What a horrible name for a bus although after a horrible start to this morning it did feel appropriate. The S.S. titanic smelled like watermelon and was filled with international students, sorority girls and me. My feet were wet and had grass sticking to them. I was feeling incredibly uncomfortable because I had just sneezed and this exerted enough force to make wearing a tampon very uncomfortable. (Too much detail?) The sorority girl next to me was elbowing me as she was going through her bag. The bus driver was disgruntled, as most of the bus drivers in this town seem to be.
Ari held my hand the entire way to daycare and all was well until he dropped his lego map that he got free in his National Geographic Kids magazine. We were crossing a very busy street and just as the light began to change he dropped his map. He started to pull away from me to reach for it. I panicked in typical mommy fashion and jerked his little body to the sidewalk and swooped up the map before the light changed and then proceeded to lecture him. He did a very similar thing when he was two because he wanted to jump in a mud puddle. The boy will be lucky to have arms if he keeps this up. He tuned me out when I was telling him how dangerous cars were (again). I had visions of the film that we were showed in elementary school flashing through my head. It was a filmstrip about traffic safety. It showed a little girl crossing the street with a valentines day card that she had made for her mom. She got off of the school bus and dropped it and went back for it and was ran over by the school bus. The same film showed a kid get into a traffic accident because he was riding his bicycle without hands. Another part showed kids throwing rocks off a bridge at cars. A rock busted the windshield and caused a grisly car accident. It was very disturbing but it did make me think twice about running after papers in the street when i was a kid. I don’t really like fear tactics but I wish that Ari would listen to me when I tell him not to pull away from me in traffic. I will probably be forever remembered as the nagging mother. If you don’t brush your teeth, they’ll fall out. You need to eat vegetables, you need to do this and that. That’s okay, he nags me too.
This morning he asked me if i was crying and I said “no”, because I was upset that he noticed. He said “It seems like you are”, and walked over to me and turned my face around and touched a tear. I said, “I’m okay now.” and he was okay with that. He is a beautiful little boy.