First week highlights

Caroline’s first week of school went better than we could have ever hoped for. She has been looking forward to riding the bus since she saw Ayden get off of the bus after school one day last year. I wasn’t planning on letting her ride the bus until the 2nd week, but after the first day in the pick up lane the bus wasn’t looking all that bad so I let her ride home on the Tuesday. She was so excited when she was leaving for school because she was going to ride the bus home. She apparently told her teacher 4 times and even mentioned it to the Principal when she saw her. At least she isn’t afraid to talk to the teacher and the principal I guess. That afternoon I walked down to Anne’s house to wait for the bus since I knew the bus would stop there and I could talk to the driver a bit. As soon as she was hopping off the bus she was screaming “Mama I rode the bus!” I asked her how it was and she said “It was fun I want to ride everyday!” We stayed at Anne’s for a while and let the kids play in the sprinklers for a while. We got home made a quick dinner of Grilled Cheese and Chips, finished homework and headed to bed.

Matt took her too school on Wednesday and I let her ride home again. That afternoon she comes home and says a girl on the bus was making fun of her, Ayden and another friend. I asked what happened and she said “I don’t want to say.” She wasn’t upset about it just very matter of fact. She also kept saying how she wanted to ride the bus too school everyday too. She said that she wanted to buy cafeteria food tomorrow. Well I hadn’t put money in her account yet so I told her I would get the money in there and as soon as it’s available she would be able to buy her lunch a few days per week. She didn’t like that answer, but said it was ok without much hassle. She was super tired and went to sleep easily that night.

I had errands to run on Thursday morning, but didn’t want to leave the house until 9 so I decided if I could get her ready by 6:45 I would let her ride the bus, if not Matt would take her again. Thursday morning came and I was up with Griffin at 5:30 so at 6 I handed him over to Matt and went to wake Caroline up. I sat down on her bed and lightly whispered “If you want to ride the bus it’s time to wake up.” Her eyes popped right open the she sat straight up in bed and hopped out in what seemed like one big motion and said “I’m awake I want to ride the bus.” As we were walking out of the room she says, “I need to shower, then eat breakfast, then get dressed and get my backpack then we can ride the bus.” So we did and we were out on the driveway at 6:45 waiting for the bus. It was actually quite enjoyable. Matt was inside asleep with Griffin so we just sat outside and talked for a while. While we were waiting she kept asking me about buying her lunch in the cafeteria, but I had just put money in her account that day and it takes 1-2 days to post so she couldn’t. The bus arrived around 7:10 and off she went. I went to brave the pick up line that afternoon so we could get home in time to have a snack, do homework, and get changed for dance class. I must say it wasn’t bad and I only saw one mom cut in line. I arrived at 3pm (they start releasing at 3:20) and was 6th in line (7th after the lady cut in front). We were home by 3:30 and sat down to have a snack while we did homework before class. She got another sticker today and the teacher wrote “What a sweet girl!” on the chart. She was so proud and, of course, so were we! We were on a strict schedule to get out in time to get to dance class. I put Caroline’s dance bag by the door and reminded her she needed to grab it on the way out. We loaded up in the van and headed out to dance class. When we were half way down 546 I asked Caroline if she had her bag. She said no she forgot it so we turned back around to go get it. She asked me if I would go in to get the bag for her and as soon as I said yes she fell fast asleep. She perked right up when it was time for dance class though. We got home from dance class just in time to eat a quick dinner with Matt before he left for his Calculus 3 class. Around 7 we started bedtime with the goal of me being out of the room by 7:30 so she can be asleep by 7:45 or 8. Well I finally left her room for the last time around 8:30 so it was a REALLY long day for her.

Friday morning I awoke to the sound of her alarm, but it wasn’t over the monitor. Apparently the monitors batteries had gone out and I slept through it. When I finally got to her room it had been going off at least 1-2 minutes. She was FAST asleep. I turned off her alarm and said “If you want to ride the bus you need to wake up.” She asked if I could cuddle for a minute so I did. A few minutes later we got out of bed and went to take a shower. Thursday night I checked her school lunch account and the money had posted so after her shower I let her know she was going to get to eat in the cafeteria today. She said “Yes!!!!” and did the arm movement and all. She quickly got ready and was ready to head out to the driveway by 6:30. Anne was bringing Ayden and Everett over to wait for the bus so that added yet another level of excitement to an already exciting day. It was also “Treasure Box” day. She was going to get to pick from the Treasure Box because she didn’t get any marks for behavior this week. Again, the bus arrived around 7:10am. Friday afternoon we were planning to leave as soon as Caroline got off the bus to go eat with Grammy and Gramps so it was going to be another long day for her. The bus dropped her off right around 4pm and we headed out for dinner at Babe’s Chicken House. YUM! What a great ending to an exciting week.

I’m NOT used to being up and functional at 6am everyday. It’s going to take a few weeks of adjustment, but as long as Caroline is doing well at school and isn’t too tired at night I guess she’ll get to ride the bus to and from school most days. Thursdays I’ll always pick her up to get her to dance class. Oh and I’ve become “Room Mom” which I never thought I would do. I think I will really like her teacher though so it should be loads of fun. Well this is enough detail for now.