April 25, 2009As some of you may know, I drive one of those ubiquitous silver Honda Odyssey soccer mom mini-vans. They're everywhere. (On a side note, it is NOT my first choice for my main mode of transportation, but I'll save that story for another time.) So at Friday after school pick-up time at the elementary school, I happened to pull up to the curb right behind my van's twin. (Okay, so it was probably cleaner inside, but still.) I watched my kids gather up their belongings and race towards us to get into hop in.
Those of you who know Nicholas know that he doesn't always focus in on the details of his surroundings when he's got a single-minded goal. (You know where this is going already, right?) His goal yesterday was to sit in 'shotgun,' because when he first glanced up and saw the van, he saw that the passenger seat, normally occupied by my oldest, was empty. That, of course, was because he was looking at someone else's van. Bree and I watched from our van while Nicholas ran, full-speed ahead, head down as if he were charging, toward the van in front of us. He slammed his hands against the door to stop himself, yelled at the top of his lungs, 'SHOTGUN'!, opened the door, threw his backpack on the front seat floor, and sat down before he looked up at the probably quite bewildered driver of the other van.
He scrambled back out of the van, sheepishly glancing at the two young girls who were looking at him suspiciously as they were loading their backpacks into the back of their van. In the meantime, once I realized what he was doing I had tried to honk to get his attention, to no avail. Danielle had watched the whole thing, bemused expression on her face, because she, too, had figured out that Nicholas was headed to the wrong car. She just thought it would be funnier to watch her brother do it than to warn him. Huge embarrassed look on his face, Nicholas headed back to our van, and when he opened the door, we all dissolved into fits of laughter, including him. And nothing beats starting off your weekend with a fit of laughter!
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Hilarious! And you are right...absolutely no better way to start the weekend!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by!
That's so funny. I used to be anti minivan, but now I really want one! LOL!
ReplyDeleteI love it.
ReplyDeleteI used to do stuff like that all the time when I was a kid.
Cute story! It's so great that even he could laugh about it.
ReplyDeleteFunny, too, seeing this after my post about cars today...
Boy, I don't even know him, but I can tell by that photo that he's a character. what a funny story! :) It's inspired me to write a post; thanks!
ReplyDeleteSapphire--I enjoyed reading your blog. Good to see you here!
ReplyDeleteBobbie Leigh--I love my mini-van; I just wish it was a cooler color: )
K--I just love these kid stories; I'll have to tell a few from my own childhood, just so the kids don't think I'm pickin' on 'em.
Adrienne--I thought about that too, when I read your post!
Mrs4444--Oh yes, he is a character! I'm looking forward to stopping by to check out your post as well.
Cute!
ReplyDeleteI have a fun meme that I tagged you in on my blog...check it out and participate if you'd like! Have a good one! :)
cute!
ReplyDeleteSo funny!
ReplyDeletehaha, that will teach him!
ReplyDeleteWe have a white suburban, which seems to be the main vehicle of choice in my neck of the woods. One day our whole family jumped into the wrong one...omg, I was so freaking out that someone might have seen us. haha. We usually have to check for our license plate to make sure it's our car!
ReplyDeleteAnd why didn't those people lock their suburban, huh? ;)
mama-face--I've tried to put my key into someone else's silver mini-van before (more than once, I might add). It's a bit embarrassing and I totally feel guilty when I realize I'm at the wrong van. Ha ha!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, what did those people expect if they weren't going to lock their suburban?? : )