Mister & Miss Guided: First Day of School

I knew this day was coming and I was dreading it. We got up bright and early (before 6am) to get our routine down that we scheduled out the night before.

Mommy gets up – gets Makenna up and then takes out the dogs while Makenna gets dressed.
Daddy gets himself up and ready for work.
Then Mommy gets lunch together for Makenna (and herself) and feeds all the animals (both human and beast).
Daddy comes out and enjoys time with Makenna during breakfast.
Mommy then gets Makenna brushed (teeth and hair) and daddy gets to take the dogs out for one last bathroom break.
Shoes on, coats on – time to catch the bus!

Of course there may be a few extra minutes here or there to watch a little bit of cartoons and there’s always time to complain as we’ve found out.

We all made the trip to the end of the driveway, waited for the bus, had hugs and kisses, and I met the very nice bus driver – Sheldon. He told me the “rules” of crossing in front of the bus – (go to the mailbox where he can make eye contact with myself and Makenna) and then when he gives the signal – a wave of his hand – we cross). It was now my duty to pass this on and reinforce it with Makenna.

I had a couple of questions myself. What times does he expect to be dropping her off in the afternoons (he says around 3:45pm or so) and is he going to wake her up to get off the bus? I’m serious I told him, I expect her to be half awake by the time the bus gets here.

Off they went and I cried. Then Chris and I got in our car and went to the school to wait, and on the way, I cried some more. We wanted to meet with her teacher and see where her classroom was and have a peace of mind. We went in to the school and then decided to wait in our car for a while as we didn’t want to wait in the “herded” parent’s area.

Well, then close to 8am and her bus still wasn’t there! Mind you she got on the bus around 7:05 a.m. So about an hour later (exactly) – in she strolls. After being so happy to see her alive, we walked her to the classroom. She found her cubby and her assigned seat. We introduced ourselves to her teacher, “Mrs. Friend,” – and yes that’s really her name.

We got a couple of pictures and we were on our way. Chris took me back home and he left for work. I took the day off to recuperate from the emotions and I wanted to really make sure I would be there when she got home.

Good thing I did as I was startled by a phone call around 11:30 a.m. from an automated voice telling me that due to the weather (lots and lots of rain) that my child would be let out at 1pm. I initially thought to myself, “boy if kids are coming home because of some rain – I can’t wait to see how many days I’ll have to take off due to snow!”

Since the bus driver gave me an approximate of 45 – 50 minutes to get home when they would normally leave at 3:05 p.m., I figured that she should be home 1:45 or so. I went out in the cold wet rain with the dogs at 1:35 and started to wait and wait and wait. The dogs were shivering and soaked so I took them back in and proceeded to wait some more – with Makenna’s rain boots in hand.
Finally after 2pm the bus showed. I was a bit miffed but figured that due to the weather, he may have had to go slower than he normally would. Or at least I hoped. Otherwise this girl is going to have an hour drive each way every day! Sure enough when he opened his doors, he had to wake her up.
But she was excited to see me and after a quick change into her boots, down the driveway we went. I found out much later in the day the true severity of the rains – which you can see some of it in these links:

http://youtu.be/tMGIQoYxEvI
http://youtu.be/t5P5eMfiF3o
http://youtu.be/1O3B1URx_V8

There are many more if you go to Youtube but I thought these would suffice to show you why Makenna’s first day of school was cut short. Not only that, but she then had a whole week off. I felt like this girl is going to be so confused as to why she has to go a full day and for more than one day in a row when school starts again.

Here’s some photos of the day:

(Can you tell we're now into "Hello Kitty"?)