Full

It's all about the minivan.

Every time I've gone out since my twinkies were born in June people have watched me push around the over-sized monster bus stroller that I use to transport them, and commented, "boy, you've got your hands full." Yup. My hands are full, my heart is full, my house is full, and last but not least, my minivan is full.

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First I had the fun car that always broke down. It was a Ford Escort I bought when I was 17 and it just kept going and going (OK, going and breaking and going). It had Grateful Dead stickers, Deady bears, political bumber stickers and peace signs and flowers hand painted all over it. Jordan, our 9 year old, traveled a lot with us in that car. We took him to Greenwich Village, Boston, weird out of the way restaurants where we could find the best falafel around... and then to preschool and even kindergarten. That was back when I wore my hair in dreadlocks, lived in tye-dyes, and thought it would be fun to move to Amsterdam. I swore I'd never ever get a minivan.

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Mikailey, our 5 year old, was born when Jordan was 3. When Jordan was 5 and Mikailey 2, the Escort finally died.... in the middle of a busy intersection. It was an eye-sore anyway. The apartment manager told me so. So we bought a Hyundai. Not cool, not fun. But it was affordable, reliable, and really, it's so much easier to get two little ones in to their safety seats when you've got four doors. I stuck little Deady Bear stickers on the back window, just for old times sake. Just a few years later, our growing family wasn't fitting in the Hyundai. The kids' friends couldn't fit in the back seat. Our stuff didn't fit when we wanted to go away. We went out looking for something bigger. We couldn't afford a SUV anyway, and those sliding doors on the minivans were starting to look good. We got a deal and bought a Caravan. The same one every mother in the school pickup line drives. The plain blue, oversized, grocery getter. sigh. Leaving the dealership, Chris and I looked at the empty third row seats and joked, "We have extra room for a carseat now, maybe we should have another baby."

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Two weeks and one day later, our Clear Blue Easy had two blue lines. So I ran to Walgreens, came home with a bag of pregnancy tests, and guess what? The EPT had two pink lines, the digital one said "pregnant" and and the generic test had a big purple + sign. There was no doubt about it, our van would soon have another carseat! Not long after, we saw two healthy heartbeats on my ultrasound. After the color returned to Chris' face, and he recovered from almost dropping Mikailey on the floor, we began the process doubling our number of children. Two cribs, two bouncers, two swings, two exersaucers, two high chairs, two wardrobes, and (of course) two carseats in the minivan later... we thought we were ready. We had no idea we'd never be ready for our children to be squared (as Jordan puts it)!

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Abigail got her name because I've always loved that name and it reminded me of a childhood friend. Jordan and Mikailey named Noah because he came "two by two" and they thought it was a fitting name. The twinkies are 9 months old now and I'm still not ready, but I'm sure glad we got that minivan :-) I haven't had the time to put any fun stickers on it yet (unless you count the Puffs and Skittles stuck to the upholstery). My hands are full!

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Every time Chris and I are overwhelmed, either by lack of sleep, by the insane noise level, or more often, by the complete sense of awe and joy our four munchkins inspire in us, we always look at each other and joke... it was the minivan that did it :-)