commuting with caila

Commuting by yourself is easy. But commuting with a 4 year old is a different story. For one thing, they walk much slower than you and they get tired and bored easily; this alone makes you want to go back home and forget the whole thing, especially if you’re running late. However, the good thing is you get to experience it through the eyes of a child. This is what happened last night.

Hubby had to go somewhere right after work (he didn’t have time to pick us up from home because he left work late and the traffic was heavy), so Caila and I had to go to the KFC Service Team Meeting on our own. Usually, during the times that I have to commute with Caila and/or Sophie, we would take a taxi because it’s much more faster and easier. But yesterday, there were no cabs in sight, so the only choice we had was to take the bus and metro. And Caila loved it!

When she saw the bus approaching, she excitedly told me “Mommy, it’s a double-decker bus! The double-decker bus is coming! I want to ride it, Mommy. I like the double-decker bus!”

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And as soon as we entered the bus and I tapped the card on the machine, she practically pulled my hand up the stairs to the upper level. I thought she would want to sit in the front, but she settled on one of the middle seats and immediately looked out the window, enjoying her view.

For the first five minutes, she just stared out the window as everything passed by her eyes. After a while, she got bored at watching the same things (cars, roads, buildings) and sat back in her seat. I wanted to take a nice picture of her, but she wouldn’t let me. The only “decent” one I got was this

kulit!

Some time later, she told me “Mommy, I want to ride the choo-choo train. I don’t like the bus anymore.”

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Luckily, the ride was pretty fast and soon we got off the bus in front of the metro station, rode the escalators to the platform, and waited for the train.

It was already dark (after all, it was 7:30pm) so the only view Caila could see outside the train were different lights, but she was still amazed at what she saw, again practically sticking her face on the glass to stare outside.

But after a few minutes, just like what happened in the bus, she got bored at looking at the same views that she finally sat down on her seat and just looked at the other passengers.

Finally, the train stopped at our station where we got off, rode the elevator, walked to the bus stop, and waited for a ride. The traffic was heavy and again, there were no vacant cabs at all, but after five minutes of waiting, a bus that would pass by the place we needed to go to arrived. Although it was also a double-decker bus, we just sat on the lower deck this time because our trip wasn’t that long. This time, she enjoyed looking at the lights of the cars and buildings that were much more closer than when we were on the first bus and the metro.

By 8pm, we got down at the bus stop, walked a few minutes, and finally arrived at the meeting place...tired, slightly hungry, and late. Fortunately, food had been served and the others had just started eating, and Caila had brought snacks and a bottle of water which she had taken from time to time during our journey so it was ok.

And of course when Hubby fetched us later that night, our little girl started her endless chatter about her experience on her favourite commute transportations. It made Hubby almost jealous that his eldest daughter was able to ride a double-decker bus in Dubai before he did!