First Grade, Here We Come!!!

Addie comes to wake me up this morning. Normally the girls climb into bed and we snuggle for 15 minutes, but today is different. Today is Ellie's first day riding the bus. Addie comes to the side of my bed, wakes me up, gives me a hug and then goes to get ready without complaint.

I worry about Ellie. No hug from her? Did her alarm even go off? I quickly jump out of bed to go wake her up so that she is sure to have enough time to get ready. I knock on her door. "Come in," calls a more awake and mature voice than I expect. She's completely dressed, ready to brush her hair and teeth. It took her 2 minutes, TOPS, to jump out of bed and put her clothes on. The rest of the morning was no different.

We leave the house super early, just to be absolutely certain that she catches the bus. The bus picks her up nearly directly across the street, but we leave 10 minutes early just to be 100% certain. To pass some time, I give her a quick lesson on how the even numbered houses are on one side of the street, while the odd number houses are on the other side. We track down the house where the bus stop is (we had the address on a slip we received in the mail).

Before I know it, the bus is approaching. Are all school busses that big? Really? I swear they have gotten bigger since I rode them when I was a child. Ellie does a little hop, tells me she loves me and doesn't look back.

She gets on the bus and it drives away! Just like that! The bus drives away, as though nothing out of the ordinary just happened. As though nothing went wrong. As though this happens everyday. As though millions of children around the world hop on school busses all the time. As though it's no big deal.

Yet my neighbor kindly reminds me that it's ok to cry. Yes, it **IS** a big deal even if the bus didn't seem to acknowledge it. I'm a bit surprised at just HOW big it really feels.