Riding the Short Bus

Today was Aliya's first day of school. She woke up at 6 a.m. The bus was due at 8:33. In an attempt to kill time, I suggested that she take a shower "so her hair would look nice." She was showered and dressed by 6:30 and wanted to know how much longer until the bus would come. I told her 4 Dora's!!! Somehow the time passed and it was finally 8:15. So I loaded Norah into her stroller and dragged Adlani down to the bus stop. It's about a 2-minute walk, even dragging a 3-year-old. We waited. And waited. And threw acorns down the storm drain. And tried to find matching caps for the naked acorns. And tickled Norah with a stick with leaves and acorns on it until she tried to eat one. Today's experience will teach me not to show up at the bus stop 15 minutes early with no food again.

When the bus was 15 minutes late I had the brilliant idea to call Ben to look up the number for the transportation department on the internet, so I could find out if I should just give up and drive her to school. After he looked at the bus schedule for a neighboring town, the 2006/2007 schedule for our town, and the high school schedule, insisting each time that the corner I was standing on was NOT a bus stop, the bus finally came - 20+ minutes late. The bus driver made up for it by being 5 minutes EARLY this afternoon.

When the bus came this morning Adlani said, "She (the bus driver) has a seat for me!" The bus driver said, "I'll be back for you next year." Why does everyone think I have an immature 4-year-old, rather than a giant 3-year-old? Anyway, after the bus drove away he asked where Aliya was and I said that she was on the bus. He said, very sadly, "Well, I'm not going to see her again and I didn't say goodbye!" He got over it pretty quickly.

Aliya had a great day at school, although in her words, "I didn't learn anything - again." Apparently the highlight of the day was when one of the boys "tooted" at circle time.

Update: I later learned that when the bus arrived at school there were no teachers outside to meet it because it was so late. The bus driver walked all of the kids inside the front entrance and set them free. Somehow Aliya found her way to her classroom on her own. She's so self-sufficient. I wonder where she gets that from?
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