Cheerful, screaming, painful bliss. Yep, that's us.

As a child, I always wanted to be "that family".  You know, the one you'd see in movies or on commercials, driving around in their brand new car, singing cheery songs in unison?  Yeah, them.  But my vision was not meant to be.  For starters, it was hard to be cheerful while riding around in a very loud, orange Pinto that overheated about every third block.  Or at Dad's house, there was the car with the broken windshield wipers, so him and my stepmom created a hand-propelled system with thin rope.  Every time it rained, they would roll down their windows, grab their rope and demonstrate teamwork to us as they said, "One, two, one, two, one, two..." and the windshield wipers worked...though riding in the back seat with the windows rolled down while it was raining is NOT somewhere you want to be.  And unlike the actors on the big screen, my siblings and I did not actually like each other when we were all packed into the back seat of the car.  So many bloody noses!

But then; THEN, I got older and had my own kids.  Of course, when Kyler was born, I thought  this is really it.  With our shiny new car and our brand new baby, we would be "that family".  Except when we drove, Kyler didn't like my cheerful singing.  And the only thing he seemed to hate more than my singing was riding in the car.  HATED it.  In fact, we learned that the only way to keep him from screaming until he was literally turning blue was flipping the radio tuner to the spanish station.  And despite my four years of high school spanish classes, I wasn't able to sing along or even translate what a single song was about.  But this is what we listened to in the car together for the first two years of his life. 

And shortly after he turned one, Mae decided to join the family.  Except baby Mae didn't like the spanish station.  Or any station.  She just wanted to make sounds and she wanted everybody's undivided attention at all times.  And if she wasn't the only one making noise and being constantly listened to...well, bloody murder-like screaming would ensue.  So as you can see, no matter what we did, we had at least one screaming baby in the car at all times.  And sometimes it was both of them, which was almost (almost!) enough reason to want to drive off of a bridge.

But now they're older.  And they like music.  Except...well, it seems that none of us have quite the same taste in music.  Our car rides are a series of arguments over what to listen to.  And it's starting to make sense; the way my mom acted when I was a kid.  I always wondered how she could turn the music up, sing, and not hear a single word I was saying, no matter how loud I talked or how big my hand gestures were.  I do that now!!  Oh, I can hear them.  I hear, "This song sucks" and "Why can't we listen to Cyndi Lauper?", but like my mom, I choose to ignore it and just keep singing.  Every so often, the back seat quiets and sometimes (but you better not tell anybody, ever) I hear them singing along to my music.

So, as it turns out, I DO get to be "that family", if only for a few moments here and there.  And at the small cost of listening to only spanish music for two years and enduring many painful hours of ear-splitting screaming and crying.  It's all worth it.  I swear.

And while I'm on the subject of music in the car, I will say that the kids were not at all impressed when R. Kelly's 'Ignition' came on the radio the other day and Kenny and I busted out not only our best still-seated dance moves, but we also belted out the lyrics word for (mostly) word.  There was a long silence when the song ended, so Kenny and I both looked toward the back seat to make sure the kids hadn't jumped out and they both looked terrified.  Mae asked, "What was that?"  And Kyler told us to please never do that again.  (But we absolutely will when we get another chance.)