Riding in Cars

We recently bought a new car.  The process itself wasn't complicated, until you factor in the Babe. 

We initially went to the dealership, and test drove the vehicle we thought we wanted.  My husband and I each took turns while the other entertained the Babe in the dealership.  We were fairly certain we knew what we wanted, so we returned a few days later to discuss options.  They didn't have what we wanted in stock, so we had a few days before the car would come in from another dealership.  One of the options we wanted was leather seats, in part because of the Babe's allergies, the other for keeping the vehicle clean.  We had tried to test drive a car with her, moving her carseat to a vehicle with a dark interior.  My husband picked up on the fact that the Babe didn't like the darker interior, in fact, she wanted nothing to do with the car.  While the car was meant to be used for my everyday use, if we couldn't get her to adapt, it would become my husband's, and I would continue to use our other vehicle.  Not the end of the world, but kind of defeated the purpose of why were getting this car.

So we picked up the car on a Thursday night without the Babe.  We kept telling her about it, and the next day I was looking forward to taking her for a ride.  She repeatedly said she didn't want to go in it.  I moved the car into the driveway, got her in the backseat, and put the radio on.  She danced and bounced along, but refused to go for a ride.  That's as far as we got.  However, I refused to be ruled by my three year old on this issue.  So, Saturday we started out the same, let her dance for a minute, then got her into her carseat.  She cried, but the three of use went for a ride.  We got almost to the expressway (8 miles from home), when she announced she had to go potty.  She's not yet using public restrooms (again, afraid), so had to return home.  When I pulled into the driveway, she announced Mommy's car was "super cool".  Now, she only wants to ride in the silver car (the new one).  That's right- all it took was a few minutes of actually riding in the vehicle, and now she loves it.  Have I mentioned that my child is stubborn?  Well, so are her parents.  In this case, the victory to the parents.