New things need more new things

So, Friday night Scott and I came home from the dealership where my dad works with the very first brand new car we've ever bought together (my first ever, period): a silver 2005 Ford Focus wagon. And then it sat in the driveway all weekend since we couldn't reach our insurance company to add coverage.

Last night I went to Target with my mom to get new carseats, so we can still use the Jeep without needing to move the boys' seats back and forth each time. And tonight I bought a seat protector to go all across the back. Now I need to order new bumperstickers! I just put the two on the Jeep a month ago. One says, "Treat your child as you like to be treated." And the other says, "Breastmilk: the milk of human kindness."

I had one reservation about buying this particular car. As I said to Scott on Thursday, what if we need room for a third carseat in the back in the next two years? Obviously, it's not a great idea to resell a new car that quickly. They depreciate too much the first year. It's the main reason I never thought we'd own a brand new one. But the warranty was just too good to pass up after the last few repair bills.

Scott has said since our second child was born that two kids is all he wants. For a while, that was fine with me, too. When they're so close together -- 18 months -- you don't have time to want another baby for a good two years. But lately I've become ready. Not ready to get pregnant, necessarily, but ready to think about the next one. Unfortunately, every time I brought up the idea, he'd change the subject. Or worse, give me dirty looks.

Until Thursday night. As I reminded him of how easy he's got it now that I'm doing all the cooking and shopping as well as laundry, cleaning, etc., and how much better we get with each child, and how much fun they become, and so on, I finally saw a glint of possibility in his eyes.

As we sat in the salesman's office on Friday, I noticed the pictures of his three kids on the wall. "Yeah," he said, "I was happy with the two boys, but my wife had other plans. Now that little girl's got my heart." I grinned. Scott muttered, "It's a conspiracy."

He muttered the same thing Sunday morning at church, after the rector's seven-month-old grandson smiled and cooed at him, and was generally adorable from the row in front of us.

Putting our firstborn's new booster seat in the Focus today, I realized that there probably is room for an infant car seat in the middle of two boosters. We'd just have to wait for boy number two to be four years old. I could get pregnant as early as next February. Now that's something to get excited about.