Sebastian gets on the bus at home
Sebastian is early in the pick-up route, so hopefully the pick-up time will remain fairly consistent throughout the year. Since he is early in the route, he gets picked up along with several "swimmers" who are dropped off at the middle school. This means that Sebastian gets to watch other kids get picked up and dropped off before the majority of the other elementary school children are picked up. In order to maintain the schedule, the bus driver waits at the middle school until the appropriate time to continue the route.
The "first day of school jitters" started to take hold of my wife (though I'm sure she'll deny that as a factor here), and she got nervous about Sebastian's ride to school. She offered to walk him to school and to let him ride the bus home. As I mentioned previously, I think the school bus ride is one of the coolest parts about starting school. Pre-school kids just don't get to ride on buses a whole lot, particularly without parents and with thirty to fifty other kids their age. Sebastian had been excited about riding the bus and he didn't want to give that up.
After some "discussion" between me and my wife over any last-minute changes to Sebastian riding the bus to school, we decided that, at least for the first day of school, we would stick with the plan. Sebastian and I headed out to the front lawn to wait.
When we got to the front lawn, our neighbor was out front taking pictures of her daughter. Sebastian was happy to see his neighbor friend and he posed for a couple pictures with her. They were both visibly excited about school. My wife came out with our camera and took several pictures as well.
The bus arrived and Sebastian got on without any trouble. He stopped on the steps to turn around for a few pictures, though I think his mind was more on the excitement of school than anything else. Once in his seat, he happily waved out the window and smiled.
Sebastian gets off the bus at school
My wife drove up to the school to take another picture of Sebastian as he got off the bus and entered school. I like this picture because of Sebastian's body language. He's leaning forward, which is a sign of confidence, plus it looks like he's hiking his pants up as if to say, "All right, I'm here. Let's get to work!" My wife gave Sebastian a quick kiss and he headed into school without hesitation. When my wife described it, she sounded proud of him for not being too attached, but I could also detect that hint of sadness that her son has gained yet another level of independence. To my knowledge, she got through the entire ordeal today without shedding a tear.
According to our paperwork, Sebastian was to be dropped off six minutes after school let out. My wife called the transportation department a few days earlier, and they revised the pick-up time by a substantial amount. They changed the drop-off time to one minute earlier. After orientation, my wife says that the bus driver confirmed with her that he would be one of the first to be dropped off.
Five minutes before dismissal time (ten minutes before Sebastian's scheduled drop-off time), I took Dylan out to the front sidewalk and let him play with sidewalk chalk while we waited for the bus. My wife came out with the camera closer to the scheduled drop-off time and took some pictures of Dylan while we waited. Dylan had a fun time playing with the chalk, though he's still too young to do much more than repeatedly rub it across the same three-inch square of sidewalk. Surprisingly, he only put the chalk in his mouth once the entire time.
Sebastian gets off the bus at home
By the time Dylan was done playing with his chalk, I knew that we had been waiting a while longer than I expected, but we were warned that during the first couple weeks of school that the times would fluctuate as the schedules were set into place. Fortunately, when you're one of the first to be dropped off, there shouldn't be much of a delay. Since I didn't expect to be outside for much more than twenty minutes, I had not put sunscreen on Dylan or myself. (Keep in mind that the sun and I have not been on speaking terms for ten years now due to irreconcilable differences.) Dylan does relatively well with the sun, however I and my skin are less than impressed with the extended exposure.
I decided to get out of the sun briefly by grabbing the mail and running it inside. I was shocked when I looked at the clock and noticed that it was forty minutes past Sebastian's scheduled drop-off time. My first thought was that the bus had come even earlier than anticipated, we had missed it, and Sebastian would be returned to school for pick-up.
Thankfully, the bus came just a few minutes later. The bus driver acknowledged that we had not missed him previously. Judging by the number of kids on the bus and reports from Sebastian, they dropped plenty of other kids off before Sebastian. We'll have to call the transportation office again to find out if this was a one-time deal, or if Sebastian will be dropped off that late during the entire year.
Of course, Sebastian was so much in awe of the bus-riding experience that he didn't mind or notice at all.
Cheerio Butt
Baby Fight Club
