The Family *roll

Take this kid. Please.

When Eleanor started daycare in January, we referred to her daycare provider as “New Mommy”. Back then, she was waking up at 5:45, wasn’t sleeping through the night and still required a lot of cajoling, bouncing, feeding and parental patience to keep her happy. I was more than happy to bundle her off to New Mommy 2 days a week while I did schoolwork. New Mommy Daycare was wonderful and I was thrilled to see her enjoy herself so thoroughly there. Sadly, that daycare is closing and we spent the last week scrambling to find a new place for outsourcing our parenting.

We considered putting Eleanor in a Montessori program where she would have spent her days with other toddlers. However, two things happened on Sunday that made me reconsider. We went to a 4th birthday party for one of the daycare children at a local gymnastics center. First of all, Eleanor took it upon herself to greet every parent and child who came to the party (she knew them all as they were her daycare buddies and their parents). She walked around, excitedly saying “HI!” and waving her hand as each person entered. Later, she was bouncing on a trampoline with a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old. The bouncing got a bit much for her and she eventually was being bounced on her face over and over again (don’t ask why I didn’t intervene; I’m not sure myself). The 4-year-old said to the 3-year-old “stop bouncing, Eleanor doesn’t like it” and led Ellie off the trampoline. I found the 4-year-old’s concern and the 3-year-old’s willingness to suspend possibly the most fun activity ever for the sake of Ellie’s face extremely touching. And I don’t think a roomful of other toddlers would every yield such cooperation and empathy. So Montessori is out and we are extremely fortunate to have found an in-home New New Mommy daycare that we hope will be as good as the last. She starts on Tuesday.