A week in the life...

Buses and allergies.... oh my!!

Everyone in our home has now been on thier first public transit excursion. Daddy went out with us last Saturday, to the mall, so that the 3 middle children could try out the "Spider Jump". He enjoyed his first busride, and started brainstorming ways to use it to get to and from work. The only major problem that we've run into is the amount of time that it takes to get from one place to another, but I'm sure that is due to our not knowing the bus system well. Alekzandr (17) had his first trip with the rest of us on tuesday to see what it was all about, and then rode it by himself on Thursday to go to work. He enjoyed it a lot more than he expected to. This week will be our second full week. Now that we know a bit more about the system, we will start looking at the most cost effective ways for us to use the buses.

Easter Sunday, my girlies played in the grass and fallen cherry blossoms (yes, I found my camera, now I MUST start using it more!!!). Fun, girly, itchy... I was sure to give them all baths to wash all of the pollen off. The next morning  (5) required a breathing treatment and her eczema started flaring. I assumed it was from the nature frollicking. Lyddie (11m) and Aliana (8) were both doing ok. As the week progressed, Bekah's eczema continued, and seemed much worse than a roll in the grass and blossoms should have given her, Lyddie's skin became quite dry, and Aliana developed eczema on her hands and wrists (she does that from time to time when she uses scented soaps and lotions). Tonight, while getting Lyddie's bath ready, I began reading the ingredients to the new baby shampoo I got just before Easter--- it has milk and oats in it. The milk explains Bekah's eczema and breathing troubles, and oats are often cross contaminated with wheat, which would explain Lyddie's dry skin (though she didn't have an all out gluten response). Sigh, maybe one day, I'll get it all right. Untill then, I'm glad for Grace and good lotion.

Public Transportation, Day 1...

Day 1 went quite well!

I started with a trip (in the van) to the bank, then to the bus office to speak with Gloria, who explained the schedules to me, and I bought our passes.

Freshly informed, we headed home and rushed to the bus stop to catch the bus that comes at 15 till the hour. Unfortunately, I was thinking 15 AFTER the hour (at 1:15 planning to have lunch when we got to the shopping center). At the bus stop, we met a nice man that was carrying groceries home. We waited for quite some time and had to run to catch the bus comming the opposite direction at the other end of the block. We'll do better with the times today.

We found the bus to be quite clean, pleasant. The bus was rather full, but the other passengers were patient as we figured out how to scan our passes and took our seats in the back of the bus. The children watched all the goings on, and asked lots of questions. Aliana was particularly concerned that she would accidentally pull the yellow cord (signaling a request to stop), and made sure to sit well away from it. Rebekah stood and held the pole, while Charles bounced from seat to seat (until I told him to pick and plant).

Our bus took us to the Plaza (the main hub, all the bus routes begin and end here. We could have stayed on that bus and only lost about 20 minutes, but, it was already after 1, and the children (ok, and mom too) were hungry... so we got off and had lunch at the Plaza which cost us about an hour and a half. Got back on the bus and got going the right way.

This ride was longer than our first. Again the children chose the back of the bus, which was pretty empty this time.  It didn't take long for Lydia to learn that sitting on Mommy's lap on the bus is a perfect opportunity to nurse. She was quite tired, but she doesn't sleep very well when she's not at home in her bed. Rebekah stood at the window and looked out, Aliana, again sat well away from the yellow cord (which Lydia pulled when I asked Charles to hold her for a minute). And Charles layed across the seats.

We arrived at Kroger and got the shopping done. We got to the bus stop just as the bus was passing us (I got the time mixed up again, SHEESH!), so lost another 40 minutes there. On the return trip the children had decided to sit in the front. Aliana was worried that we shouldn't sit there, because someone may need to sit there (the front is the part of the bus that is wheelchair accessible). There was only 1 other passenger, so I assured her that if someone needed to sit there, we could move. The other passenger got off at the next stop, and we had the bus to ourselves for the remainder of the ride home. Lydia nursed and went to sleep. Our operator, Harris, got a kick out of Aliana's plans to pull the cord. She was worried that she would miss pulling when it was time for us to stop, and asked me continually if it was time. I told her pull it when we turned the corner at the fire station. As we were turning the corner, she asked "NOW MOMMY? NOW?", "yes, Dear, you can pull it now"... "ding, stop requested"... I wonder what Harris was thinking about this crazy bunch that just left his bus!

YUP, we're doing it again today! I think we will try going further out and switching buses, picking a route and seeing how far it goes! (this time, I'll remember to take the camera)