I feel bad how much our family life has emasculated Adam in the car department.

When I met him, he was driving a sporty, two door Acura Legend. With the arrival of Jack, he was forced to trade in that perfectly good car for a family sedan. We chose a Lexus ES 300. It was a safe, four door vehicle.

I still remember driving it off the Lexus lot. You could see from his crumbled expression that he regretted giving up his car from his bachelor years. Just another piece of that life gone forever. But the sadness didn’t last for long. Soon after he drove off the lot he turned to me and said, “Let’s drive by my Mom’s house and show her our new car!”

I was pleased to see that, even though I killed the bachelor, the boy in him still lived on.

Good bye Luxury Sedan

So, with the arrival of two more kids, I found myself once again waddling around with a swollen belly, shopping for a bigger car to fit the contents inside.

This time the options were more limited. This car had to fit at least six people. And it also had to fit into our city sized garage.

After much research, the choice was narrowed down to a minivan. As usual I suggested we buy a used one. I’m the thrifty one. My friends Jennifer and Joseph traded their car for a used minivan and only had to shell out an extra $1000. As usual Adam wanted the new one. The top of the line one. He wanted the newest technology, the newest safety features.

Hello Minivan

Adam is always one to make quick decisions so this afternoon we drove away from the dealership in a brand new Honda Odyssey, the touring edition.

I must say, technology has changed a lot since our last car purchase! We have voice activated navigation. The woman who guides us has a very soothing voice and is very forgiving about wrong turns. I think Adam has a crush on her. There is Blue Tooth (hands free) technology, DVD player, XM Radio, USB port hook up for my iPhone, parking sensors and a rear view camera. There is a built in cooler box to keep drinks and food cold. It even anti-fogs the side mirrors!

This time around I didn’t notice any look of melancholy on Adam’s face. Instead he talked animatedly about all the new features, how nice it was to be sitting a little higher, how surprisingly fast the car picked up speed, and how comfortable the seats were.

And best of all, after we drove it off the lot, he turned to me with boyish enthusiasm and said, “Let’s drive by my Mom’s house and show her!”