Bus Stop Musings

I watch Jacob and Laura in the mornings before school. They're good kids and they're very good with Anna and Viva. They're also very creative. They're constantly building things, like houses and forts out of blankets. The other day they were building what appeared to be a tunnel. Anna was, of course, trying to destroy it. I told Anna to stop hurting Laura's tunnel. Then Laura informed me that it wasn't a tunnel it was an "MRI machine." I love the imaginations of little kids.

We walk to their bus stop every day, which is just under a mile round trip. I carry Viva in a front pack and I used to push Anna in a stroller. Lately, however, Anna has been wanting to walk. She's fine on the way there, but on the way home she gets really distracted. Her recent obsession is "counting" license plates. This involves her stopping at every single license plate we pass and her pointing at the letters and numbers while I call them out to her and she repeats them. After weeks of doing this, I am starting to get a little tired of it. I'm telling myself that it's like I'm doing flash cards with her. She can already sing her 'ABCs' but maybe she'll learn how to recognize the alphabet sooner! (Or at least that's what I tell myself after reading my 50th license plate of the day!)



I had to document this "counting" procedure. This is not our car though. It is, however, for sale and has been parked outside our house for a while now. Only $1100. Anyone interested?

Moving right along to another "walking home from the bus stop story"... I'm as much a hypochondriac as the next person with OCD, but I think the children of our neighborhood may have me beat. This morning we were walking through the park on our way home when I spotted about five signs hung randomly throughout the park.


Caption:
"Stay clean! Stay healthy! Swine Desease
Do not go to Mexico or Seattle
Very Bad for you!"

I was highly amused. And scared of the Swine Flu. I think I'll take their advice, all except for the not going to Seattle part.