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One year ago this week, my youngest child Charlie made his debut!  He has grown by leaps and bounds - he is a big boy!  I'm not kidding - he is just a few pounds lighter than his older sister who is two years older than him.

So this week, we made the fateful decision to switch him to a forward facing seat.  He is long enough and heavy enough.  And boy, is he ready!  Today he was again in his infant car seat, rear-facing, and was most unhappy about the whole thing.  I think he thinks that his sisters are somehow having some sort of adventure that he's missing out on...

In order to put Charlie in the seat, it was necessary to do some re-arranging.  The re-arranging meant that we had to eliminate one car seat (my oldest daughter's) in favor of a new booster seat for kids four and over.  She will be five in June, so it was time.

It felt like everything was working out except that the new booster seat makes it a little more difficult for Katie to buckle herself in.  Okay, a lot more difficult.  It requires an adult. If you're a parent, you know that this is a big deal to a five year old.  My five year old feels that she can do everything.

In the midst of all of this, that word came up again.  That seven letter word that my husband and I don't like to talk about.  You know, the m word.  Minivan.

Gasp.

It pains me to even type it.  I hate the idea of getting a new car.  Our old car (a not so old Subaru Forester) is fine.  It gets great mileage, it's AWD, it gets us where we need to go.  A minivan?  More money out of our pocket.  Less gas mileage.

This means that I am now officially engaged in a search for a new car.  I've blogged about new cars and tax incentives before but only in this "what if I ever really get a new car?" sense - not in the panicky "Oh my god, I actually need a new car." 

And paying for a new car while dreaming of a family vacation?  Not so great.  I now have nightmares of spending my vacation in a suburban burger joint in order to pay for a large ugly minivan.