For all his problems with speech and language, Ian loves playing with words. He loves foreign languages and finds misspellings very funny. He also loves creating his own words. Sometimes the words are a mash-up of things that he's picked up from his video games and cartoons. Sometimes he dreams them up on his own. 

Lately, his favorite word is "invisi-gal," which basically means invisible. I suspect there must be a superhero called Invisi-Gal on some PBS show, but I'm not sure. 

He loves using the word, invisi-gal, and will use it whenever he can. I'll come down to the basement and ask, "Ian, where's Jonah? Is he down in the basement with you?" Ian will cock his head, look me in the eyes, and say with a smirk, "No, he's invisi-gal." 

Yesterday, I ran around the house doing last minute chores before Ian's bus showed up. We had a full afternoon.  I had already made dinner for my kids and their cousins. I had packed up Ian's equipment for swimming. I left a note for Jonah to grab a slice of leftover pizza when he got off his camp bus. 

At 3:00, Ian's bus wasn't there. No big deal, I thought. It's the first week of summer school, and there was a new driver. At 3:15, no Ian. I called his school to find out if the busses had left on time. The secretary advised to be patient, because it was only Day 2 of summer school. At 3:30, no Ian. I called the bus company. The dispatcher put me on hold and made some calls. She said that Ian would be there in two minutes. At 3:45, Ian showed up. 

What happened? The bus driver forgot Ian was on the school bus. The school bus aide knew he was there, but didn't know the new bus route and couldn't communicate with the driver, because they don't speak the same language. So, the driver drove Ian all the way back to the bus depot before she realized that there was a kid still on the bus. 

The real nightmare of a special ed mom is that her child will be forgotten in a school bus. There are several children that have died in the back of overheated school busses in bus depots. We're very aware that this can happen at any time to our kids.

As I cried to the school district's bus manager this morning about this incident, she said that no harm had been done. He hadn't been left alone in bus parking lot and died of heat exhaustion. I explained to the bus manager that harm had been done. My kid wasn't a bag of potatoes that was simply being taken from point A to point B. He's a human being. He trusted adults and they let him down. 

I'm really shaken by this incident. My son was invisi-gal on the school bus.