car wrecks

Our week was derailed on Monday when we were in a car accident. The whole family was in the car. Rebecca took it pretty bad, as did the two girls. The car was still fully functional, but upon taking it to a body shop for repairs we discovered that all parts on our car were discontinued, particularly the crash bar which was needed to drive safely (upon event of a second car crash). Because we have made a conscious decision to be a single car family for various reasons, we then began the painful process of car shopping without any comfortable window of time to do it in.

The difficult part in this process was that both Rebecca and I BELIEVE in purchasing used cars. We are not advocates of new cars because of two major reasons. Primarily, because new cars drop in value so fast, you can hear your money fly out the window as you drive off the lot. Secondarily, because it is more environmentally conscious to keep using used cars until they are unusable before adding another new car to the pile of cars on the road. However, we ran into a tough decision right at the beginning of car shopping -- to purchase a used car or a new car -- because of our fellow Bostonians. The used car market here is insane, much like the used anything market in the area. People on craigslist will dramatically overprice their car with the hopes that some clueless person will come along and buy it from them at that price, but also with the expectation that their fellow Bostonian will try and talk them down to a more reasonable price. We were seeing cars that list at Blue Book value for $6000 being priced at twice as much or more. At that, is with no guarantee of a clean mechanical bill. So, we decided to play it safe from all the nutjobs out here, and headed to the dealerships.

We tried out a couple of different models, doing our best to make sure there was enough room in the back seat for Rebecca to sit back with the girls. Even though it was the end of the year, we sadly had to purchase a 2010 model at full price, because the 2011 models weren't out yet. This is what happens when you are forced to buy.

So we just managed to get a new car in time for Paela's birthday. Don't let her think that this will happen ever again [knock on wood, so to speak -bec].

Paela had a quiet birthday, even if she wasn't. She has officially transitioned out of naps -- not our choice -- and we are still trying to figure out how to avoid meltdowns in the evening. Paela loved her Boots the Monkey cake, and we managed to put some orange sherbet on her plate and call it "Swiper the Fox ice cream." [all she wanted when we would ask her what she wanted for her birthday this last month is a Boots cake and Swiper ice cream. Well, a Boots cake with Dora and Swiper on it, but we talked her down to a Boots cake and she came up with Swiper ice cream shortly after that! -bec]

[Of course this isn't to say she didn't immensely enjoy her "birthday toys" once she realized the presents had toys in them and not cake. -bec]