First Day of the School Bus

It's noisy. Now I know how our beagle Elbert used to go nuts and bark at the UPS truck, there is something about that little school bus engine that makes its presence known long before it appears at the end of the driveway. I was cringing, thinking of that noise getting pounded into Micah's head for an hour each way.

Then it got worse.

The driver and aide gave us a harness to put on Micah. It looks like something a parachutist or a bungee jumper might wear, just without the parachute or bungee cord, with a zipper up the back. There is a buckle that gets latched into a corresponding buckle that comes from the back of the bus seat. He looked thoroughly trussed up, disturbingly so. With no protective shell of a car seat around him. I'd like to see whatever the studies are that show this harness is safe in the event of an accident, it just doesn't convey that idea from the few moments we had to check it out.

And if Micah winds up being in to bondage later in life, I am going to sue the school district.

He didn't seem bothered much, and actually liked getting on a 'real' school bus. Steve and I stood there, wishing for a van. So much so that Steve called the district's transportation coordinator to see what other options are out there.

I emailed his teacher to see if he was ok in school today, and the note she sent back said he was as happy as ever, and he got off the bus in a great mood and loved it. According to the driver aide, he was playing peek-a-boo with one child, which made another child giggle, so then all of them were laughing, they keep a stock of picture books on their bus for the kids, so he had those too, and the aide sat next to him on the way home - as he left, she was in her own seat across the aisle and slightly back from Micah.

So now the wheels are in motion to change his transportation, though he seems fine with it. I just want us to get in our new routine.