Week 41 – Da Da Day

Another crazy week has come and gone. This one, however, was marked with going back to daycare after a week’s absence, sharing, a day with daddy and perhaps a first step?

Elise went back to daycare on Wednesday and this process is clearly more traumatic for Meredith and I than it is for Elise. I know many of you are tired of hearing about us go on and on about daycare, but the truth of the matter is that there is this ingrained notion that we are doing something wrong by sending our child away with strangers for nine hours a day, three days in a row. Perhaps this ingrained notion gained traction last week when an acquaintance who we referred to our daycare, called Meredith and told her that she had gone to visit and had a bad feeling about the place. Ugh. The guilt cometh and the guilt goeth, but the guilt always returnith. Without getting into specifics (and frankly we don’t know this person all that well) there was nothing that she said that would make us think Elise wasn’t fine. Still, we obviously worry. Couple her concerns with our concerns (Elise doesn’t nap at daycare very well, she always comes home with a new rash or scratch or something and the information we get is sometimes inaccurate about diaper changes, sleep times and activities through the day) and this daycare thing has us stressed out. Plus, did you read the report that kids who spend time in daycare from a young age are destined to become bullies?! Awesome – my daughter will be the one that all the other parent’s kids have to worry about in school. The phone will ring, “Mr. Molloy, I’m sorry to inform you, but Elise beat up her 15th child this month and we have to expel her. Perhaps you should have been a better parent and stayed home with her more often when she was young.”


My fears of her being a menace to society subside somewhat when she discovered a fun and extremely repetitive game this week. It’s called ‘sharing’ and it involves… sharing. The rules are simple. Elise starts by picking something up (usually her rubber duckie in the bath) and holds it up for you to take. Then you’re supposed to say ‘thank you for sharing with Daddy – now Daddy shares with Elise!’ and you hand it back to her. She then smiles broadly, and repeats the process over… and over… and over… it really never ends. I’m glad it’s sharing and not something more bullying like hitting, but after the first 2 to 300 times you play, it gets pretty boring (for us, not her).

The best part of this week came however, when Meredith went to visit friends and left me to care for Elise for the day on Saturday. We had a blast together. I’m fairly certain that as my life someday flashes before my eyes, I will have a very nice collection of memories from this one day alone. The entire day was filled with coming up with new games, exploring the back yard and getting dirty together, and going to the playground to play on the swings, and especially the slide! The slide ruled. I would start her at the top of one of the slides that has a bump in the middle. She’d start her way down with my hands firmly on her back and stomach. As she neared the bottom, I would grasp her even more firmly, and fly her off the bottom of the slide, flipping her upside down in the air over my head. She screamed with delight and her smile reached from ear to ear. Seriously, all I want to do with the rest of my life is send Elise down the slide. If the ‘sharing’ game could be the ‘slide’ game, we’d be all set.

Lastly, both Meredith and I witnessed Elise take her first step on Sunday! She was cruising along the couch, let go for a minute, took a step toward my laptop bag and then grabbed hold of it. Problem was, I don’t think Elise noticed she did it. She is ready to walk - she just doesn’t seem to have the confidence for it yet. It’s an interesting process to watch her develop confidence in this particularly difficult skill. We know she’ll figure it out in time and we’re not pushing. There is no need to rush her through anything – frankly, I am loving the stage she is in.

PS – Elise is firmly saying both dada and mama, which is kind of cool.