After 1 week and a half of waiting, calling back and forth Ms. Lisa (Santa Ana school district transportation coordinator ), teacher Mr. Casteneda, and the Transportation department, finally we got a call from the Santa Ana school district transportation on Tuesday, saying that they’d pick up William in the morning at 6:55 AM and drop him off at 1:15 PM, starting tomorrow (Wednesday).
I was worried that he could not wake up that early but this morning when I woke him up around 6:20 AM, and I mentioned the school bus, he just jumped out of the bed! He brushed teeth without me asking so many times like usual. Then he had a little bit time left to eat cereal and milk before the bus came.
We saw the bus coming toward to our house, he ran around to the front yard, looking so excitedly. When the bus driver opened the door, he got in so fast and looked for the seat in the middle of the bus. The bus driver made sure he had seat belt on and then took his backpack to the front. I asked if it’s ok for him to hold on to his backpack because there’s tissue box in there; he has allergy and might need it. She said “OK, thanks for letting me know” and she gave him the backpack back.
I waved as the bus leaving, but he was looking at the window on the other side.
7:30 A.M, I drove to school just to see how he behaved when get off the bus. Just before 8:00 AM, I saw his teacher Vanessa was holding his hand and heading toward the school gate. He looked fine. Call me crazy mom but I guess I’m worried too much. He’s a smart boy, and he does not need his mom to hold his hands to go to school anymore.
Tuesday 6/22/2021, I gave William the new medicine (Amphetamine) that Ms. Elyse prescribed before going to school. I broke the capsule and pour the medicine on a spoon of Nutella; he took it with no problem because he loves Nutella so much!
Then I drove him to school, I asked him occasionally if he had tummy aches or headaches, he said No. When I handed him to Ms. Vanessa at school, I told him about the medicine and asked her to observe if he’s ok.
Noon time I picked him up. He ran out from the gate, kicked the sign on the way and even used his hands trying to push the sign down. Wow, he was even more aggressive than when he had the other medicine. When we got into the car, he repeatedly push the power button so many times!
When he got home, he seemed to be calmer. I got him pizza and hash brown but he only ate some hash brown. When Thomas (TasKids supervisor) and Marilou (ABA) came, he seemed to be fine. I told Marilou about his temper when I picked him up; Marilou asked William what was wrong, “The teacher asked me to clean up which I did not like!”.
So I’m not sure he was angry because of the chores that the teacher asked him to do or it’s the side effect of the medicine. We’ll have to try at least for a week more to be sure.
We were not planning to go but aunt Eliza had 2 extra tickets because her son and daughter Vi & Bryan could not go. So I purchased additional 1 ticket ($5.00) on their web site so that 3 of us can go.
The Hana farm is part of the Tanaka farm, which turns out to be disappointed: the sunflowers are all done, there were other flowers too but not that as much as the one in Carlsbad. We tried to walked to the small section at the end of the farm where there were still some sunflowers left, but William asked to go to the shade because it was too sunny, so Tim took him to the table where there was some shade. We took some pictures and then left for In and Out Burger for lunch.
The flower lovers 🙂
Not much sunflowers left; and it was too dusty that the leaves and flowers were covered in dust
Too sunny, can we go back to the shade area?
Danny and Tracy did not care for flowers much 🙂
The Pick Flower vase costs $20.00 for 15 stems. They did not check how many flowers we had in the vase when we left.
We had lunch in the car then went to South Coast Plaza which is only 5 minutes away. William loved it here! It’s been for more than a year due to Covid-19 that we did not go to the mall. To my surprise, William did not run around like he used to do last time we went to a mall. He’s so curious about everything; we took the elevator to the upper level, “It’s a nice elevator!” – I’m so surprise at his remark. He saw the water fountain on the way, he asked “why there’s water here? why the water is running down?” – He asked a lot of Why questions!
I told him it was time to go home but he asked for more time so I gave him more time. We were just walking around the mall, did not go into any store, some times sat down on the benches to look around. I did not have to run after him and call his name out loud this time, thanks God!
Another zoom meeting in 1 month after the last meeting with the Nurse Practitioner Ms. Elyse.
She followed up about the medication. I told her about his aggressive behaviors that I stopped giving it to him. She suggested another medicine; this time it’s a long acting one that will last from 6-8 hours. It’d give the same side affects like tummy ache and headaches and loss of appetite.
After more than a year of shut down because of the pandemic Covid-19, and William had to attend on-line classes, now he can go back to school in person for summer school. He’s so excited!
Jefferson school is about 15 minutes away from our house, it’s not too far; but now that he’s old enough we decided to let him take the bus. A week ago I asked if he wants to take the bus to school, he said Yes.
Summer school starts from 8:00 AM – 12:15 PM. They will not serve breakfast and lunch, they will provide snacks to be eaten in the classroom only. For lunch they’ll pack it and we take the food home.
7:00 AM I texted Mr. C to make sure he knows that William is allergic to peanut. William has been with Mr. C since Nov last year but because it’s always online meetings so I wanted to make sure he’s aware of that. He replied back that William is not assigned to his class for summer, but he’d let his new teacher knows. “What’s William’s teacher name?” – I asked. “Mrs. Rodriguez” – he replied.
I woke him up around 7:00 AM: he asked for breaks as usual before brushing teeth. I told him about the school plan of not serving breakfast ,and that he has to finish breakfast before the school bus comes so that we won’t be late for the bus. He had a cup of milk and half cup of the cereal. We waited and waited but there was no sign of the bus. 10 minutes before 8:00 AM, I called the school and they said the bus was running late as it was the first day of the school, and they told us to be patient. 10 minutes pass 8:00 AM, I decided to take William to school by car.
He took out the mask because he saw some kids did not wear masks but I told him to put it back on.
Going to the school office
By the time we arrived, there was only few students and their parents were there; I guess the rest already came to their classrooms. The lady took us to the office, she asked for his name and tried to find out who’s his teacher. We waited for about 10 minutes and his teacher came out to take William to classroom: William was so eager to go with her. I also gave William’s medicine to the lady, asking her to give it to the school nurse. I asked her why the bus did not come to pick up William; she gave me the school district transportation number to call.
So I called the number (714-558-5811), got the mail box, I left the message. 30 minutes later I called again, a lady picked up and said William is not in their list to pick up!
Feeling lost I called the school again (This is impossible because I did ask Mr. C to give us the transportation and he said OK), this time they gave me the transportation coordinator number (Mrs. Lisa 657-289-5919). I called, her mail box was full I could not leave a message. 20 minutes later I called again, this time she picked up; I told her that William was not in the bus pick up list. She said something about the transportation is not provided for home school student, which really confused me! Then she said she was driving, and that when she got to her computer she’d find out why William is not getting the transportation. So I waited for her call.
As I was driving to the Optometry, Mrs. Lisa called. She said for some reason William name was not there so she requested the transportation office to add his name in. This would take a few days so probably he won’t be able to ride the bus until next Monday!
Things never come easy to us, isn’t it? I took the day off today from work mainly to renew my passport, but it turned out I had to deal with the school bus issue.
On the way back from the Optometry, I stopped by at Costco to buy William a hot dog and churro for lunch, then drove directly to school. It was 11:30 AM, I was so early so I stood in the shade waiting for his class to over at 12:15 PM.
12:17 PM, I saw he was walking with his classmates and teacher toward the gate. He ran toward me when he saw me. He did not seem to be happy at all, so I asked if he liked his class, he said “Yes”. I gave him the lemonade and the hot dog to eat while on the way home, but he said “I’m full!” and refused to eat; but when I offered him churro, he took it right away.
Mrs. Rodriguez is wearing black top on the far right
1:30 PM, Mr. C called to say sorry; he just did not understand why he filled out the same paperwork for Williams as his classmates but all his classmates got the transportation but not him. The class roster also said he has transportation. So somehow the transportation office did not get the request for William’s transportation. I guess this is why we never get a call from them about the pick up time; the one question that I asked Mr. C twice “What time the buss will come to pick up William?”. Mr. C was surprised that I did not get any call from them. Now we knew why!
So his first day went well to him, I think. He asked why the bus did not come today. I told him the bus will pick up him next week; so this week we’d drive to school. He kept asking Why? I simply told him that we needed to register for the school bus to pick up; and that takes time. Poor little boy, he was so excited to take the bus today!
