On Tuesday we had an unfortunate incident when, through an unbelievable series of coincidences and misunderstandings, I failed to pick up Captain Jelly Belly at the school bus stop. He stayed on the bus and went for an extra long ride, while I frantically called the school to locate him, and then the bus returned to our stop at the end of its run to drop him off. Alls well that ends well, but man, it was a really, really long 20 minutes until we had him back, and my heart was beating at maximum speed for at least another hour afterwards.

The best part of this event, though, was the support of Gal Smiley. I’d taken her with me to the bus stop and when I started to get really concerned that the bus was not arriving, she interrupted her game of “see how far I can throw this rock” to pat me on the arm and say, “Don’t worry, Mommy. Everything will be alright.” So sweet.

A few minutes later, when I explained that we didn’t know where the bus was and that we had to go back inside the house to call the school, she had this to say:

“It’s okay, Mommy. I’m a Superhero. Finding buses is my Superpower. I’ve been to the bus stop lots of times [Editor’s note: twice] with Daddy and I always find the bus.”

And despite my fears, I had to smile at that one. Later, we were back at the stop, as instructed by the school, waiting for the bus to arrive, and Gal Smiley got all excited, “See! See Mommy! There is the bus! I told you I could find it.”

Who was that masked girl?