Last Week

I feel like I say this every month but how is it possible that we are already into week two of November!?!  It seems like time is speeding away now.  Didn't the children just return to school a few weeks ago and how are we discussing Thanksgiving and Christmas?



The girls had their first field trip of the school year last week.  Their classes visited the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Dorchester.  I chaperoned for Anna's class which allowed me to double as her nurse.  When I do this, I always drive my own car to the field trip site so I have a private place to cath Anna.  I follow the buses from the school so I arrive when they do.  The majority of the time, the other chaperones ride the bus with the students.  Sometimes there are space constraints and chaperones are asked to find their own way but for this trip, because they would have to travel almost into Boston, everyone was taking the bus.  Everyone except for me.

I had planned to follow the buses until I discovered that the buses would be taking the HOV lane, which I couldn't do unless I had someone else in the car with me.  I also didn't realize until later that buses are not allowed to take exit 14, which to me is the easiest way to get there.  I headed out before the buses and hit heavy traffic in multiple places.  And of course, the buses cruised right past me thanks to the HOV lane.  At that point, I figured I would just have to find them once I arrived.  Well, talk about perfect timing.  As I was attempting to find the parking lot as close to the building as possible, the buses pulled up and drove past me to drop the kids off at the entrance.

Even though I was an official chaperone for Anna's class, I was able to see all my girls during the field trip.  I had never visited the institute before so I had no idea what to expect but I feared that the kids would be bored.  It was actually interesting and very interactive.  We were only there for a few hours too, which helped.  An all day affair would have been too much for the kids plus this place is on the small side and not set up as a museum.  These kids sure know more about the government than I did at their age.

Cathing Anna was not overly disruptive but she did miss one of the stations during the time we were gone.  The kids had eaten a snack at school before they boarded the buses and they planned to eat a late lunch when they returned to school.  Anna doesn't typically eat much in the morning.  I had some crackers with me and she snacked on those while I cathed her.  So there was some benefit to having to leave the field trip for a short period of time.  (Wink.)