My family likes to drive.

Well, we used to anyway.

Until my daughter made her appearance into the world and took advantage of every time she was strapped into her car seat to let everyone know in very loud and screechy tones exactly how much she hates being in the car.

She might actually enjoy being in the car if she was allowed to roam free, but of course, that’s not an option.

So she fights her harness like a wild cat, trying to wriggle out of it and generally making our lives miserable every second of the drive.

Which is very unfortunate for everyone, as we go in the car quite a bit.

No amount of toy rotating or desperate song-singing or even her brother’s weird faces will deter her for long.

She’s been known to cry so hard that she vomits. Cleaning vomit out of a car seat and off of a crying child is very, very low on my list of preferred activities. It ties somewhere around finding a parking spot at the mall on Christmas Eve.

So until she makes the connection (hello, why has this not happened yet?) that 99 times out of 100 that a car trip means something really fun at the end, we are all held hostage. Since she’s already a year old, we’re not all that hopeful this will occur any time soon.

We’re considering investing in a covered wagon.