Sondi Sees

And so it begins….

On the very first day of school, our alarm went off and, almost simultaneously, Bella burst into our room, fully dressed and ready to go. She proudly proclaimed (while jumping up and down in excitement and so breathless that she could barely get the words out) that she had woken up “nice and early” (everything lately is “nice and insert adjective here) and that she had been awake “since sunset, when the sun was coming up”. (I tried to correct her but she was pretty convinced that ‘sunset’ is when the sun comes up.) She was a little puffy from lack of sleep (just like we all were on our practice day which is obvious in the photos), so I totally believed her when she said that she had been awake that long.

She was so worried about being on time for the bus that she panicked whenever we gave her something to do to occupy her while we stumbled around, desperately trying to wake up. This is how the morning basically went:

“Go brush your teeth.” “Oh no!”, she yells, stumbling as she runs for the bathroom.

Then five and a half seconds later…..”You’re done brushing your teeth already? Fine. Go make your bed.”

Two minutes later….”Oh no!”, she yells, tangled up in the blankets and several dozen stuffed animals on her bed. “I can’t do it! I can’t do it! I don’t have time!”.

I swear, the amount of eye rolling that took place that morning was enough to cause permanent nerve damage. I may have to see a doctor.

“Okay, I’m done! We gotta go to da bus!”.

“No its not time yet. Did you brush your hair? Okay, go brush your hair.”

“You’re done? Okay, are your shoes on? Go get your shoes on and eat your breakfast”. At which point she becomes completely distracted arguing with her sister (yet again), and I have to repeat myself fourteen more times before she remembers to panic and finish getting ready to leave.

So like nine minutes after stumbling out of bed, our child was totally jumping up and down in front of the front door, sure that her parents were completely irresponsible and would cause her to be late and miss the bus and her entire kindergarten education. I pointed out to her (on her swanky purple and pink watch) that she had plenty of time and that she needed to wait till the minute hand was on this number and the hour hand was on that number and until then, she still had plenty of time to eat her oatmeal so stop fighting and eat, already. This helped a little.

So after all this drama, we go outside to wait for the bus. We take a few pictures and watch for the bus to come around the corner.

We wait.

And wait.

And wait.

We take some pictures of Bella posing with her sister, posing with her fabulous princess lunchbox, posing with her backpack, posing with her lunchbox AND backpack together so that it is obvious that they are a matching princess set. (Matching is absolutely crucial for her continued existence. Some days we get into lengthy arguments while trying to get her dressed because she is convinced that because the shirt and pants that I have picked out are not the same exact color and the same exact shade of that color, they cannot possibly match and therefore she cannot possibly be expected to put them on – whatever. I like to put stripes and florals together in contrasting colors. This is completely against the law and punishable by guillotine in Bellaland.)

And then we wait some more.

Eventually the bus comes, I snap another picture or two and then the bus rumbles off down the road, taking my baby away. I then experience a few minutes of total panic.

What if that new bus driver was actually an impostor posing as a school bus driver and she was actually being kidnapped right in front of me and I am just too stupid to realize it? What if the bus gets hit by a semi while lumbering across the highway and never makes it to school? Will the school call me and let me know that she never arrived? Should I drive to the school and make sure she arrives safely? Would that make my neurosis too obvious?

So, after a few deep breaths and a couple prayers, I head back inside and try to be reasonable.

About half an hour later, her little sister woefully says: “I miss Bella“.

I remind her that her sister is on the bus headed for school. “We go get hewr?”, she responds.

“No, she is on the bus.”

Her brilliant little mind responds: “We chase hewr? We go da car! We chase her! Let’s go! We go get hewr! ”

After I managed to convince her that we would not be chasing the bus in the car (Heyyyyy, that’s not a bad idea! Then I would know for sure that she made it safely to school.), she went back to playing with the toys that she did not have to fight with her sister over and was just fine. Minutes later, she was whipping out her tea set, and commanding that I sit down on the floor with her and drink tea and get her more cookies. Disaster averted.

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www.flickr.com Sondic’s waiting bus photoset