It's Official...

I've become the mom I always said I would never be. I now drive a mini-van.

Yes, I'm eating my words - all of the snickering and belittling of those moms who had too many kids that they had to have a mini-van to tote them all around - who were so un-cool as to be seen driving such a suburban-ite vehicle.

Yeah, I'm un-cool. But I love my new van. The hair pulling, book stealing, toy stealing, arm-rest fighting, hand slapping, arm hitting has come to an end between Anna and James - as they are now separated by a whole seat again. Once Jack arrived, we had the three kids lined up in the back-seat of the Pilot (which I LOVED by the way - and almost cried leaving as we drove off the lot in the van.) At first it wasn't too bad - the kids thought it was cool.

That quickly wore off though - and having the three lined up ended up breeding bad behavior. Not to mention Anna (who sat in the middle) couldn't keep her hands off Jack - and was forever sticking her hands in his face or touching his hands (lovingly - but still...) I don't want her passing her daycare germs off on him.

So, we traded in the Pilot and now have an Odyssey. And it is cool - for the middle-aged suburban mom crowd that is. It has automatic doors that open with the push of a button on my remote (that the kids think is magic - they say "open sesame" and the doors magically open.) It has storage galore, leather trim, XM satellite radio, and a rear entertainment system to keep the kids occupied on long trips.

Oh yes, I've become that mom too - the one with the DVD player to shut the kids up in the back. And I love that Anna and James are in the far back seat of the van with Jack in the middle row. Their shrieking and squealing is tempered now by another row of space.

So yes, I'm un-cool, but I can deal with that for a little while - someday I'll have my SUV back- but for now, I'm a card-carrying mini-van mom.