The Wheels on the Bus

Everyday when the kids return from school, I ask the same few questions to get a sense of how their days went. It almost always goes like this. "Hi my sweeties! How was your day?" Faith will start at the very beginning of the day and tell me every detail about her day! She will tell me about her friend's new earrings and that she ate chicken for lunch and that her Trapper Keeper is the BEST one ever made. I love that about her. I always know what's going on with her because she just LOVES to talk. I wonder where she got that? *Wink*

Conversations with Joshua are very different! Today this was our conversation. "Joshy, how was your day?" "It good" he replied. "Who did you play with today?" He answered, "I not knowed his name." "Did you ask him his name? "No" he stated. "We not knowed the names. It ok, Mama. That boy knowed he my friend." I kept trying to engage in conversation, but clearly, Joshua was not into it...until I asked the magic question. "Joshy, did anything new or different happen today?" Immediately, he lit up! "I braked the bus, Mama."

What?!? "Tell me how you broke the bus! I want to know what happened." He looked at me with the most somber expression. "I just singin and clappin my hands then BOOM and the bus smoked up." At this time, Faith came back into the room and joined in the conversation. "Faith, your bus broke down today?" I asked. "Yep" she stated. "We were just riding home and then Joshy started singing really loud and all of a sudden we heard a thumping sound and our bus got really smoky." I have to admit that I was completely missing the connection. How exactly did Joshua break the bus, I wondered. So I asked him, "Why do you think that it was you that made the bus break?" He looked up at me, as if he thought I may be upset and said, "I not sposed to be singin on that bus. It not the rules to sing! I breaked the rule and THEN the bus breaked. Please you not tell on me, k? I just singin cuz I have a happy heart."

I couldn't contain my joy. My little man had a happy enough heart to sing loudly on the school bus? Sing, you sweet, happy little heart! Sing! I assured him that it was not his fault that the bus broke, but told him that it is important to follow the bus rules. "Maybe, you can just sing a little more quietly next time" I told him. But there was no talking him out of it. He was absolutely convinced that his singing broke the bus. I guess, if you break the bus rules, you break the bus! Both Faith and I took turns trying to reassure him that he was not in trouble and that the bus would be ok. I'm not sure he believed either of us. As he started to walk to his room he said, "The wheels on the bus not go round and round anymore." Oh, the trials of riding the bus with a happy heart.