Sleeping on the Floorboards

When I was young I would ride in the back seat of my parent's car when we would go on trips.  They had several cars during the time I was a small child, but the one I remember the most was a blue Mercedes with blue leather interior.

On long trips I would move all around in the back seat, playing with stuffed animals or whatever I did to keep from being bored.  There was a lot of counting cows, which is interesting because I don't remember there being that many cows to count.

I have distinct memories of trying to play hide-and-go-seek, with myself or possibly my parents, while I was in the back of the car.  I'm not sure how good I was at the game, I couldn't have been that good because not once did I ever find a hiding spot outside the car as we drove down the highway.  Perhaps that's why I'm still here today.

I do remember that I could just squeeze my body in the foot well behind the front seats.  I would ball my body all up and rest my head on the raised center area that had the drive shaft below it.  I remember the sound of the car humming much more loudly as you got lower down on the floor.  It was warmer too.

I don't know how old I must have been, but I know that car wasn't too big.  I can see my children now and imagine them fitting in the same space.  In a few years I think they'll have sized out of the space.  Which made me realize, I have no recollection of ever being in a car seat.  The regulations when I was young were quite different than they are now.  At this point, you're practically going to Driver's Ed. by the time you're legally allowed to sit in the car without a child car seat. 

Come to think of it, did that old car even have seat belts in the back seat?

The Big Boy Update:  "I put out gas."  He farted.  He looked over to me and said, "I put out gas" and then went back to playing with his toys.  I tried to not laugh as I went to go tell daddy.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "poop poop POOP!"  She is getting more awareness of when she's about to go, or is going to the bathroom.  Sometimes she looks at you and says, in what sounds like a desperate voice, the word, "poop" several times.  We whisk her away to the potty straight away.  Usually, it's not poop, but it usually involves the changing of some wet underpants.   On the awareness front, she's making progress though.

Someone Once Said:  He saw that he had committed the prime sin against survival: He had indulged in wishful thinking.