Category Archives: busing with babies

Busing with baby, part I

This morning, Chicklet and I hopped the 48 to the KUOW studios so I could chat with Jeannie Yandel, host of Sound Focus, about life on the bus with a baby. (After the interview, I learned that Ms. Yandel, who hails from Chicago, is also a bus chick.) If you’re interested in knowing how my first five weeks of bus motherhood have gone, you can tune in to Sound Focus tomorrow (Tuesday) at 2:00 PM. I’ll be posting a more extensive version here sometime around the New Year.

Update: For those who are interested, here’s a direct link to the interview.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

An evening of firsts (and one second)

Last night, on the way to her first Transportation Choices Coalition meeting, Chicklet took her first ride on the 27. The ride was definitely more thrilling for mother (whose favorite bus happens to be the 27) than it was for daughter, who slept through the ride. During her nap, Chicklet missed the chance to witness her first bus mack, one of the relatively rare driver-on-passenger variety.

At the meeting, my little chicklet received her second award in a week (the first being the November Golden Transfer): a lifetime membership in TCC. Check it:

Rosa became a TCC member at not quite five weeks old

She was less than grateful, fussing for most of the meeting and generally leaving a bad impression on the other transit types who attended. At least she was quiet on the 27 ride home.

November Golden Transfer

This month’s Golden Transfer goes to Seattle’s Bus Chicklet, my daughter, Rosa.

Rosa started riding the bus on her second day of life–a short trip home from the hospital on the 4. Since then, she hasn’t gotten out much, but she’s ridden the bus on all but one of her outings. (Over the Thanksgiving holiday, she took her first car trip–to Spokane in her Grandpa Jerry’s Jeep.) In her first month of life, she’s ridden: the 3, the 4, the 8, the 18, and the 48. The 48 seems to be her favorite, but that’s just because she hasn’t ridden the 27 yet–at least not since she’s been on the outside.

So far, Miss Chicklet has been well-behaved on the bus (knock wood), and she seems to enjoy riding in the carrier I use to transport her:

Rosa in the Baby Bjorn she rides in on the bus

She didn’t seems as excited about the car seat:

Rosa, not particularly enjoying her first car ride

Looks like we’re going to get along famously. :)

P.S. – You might have noticed a significant slowdown in posts of late (as if pregnancy didn’t slow them down enough). The first weeks of parenthood have been a bit consuming. I’ll try to do better in December, but posts will likely continue to be slow through the New Year.

An update

As promised, the rest of the story of Bus Chicklet’s arrival:

Many of you assumed from my last post that I rode the bus to the hospital while in labor. Alas! I wasn’t that heroic. The little chicklet had overstayed her welcome–enough past my due date that I had to be induced. So, on Halloween night, Bus Nerd and I rode the bus to the hospital as we had for all of my previous doctor’s appointments, sans contractions or ruptured membranes. The only difference was that we were carrying bags and feeling excited to meet our daughter.

On the day after she was born, we took our little one home on the 4. (It’s not the ideal route for an introduction to Seattle’s bus system, but at least we can be confident she’ll be ready for anything on future rides.) She rode in a car seat (you can’t take a child home from the hospital without one), but she’s enjoyed subsequent rides (on the 3, 4, and 48) in a nice, cozy sling. Of course, other than visits to the pediatrician’s office (which is a two-minute walk from our house and doesn’t require a bus ride), we haven’t taken her out much. Still, we’ve already managed to have a bus adventure. More on that tomorrow.

27 + 60 = a bus baby

Bus Baby has arrived!

Vitals

First name: Rosa, after Original Bus Chick
Middle name: Caroline, after my mom
Nickname: Bus Chicklet (thanks to the reader who suggested it last spring)
Birth date: 11/1/07
Birth time: 7:33 AM
Weight: 8 pounds, 7 ounces

We had planned a cab to the hospital, which is only a couple of miles from our house, and had also enlisted family and friends as backup transporters; however, because we had more warning than most people (more on that later), we managed to ride the bus to (27 + 60) and from (a short walk + 4) Miss Rosa’s delivery.

As you can imagine, Bus Nerd and I are a bit preoccupied (and tired!) right now, but I promise to share the whole story very soon.

A Friday of firsts

On the 48 this morning, I sat behind a father who was taking his preschool-age son on the bus for the first time. The two of them seemed to be having a great time: the son, excited about the bell, the big seats, the beeping of bus passes as they slid through the reader; the father, happy to answer his son’s questions about what was what and why, chuckling at the boy’s occasional outbursts (That’s a big truck!/Did a bad guy mess up that building?/Three blue cars!). It was a beautiful father-son bonding experience–that is, until, about three stops from Montlake, when an average-sized, middle-aged man got on, and the little boy shouted, in the same excited tone he’d used to point out the truck, “Ooh! Look at that big fat guy!”

On my next ride, I experienced a parenting first of my own: 25 weeks into my pregnancy, on a standing-room only bus, someone actually offered me a seat. (I didn’t take it, since I felt able to stand.) Of course I was grateful but also, for some odd reason, embarrassed. It’s strange to be on the other end of that offer.