Bus!

Andy loves buses.  If he sees a bus of any sort- school bus, party bus, charter bus- he is quick to point at it and announce, happily, "Bus."  If he ever came across a double decker bus, he'd probably pass out from the sheer joy of such a sight.  And if he were to receive a bus pass for his birthday, he'd be the happiest two year old alive.  Chris and I are seriously contemplating such a purchase, and then dropping him off at the Pace stop with a bus schedule, a juice box, and strict instructions on how to transfer buses safely so that we can meet him at the mall sometime the following afternoon.  Can you say best birthday ever??

The day care has a bus for the big kids' field trips.  The bus is parked in the lot, and every morning and afternoon, Andy calls out "Bus!" in greeting when he first glimpses the bus and then "Bye bye Bus!" when we either enter the day care or drive out of the lot.  He waves at the bus, staring longingly at it, as longingly as a nine month pregnant woman might stare at a bottle of wine.  Sometimes, when I am feeling generous, I walk Andy over to the bus and pick him up to peer in the windows and touch the door.  This is always the best part of his day- I can tell by the tone of reverence his voice takes on when he whispers, "Bus."

We watched the Muppet movie a few nights ago, an hour and a half film that features exactly eighty-six seconds of bus footage as the main characters get from here to there.  This was Andy's favorite eighty-six seconds of the movie, and he spent the rest of the film (well, the rest of what he actually sat still for), looking at me with sad eyes and asking, "Bus?  More bus?"  We kept waiting for another bus to make a cameo, but it just didn't happen.  I implore, would it have killed the producers to add maybe three or ten more bus scenes in this feature film?  Those cinematic monsters could have made a young boy so very happy.

Anyway, a week or so ago, Andy was rummaging through the cabinets when he came across the following gem, a Mystery Machine shaped insulated lunch bag that looks a little something like this:

I think I received this bag as part of a gag gift and have come close to tossing it in the trash on several occasions.  Good thing I'm too lazy to carry this bag from the cabinet to the trash can, though- as soon as Andy spied the bag, his face lit up, he grabbed the bag, and called out, excitedly, "BUS!"  Ever since that fateful moment, Andy's life was forever changed.

I haven't the heart to tell Andy that the Mystery Machine is not a bus but a van.  Chris, who once mowed down the kitten of some sweet little girl while driving home late one night, doesn't have that same problem.  "It's not a bus, Andy," he keeps trying to tell our son.  "It's a van.  A van isn't a bus."  Luckily, Andy has the good sense to ignore his father and hold on the magic, child-like innocence of a young boy who truly believes in buses.

Andy hauled his new bus around the house all week, sticking cars and dolls into the back of it through the zip up flap.  He'd hold the bus by the top handle and race it around the coffee table.  We also caught him trying to gingerly sit down on top of his new bus bag and take it for a ride.  Of course, he only succeeded in crumpling it, which was a whole teary thing, but nothing that couldn't, thankfully, be fixed.

Then this Saturday happened, when Chris and I stumbled across a new use for Andy's bus- one that could make our lives just a tiny bit easier.  We could stick diapers, wipes, and snacks in Andy's bus- and then trick him into carrying around his own little diaper bag when we were out on the town!

We loaded the Mystery Machine with the aforementioned supplies, zipped it up, and handed it off to Andy.  "Want to take your bus to the library?" we asked, to which Andy exclaimed, "YES!"  He gripped his bus very tightly by the top handle, hugged it to his body the whole car ride to the library, and swung the bus closely by his side as we walked up the steps to the library.  Andy walking around clutching his little bus bag/purse is basically the most darling thing you may ever witness, if you are so lucky.  And when we entered the library and Andy ran up to the nearest librarian in order to hold out his bus proudly and proclaim, "Andy bus!", that also became a tie for most darling thing ever.

"What do you have in there?" the librarian asked sweetly, staring down at our son.  "Your lunch?"

"Diapers," I explained proudly.  The librarian didn't seem quite as impressed with the diaper bus as Chris and I were, though, but was nice enough to humor us with a slightly confused smile.

Andy carried his bus bag around the library and then through the store the next day.  He held onto Chris with his left hand and gripped the bus with his right hand.  Again, yet another tie for most darling thing ever.

So, now Andy's carrying the bus bag everywhere- around the house and out on the town.  I should say that this is one of two "buses" that Andy owns- he has a Little People school bus along with his insulated Mystery Machine. He plays with both eagerly, but enjoys the Mystery Machine so much more because of the handle aspect.  He transports various items in both buses.

Yesterday, before we left the house, Chris called up to me, "Where are Andy's socks?"  I yelled down, "In his bus!"  There was some unzippering as I realized Chris was checking the Mystery Machine "bus."  "In his YELLOW bus," I clarified.  To which Chris yelled back up, "Well, how am I supposed to know which of his buses he's keeping his things in today!?"

Oh, the problems of parents- having to search multiple buses in order to find their son's socks.