"Teach them while they are young!"

(this is Mark at the Detroit International Auto show, which he attends every year if at all possible)

You don't have to know Mark long to realize that his hobby (if you actually call it that given he never has any time for it) is cars. He likes, okay, loves, cars. And just recently I am realizing that time spent with Daddy for our children is passing that down to them. They are learning things about the moving vehicle we call cars at a level higher than I even had when we got married.

For example, when I got married, I knew these things about cars.

1. There are cars with 2 doors, and some with 4 doors.

2. There are other vehicles called Trucks, they are bigger.

3. Another genre I knew about was vans. We always had a minivan growing up, so I really was familiar with that one.

4. I could get really specific with them and say, "That is an olive green car."

5. Convertibles. Everyone knows what THOSE are.

Suffice it to say, I was literate enough FOR ME at the time. Little did I know after we were married that I would be exposed to a "WHOLE NEW WORLD" , just like Ariel in The Little Mermaid. When we first got married Mark was still in the infancy stages of his obsession with cars. I remember as we dated that he drove a Honda Accord, with LEATHER, with an ALARM, I might add. And everyone I knew thought that was a pretty SWEEEET vehicle. I did too.

As we began our marriage, it was not long before I started noticing that we couldn't be in the car, on the road, without my new hubby mentioning each and every car on the road with us at the time.

"Ohhh, check out the Honda! Do you notice the rims on that? Oh- those are aftermarket- ." In a voice that let me know that those rims were NOT COOL. Clearly more Joe Dirt than Joe Cool.

But as we've matured, and Mark has slowly eliminated the ones he likes, he's become more of a "Car snob" you might say. So now his favorites are so few and far between that we can actually carry a Non car conversation while on the road. Truly a treat for me.

Back to the kids. So the other day, Dane (who is 2) comes in while we are having some friends over, carrying a car with look of pride on this face. "Hi Dane!" I say. "What is that you've got there?"

"A Ma-ser-a-ti!!" He beams with pride.

Oh my gosh!! We all laughed at his new 4 syllable accomplishment!

Then, just today- we are all 3 (Lena, Dane, and I) in the play room playing with Dane's race car track. We are all taking turns putting cars on the track, seeing which one goes fastest. Dane reaches to put one on, and Lena snatches it away and yells,

"DANE! You don't put THAT one on! That is a ROAD car, not a RACE car! Road cars don't race!"

Wow, so this is what you learn while I go to work.