We went to a photography appointment for our baby.
When we arrived, the door was still locked.
The photographer hadn’t arrived yet, so we went back into the car to wait.
My wife started breastfeeding the baby. Our two other daughters at first sat in their own seats in the backseat, playing some hand game with each other.
After a little while, our oldest daughter had had enough and climbed into the front seat with me.
It was fun to test pressing all the buttons.
The radio came on. Channels switched. Then static.
Suddenly, the volume jumped too loud, and I reached over to turn it down.
Once we had discussed why we shouldn’t turn up the volume on the radio, she started pressing buttons on the steering wheel. Most of the buttons didn’t do anything while the car was parked and turned off, until she found the horn. We got a few odd glances after that.
Our younger daughter watched intensely from her seat in the back; she isn’t big enough to climb over to the front yet. She decided to get involved by pulling on my beanie. Once that was off, she started pulling my hair.
The baby then needed a diaper change, which got both of our daughters’ attention. They watched with much interest when my wife brought out a cover for the car seat and started changing the baby. I needed to hold our oldest daughter back so she wouldn’t get too involved.
Then she found the doorhandle.
The door opened, and she nearly fell out.
I heard our younger daughter laughing behind me while I quickly pulled the older one back inside and closed the door.
Finally, I saw the photographer arrive in the rear-view mirror.
The wait in the car was over.
I write more like this on The Adaptive Human (Substack)
