Life in the short lane

Can you tell we need a bigger car? I snapped this after my most recent grocery shopping trip. If you look carefully you can see Isaiah's head peeking out on the right, and the top of Eliza's car seat on the left. It's a tight squeeze. In fact as I was loading up the car, this lady stopped (to pick up the sippy cup Isaiah had thrown on the ground) and said "Oh sweety--you need a bigger car!" Yep. I need a bigger car. My little Yaris has been great, but it seems to be shrinking. In between the two carseats in the back is about 4" of space, definitely not enough for a 3rd person to sit back there, but luckily enough space that it keeps Isaiah from reaching (and assaulting) Eliza while we're driving. And then there is the issue of how the carseats take up so much room that neither of the front seats can be pushed back, so you have to drive hugging the steering wheel (more on that later). So in case of a crash, Jerel and I would both die instantly from being too close to the airbags, but our babies would be fine thanks to their car-seat paranoid mother! I think the headline would read "Orphans saved by martyr mother" or something like that...

So we are looking for a new car. Something with room for kids AND groceries. Or kids AND a stroller. Or, dream of all dreams, kids AND grocerise AND a stroller! Jerel and I aren't ready to bite the mini-van bullet so we've been looking at crossovers. First we wanted a Nissan Murano, but it's only a 5-seater. Jerel panicked when I told him we need at least a 7-seater--I think he thought I was secretly pregnant with triplets--but it's just because a bench that seats 3 doesn't really seat 3 when the 3 are in enormous carseats, and I plan to leave my children in enormous carseats for as long as possible. So if we got a 5-seater then when we (someday far distant) have our 3rd (and last) kid we'd have to get a new car again. So a 7-seater it is.

Jerel wanted an Acura MDX and I wanted a Mazda CX-9. Fortunately I had the brilliant (and apparently radical, it took some convincing to get Jerel to agree to it) idea that we should test drive some and then decide, rather than deciding and then being stuck with something we hate for the next 10 years. I hate test driving because I hate driving. I've only driven maybe twice with Jerel as a passenger, and we both feel good about that as we share a mutual dislike for my driving (I also dislike his driving, but that is more one-sided). Test driving is worse because you have a stranger in the car.

The sad part is that cars don't come in petite. Normal people don't worry about being able to reach the pedals (without being so far forward that the airbag is about to kill you) or see the speedometer through the steering wheel or being able to read the back liftgate to close it. Sadly I'm not normal people. Every car we drove, Jerel would laugh as I held down the "slide seat forward" button for a good 20 minutes until I could reach the pedals. Then he would insist I was too close to the steering wheel, as evidenced by the fact that my knees were touching the underneath of the dashboard. So I would slide it back until he said it was good and then point out that I couldn't reach the pedals. The best was in the acura I moved the seat forward until I could comfortably reach the pedals, and then when I went to fold down the sun visor, it hit my head. Okay, maybe a little too close. In my defense I am used to driving a stick shift and you have to be able to reach farther to get the clutch in...It was also funny when we drove the Toyota Highlander. It has this cool mirror up near the rearview mirror that shows you a view of the backseat (so you can see the kids). I thought this was awesome and was ready to buy the Highlander just for that feature until I drove it and once I had my seat up far enough, I was basically right next to the mirror so I couldn't see anything in it at all...Yep, wo is me, cars don't come in petite *heavy sigh*

After the test drives, the only one we drove where I could see out of the car was the acura so that's what we're going with. Now we're just waiting for the right one to come along and then it will be goodbye for Little Red (the Yaris).

By the way, I am completely aware that this post is entirely too long and rather uninteresting, but it's the most exciting thing happening these days.  When you have two tiny kids in enormous carseats, the prospects of a car that fits everything is thrilling!