The Wheels on the Bus

Dear Princess,

You've known the song since you were two, before you could even sing the words.  It was your favorite.  You liked it better than Old MacDonald, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Happy and You Know It... everything.  You loved for me to sing it in the car (but if I tried to sing the ABC's, you'd get so mad and cry!), so when you were having a rough day and fussing in the car, I would always start singing Wheels on the Bus.

One day, I remember we needed to go somewhere and you were really feeling terrible.  I was trying to get the trip in quickly without upsetting you too much by singing the whole time... but I soon found that the Wheels on the Bus song just wasn't long enough to last the whole way!  Afraid if I stopped singing or started over you'd get upset, I thought fast and came up with some more things to add to the bus.  First it was dogs and cats, and I thought, that's not too far fetched - some people might take pets on the bus.  But we still weren't there... so I decided to take a leaf out of Old MacDonald's book... and soon there were cows, pigs, ducks, horses and chickens on our bus!  You were so little that you didn't realize how silly it was, you were happy as long as I kept singing, but I remember silently laughing to myself about our crazy bus.  On the way home, we sang again, complete with our whole farm full of animals.

Another day, you and I were both in good moods and we were just being silly, so as we drove along, instead of doing the motions, I made the car do them!  When we got to 'the windows on the bus', I put the car windows up and down.  I turned the wipers on, I honked the horn, I flashed the lights, I jingled the money in the money compartment, and then finally as we were getting close to home, I detoured into an elementary school parking lot so I could stop the car and do the doors going open and shut.  Then as we drove into the driveway, we bounced up and down together singing about the kids on the bus, and you just laughed and laughed - you thought it was so funny that I was really making OUR 'bus' do all those things!

To this day, that song makes me think of you, and I'm always telling people about our silly farm bus, or our fun car-bus, or just how much you loved that song.  Another one of those simple little things that became so much fun just by doing it with you.

Love you forever,

Katie