It's inevitable...

This is just what has to happen when you have three kids under three:


Yes, that is right, we are now officially van drivers.

I've been stressed about this for months (about 7 1/2 to be exact). Financially, buying a new car just wasn't in the plan right now. We tried to fit all three of our carseats in the back seat of our sedan, but they just wouldn't fit.

Then a couple of months ago, my sister in law suggested just buying new car seats instead of a new car...maybe if we could get some more narrow car seats, they would fit. So, after 4-5 hours of online research, we were SO HAPPY to find out she was right. Our back seat was 49" wide and we could buy three new car seats that were 47" wide total. I read about quite a few people who had fit three car seats in the back row of various different sedans.

So, I stopped worrying, started sleeping better at night and waited a few weeks to go buy the car seats.

Last week we went to Babies R Us to try the car seats in. We were actually hoping that we might be able to get by with only buying two new seats instead of three. So, we got all the seats and before paying for them went out to try them in the car. It was then that we realized that the middle latch (as well as the seatbelt hookup) is slightly off center, so the middle car seat CANNOT be exactly centered which means you can only have one other car seat next to it. There simply isn't room on one side or the other. Cory tried for almost an hour to make it work (remember these are the MOST NARROW carseats available), but there was no way it was safe no matter what he did. So, we left and I spent a few hours on the phone calling official car seat installation places (I didn't even know they had those, but there are people at the Fire Station, Dealerships etc who are certified to install carseats). I asked if they had ever seen three car seats in a row before...I even called 4-5 Chevy dealerships to see if they had ever seen in done in the Malibu. Everyone said that they had seen a booster, a toddler car seat, and an infant car seat, but never two toddler car seats and an infant car seat. Unfortunately, the boys just aren't big enough for boosters. They aren't even close. And since they are 5-10% for height, it will probably be a while. But even if we could have done the booster, all the Chevy dealerships I called said they had never seen it done at all in the Malibu b/c of the off center latch problem. So, that is how we ended up having to get a van...

We got a GREAT deal on the Honda Odyssey, and we actually really like it. It will be much easier to travel with kids, and has so many features (even as just the base model) that I don't know what to even do with them all!