Adventures in Tripper

I love my kids. I mean, really, stinking love them, but sometimes... sometimes they drive me nuts! Take riding in the van with them, for instance. Last night, after a long day at Vacation Bible School (VBS), and an afternoon of feeling alternately exhausted and completely sick, I loaded up the whole gang and headed to THE grocery store. I was able to quickly and efficiently make my way through THE grocery store with 50% of my children (the other 50% were gorging themselves on television in the child watch area) and we were on our way after less than an hour.

Mistake #1 in our adventure was making more than one stop. The kids were so good getting in and out of the store (Read: No one fought or tried to push a sibling into oncoming traffic) that I thought we'd make a "quick" stop at Michael's to "look" at some school supplies for Operation Christmas Child. You know, because I had a 25% off your entire purchase EVEN sale items coupon and it was burning a hole in my binder, baby. SOOOOOO.... in to Michael's we went...
Now, the behavior of the short people when we were in Michael's is the stuff of horror stories, but it's what happened in our van, Tripper, on the way home that still has me laughing.
On our way from Michael's to home and ohyeahwehavetostopatHomeDepotrealquicktogetstufftomakeawhaleforVBStomorrow SweetPea started singing, over and over and very loudly, "there are squirrels in my butt"- a miquote of the wonderful song, "SIMP- Squirrels in My Pants" from Phineas and Ferb. While this was happening, Ladybug and Superman were arguing about whether or not we were going to TRU to get more Legos for Superman. (Here's a hint: We weren't!) Ladybug says to Superman: "Listen dude, there's more to life than Legos" and the battle began... All the while, sweet little Ruby is screeching AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS. AND, then my cell phone rang. In Robinson. Where it's really busy, even at night. Good, good times. I've often thought that the whole debate about whether people should be allowed to talk on the phone and drive is not as big of an issue as whether one should be allowed to drive somewhere while transporting children. I am a huge advocate of a vehicle with the capability of going from standard seating to seperate sound-proof pods for each passenger. I think if a car maker could develop that, it would be a HUGE seller for families. You know, the togetherness of travel is great, but what parent wouldn't like to press a button and contain the screaming toddler in a safe little pod for a few minutes until the kids chills out? I may make a few calls to Ford or Chevy- this could be just the idea they need!