Going Green By Force

We may be going a little greener in our house.  We drive two very economic vehicles: a 2003 Rio, the husband's commuter car, and a 2006 Toyota Prius, the family car.  This morning, however, I decided to investigate a strange smell coming from the garage. Although there is a lot of dirt, sand, and water on the garage's concrete floor (it's very much still winter up here), I noticed a puddle of something curious where the Rio is usually parked. I dipped my finger in it: definitely not water.  Smells a little off.  Possibly antifreeze or oil or both.  Maybe tranny fluid, although I have been told that's usually pink (which this is not).  We brought it to the shop, and they'll be looking into it today.

A 2003 Rio is worth very little on the resale market.  It has served us well, but if this proves to be a major expense to repair, we may very well decide to bite the bullet and go with only one car.  We are still making payments on the Pruis and adding another car payment right now is not a favorable option.

I am trying to think of the merits of being a single-vehicle family (not too many families seem to live with just one car anymore): lower insurance, less money spent on fuel and vehicle maintenance, reducing our carbon footprint, yadda yadda.

BUT WAH!  I would be stuck in the house with my kids!  All! The! Time!

If we go down to one car, Tony would be driving it to work.  His drive to work is bikable, but not in the winter, and it is largely uphill (BIG hill) which is sort of mean, even in the summer.  Yes, I am a SAHM, so the Pruis is parked in the garage a lot of the time.  But as any SAHM knows, it is nice to know that at least the option to flee the scene is there whenever the kiddies and I need to get out.

Which means I am stuck.  There is no public transportation here, and we live in an area that is sort of an "estates" development outside the main part of town.  No stores in walking distance, library and playschool are about 7 km away.  The only thing in walking distance is a park. And more houses.

Are there any other single-vehicle families out there?  Care to share how you make do with just 4 wheels instead of the standard 8?

The Perils of Speech Therapy: Riddit, Riddit!

After months of incessant pointing and "eh! eh! eh!", I couldn't wait for Sacha to start speech therapy.

He has been working on bilabial sounds (insert childish snicker about the word bilabial here), specifically F.  Couple this with his love of pretending in the animal kingdom, and we get the following new edition of "Kids Say the Darndest Things":

Sacha is leap-frog jumping around the house this weekend, saying "Riddit!  Riddit!"  Obviously, we know that he is pretending to be an animal, and while we are pretty sure which amphibian he is imitating, we thought we would give him the benefit of the doubt and ask:

Tony: Sacha, what are you?

Sacha: Fuck.

Tony (mouth aghast, trying to contain the inevitable laughter eruption): WHAT are you?

Sacha: FUCK!  Riddit! Riddit! (resumes hopping on all fours)

Then this morning, while watching Curious George, we hear Sacha exclaim "Oh! Fuck!" I am sure you can deduce what George was playing with on the show.

Now, I have the daunting task of bringing to extinction all frogs so that he never says this in public. Must also find a way to avoid him pretending he's a frog in front of my grandmothers...oy vey.