Out little boy is growing up so quickly!

A couple of weeks ago, Baba with his car got into an accident.  Thankfully, no injuries to Baba or anyone in the other cars involved, but the car was damaged to the "point of no return". In other words, it was declared a total loss by the insurance company.

We would get a rental car so Baba could still go to work.  We also began looking for a new or used (but new for us) car.

Aditya was very curious about how the accident happened.  Maybe a bit anxious (who wouldn't be!) but nothing compared to how he would be in a similar situation when he was, say, 4.

A day later, we played out the accident in the playroom with he being his favorite SUPERMAN and saving me from the accident by pulling the car with an imaginary rope!

Over the next weekend, the family went to several different dealerships, test drove cars, and the twins both opined on the quality of the ride, the color etc!  (Aditya actually told us he loved riding a manual transmission car.  The shifting of gears was probably a very "sensory" experience!)

At one dealership (where we eventually bought our new car), the sales manager was super-friendly and asked the kids what colors they liked for a test drive car.
"Red", said Aditya with spontaneity and, what seemed like a drive to respond first (i.e. before his sister) to the question!  (Another first! Hurray!)

At another dealership as we approached the last minutes of negotiations and deal-making Aditya was super-patient and taking care of himself by running and spinning around, yet "aware" of what was going on.

When that deal did not work out, he was flexible.  He asked why we were not going to buy it (since we had said we would buy... only minutes ago) and totally accepted our answer about how it was beyond our "budget"!

Once we finally got our new car (which was RED)... he again patiently waited through the hour in which the grown ups took care of paperwork etc.

To the grown ups, he actually also asked a penetrating question: "why will insurance pay if our brand new car gets stolen right away"  (something the dealer had spoken about while selling the "gap insurance" to us!)

We are SO GRATEFUL to see the loving, kind, patient, intelligent boy that Aditya has become!