one kid though so...there you go. You wear the minivan business well. :-)

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    1. With one kid? You get to keep your cool card. But try not to be jealous of my automatic doors. ;)

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  2. The farewell pics with the highlander! LOL had me cracking up.

    We traded the "cool" SUV for the "uncool" minivan this spring before baby #2 arrived and I friggen love it. I wish I'd been willing to switch even earlier. It's so convenient and handy for toting around bambinos. Seriously. They just make sense.

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    1. It's funny how motherhood makes practical into desirable!

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