Stupid like a fox

Dropping Abigail off at daycare always made me feel like garbage. I tried listening to news, listening to music, sitting in silence. Nothing worked, the drive into work always bummed me out. Stewing in silence made things worse. NPR made me think of Ms. Cheeks (ohhh, I bet Abigail sympathizes with the plight of Guatamalen plantain pickers). Cheery music backfired, the Muppets Movie soundtrack just made me imagine Tank as a muppet being neglected by other muppets.

Old daycare always felt to me felt like I was dropping her off at a detention center. It was the TSA holding cell of daycares. Safe but boring. No feedback, no activities, no participation, no plan for growth. I felt confident she wasnt going to get shived by other babies but it turns out that not enough for me.

She's been at bourgie urban daycare for three days and we've already received more notes, more feedback and more positive interaction than we received the entire time we were at homeland security detention center for kids. When Mary picks her up at night they talk to her about what Cheeks did during the day. They send home a sheet full of notes detailing her entire day. Her second day there she took a wagon tour of the facility, did footprints on construction paper for valentines day and spent the rest of the time playing with toys or on a play mat.



Happy Valentines Day, here are my tiny feet























A lot of this is for our benefit. The footprints mean nothing to her. Fine. But damnit, daycare is expensive. Its for us but its thoughtful and sweet. The only things we ever got from TSA daycare were mystery clothes changes and unidentifiable guilt.

I worried it was stupid to move her this early. Yeah, Im stupid. Stupid like a fox!

Pope Penguinhat will be able to speak in Simpsons
references by age 3

Transition

Abigail started at her new daycare this week. We're both excited and apprehensive about the change. Time to see whether we had legitimate complaints or if we're completely insane. I checked with my bookie and completely insane is currently +400. Easy money.

I wasnt included in any of these discussions.

The uncertainty and regret I felt when dropping Abigail off for her last day at her original daycare surprised me. When I dropped Tank off in the morning the woman who watches her seemed sincerely sorry to see her go. "She's such a good baby! I'm going to miss my little (bosnian word I hope means beautiful girl and not daughter of jackass). Ohhh come here my good baby I miss you so much." Crap, now I feel like a jerk. Why are we moving her again?

Picking a new daycare was difficult. Its shocking that two neurotic worriers would have a difficult time picking a place to leave their first kid. I'm amazed we were ever able to leave the hospital.

We had two locations that were highly recommended by friends and both happened to have openings. Daycare 1 is on the outskirts of town, situated in an area that looks like it was farmland four years ago. Its  out there to accommodate all the folks fleeing the mean streets, the decaying urban jungle that is Des Moines.  Its a really nice facility, run by a spitfire of a woman who obviously loved the place, the kids and her staff. Its a little generic, a little sterile and very inconvenient for me. Mary would be forced to drop off and pick up every day. That's a lot to ask.

Daycare 2 is right in the middle of Des Moines. Its a parent co-op, a warm bourgie daycare more or less on the way to work for both of us. The parents are involved supporting the school. Most of the kids go on to the schools downtown where we want to send Abigail.

Both good choices, we each had a favorite. Mary favored sparkling urban sprawl daycare. I preferred warm urban daycare. In the end, the convenience of Des Moines won out. If we don't like Abigail's new digs theres a 90% chance its because we're crazy.

Crazy? I started to second guess our decision 20 minutes later. What if we don't like it? If we don't like this place I'm on the hook! There was a great place out in West Des Moines but nooooo I had to go with this one. Because of me, Abby is going to be stripping her way through beauty school. Marys daycare would have had her on the Supreme Court by the time she was 50.

Dont let me go to Rico's Uptown Beauty College!

My guilt dissipated as soon as I dropped Abby off at her new daycare. The clear superiority of the place absolved me of my neurotic garbage.

On my way out of the building I ran into someone I know from work. Ross works for the Department of Public Safety. When I think of the guy I think public safety. If its good enough for him it should be good enough for us.

Assuming we're not nuts.

Put me down crazy person

Note

Apologies on the lack of posting. We're in the midst of the legislative session and I dont have much time to write for fun. I hope to do better going forward.