Pregnancy Brain

Back in November we decided to invest in a larger capacity vehicle to accommodate our growing family. Since I swore I would NEVER drive a minivan, we named said vehicle "Magic" and prefer that others who are not on a first name basis with the vehicle refer to it as 'car' rather than 'van' or 'minivan.' All of these details are beside the point, because this is what happened. I had just spent an hour in the grocery store with both of my kids at the end of the day, which means they were about sick of 'being good' and I was about out of patience. We got home and I turned the car off, only I couldn't get the key out. This had never happened to me before. I checked to make sure my head lights were off and the doors were unlocked. Still the keys would not come out of the ignition. By now my kids were unbuckled and ready to get out. Daisy asked me to open the doors and when I pushed the button to open them, nothing happened. I asked her to try to open them manually. The warning alarm began to sound. Now we are in the dark with the warning alarm going off and we can't get out of the car. So...I took a deep breath in order to try to remain calm and got the owner's manual out of the glove compartment. What should I look up? "Stuck in car with two kids and loud alarm?" I started with 'controls.' I found that my vehicle has a handy dandy security system wherein if the key is not recognized the entire system shuts down to prevent theft. Well I wasn't trying to steal Magic, I was trying to get out of her. I was certain that the electrical system had malfunctioned (just my luck) and I would have to call a dealer (no, there are no Honda dealers in my village) to get out of my car. I kept reading to see if there were any further instructions, like: "If you are not trying to steal the vehicle and you can't get out, just push the brake three times and turn on the left blinker to remove the keys." Unfortunately I didn't find any such instructions. By now my children are bouncing of the ceiling and the seats and, oh yes, the alarm is still sounding. I started pushing buttons hoping something would release my keys to me. Then suddenly, it was right before my eyes. I realized exactly what the problem was. As it came to me I closed my eyes and said to myself, "Just blame it on pregnancy brain, you are not going crazy." Then I opened my eyes, calmly moved the gear shift from the 'drive' position to the 'park' position, removed my keys, opened the doors, and entered my house. Simple as that. It occurred to me that it really is a nice feature not to release your keys to you or let you out of the car when it is still in drive. The design engineers at Honda that thought of that one must not have pregnancy brain.