Fly and Drive!

So yesterday was a huge milestone for McKenzie. His father bought a new (to us) Honda Pilot. Phillip had asked McKenzie if he wanted to "buy" (funny, he has no job to buy anything) his SUV for the trade-in value if he got a new car. McKenzie said yes. That was 3 months ago when he turned 16. We had given McKenzie a check to use toward a car, he never cashed it. Didn't seem interested in finding a car on his own at all or even driving for that matter. So, Phillip has bought this car, I am driving my car to meet him to eat, and then McKenzie is going to have to drive Phillip's old car off the lot. So on the way there, McKenzie suddenly blurts out "I don't want to buy Dad's car. I changed my mind." Can you say, it's a little late, son?!? So I tell him that he is driving the car home. He says he doesn't want to, then says "I like you driving me around, mom". OK, did I sign up to be a chauffeur for life? NOOOOO. So I say to him that ready or not, he is driving the car home, it is time to fly. And if he doesn't want to drive to school this fall, then he can ride the bus but I will not be driving to the high school this year. To which he brilliantly replies "You would make Garrett ride the bus too?" Thinking he is going to hitch a ride on his younger brother. When in fact, his younger brother will be hitching a ride with him to high school. ; ) All that to say, we finally convinced him that I would be in front of him in my car, Phillip would be behind him in his car, and we would "sandwich" him on his first solo journey. And once he got behind the wheel, I looked in my rear view mirror to see him with a HUGE smile on his face. I think that drive gave him some much needed confidence. (Probably helps when your mom isn't sitting beside you yelling "GET ON YOUR SIDE OF THE ROAD"!) He did awesome, made it with no incidents. Well, unless you count the fact that he accidentally turned on his windshield wipers (it wasn't raining) and couldn't figure out how to turn them off. I pulled over on a side road, went back to his car and we had a quick lesson in that after I noticed them going back and forth. He has now talked his brothers into helping him "detail" it this weekend in return for a trip to Sonic on Saturday. And he and Garrett both took out their sunglasses tonight and put them in the car so that they will look "cool" for the ride. Ah, brotherly love!