Sat 10 Nov 2007
Grrr. GRRR. That’s the sound of two Mama Bears!
Posted by Liza under The Real Live Boy
I picked Noah up from day care one evening this week, and immediately noticed that something was wrong.
There were two small scabs forming under his right eye. One was about a millimeter in diameter, the other, a bit more than twice that size.
“What happened!?? What happened to Noah’s face?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, that was Jane.* I was hoping her Mama would get here before you did so she could see what Jane did and know that she has to trim Jane’s fingernails.”
Yeah, ok, good idea, but WHAT HAPPENED???
“So, what happened?”
“Oh, there’s something else too. C’mere, Noah. Let me lift up your shirt.”
There is a bandaid on Noah’s right shoulder blade. Removed, it reveals a small scratch that seems maybe to have bruising around it.
“I’m sorry. You can ask Miss Director* what happened here, she was here too and saw the whole thing. John* is sneaky, and he just snuck up on Noah while Noah was playing by himself. I saw him just as he was about to bite Noah and I grabbed Noah as fast as I could, but I wasn’t quite fast enough.”
“I understand. But what was going on? How did Jane end up going after Noah’s face?”
“They were playing together by the toy shelf, and they’d pulled all the toys down. Jane is aggressive. When she wants a toy someone else has, that Jane, she gets aggressive. She wants whatever toy someone else has.”
I sit on the floor, kissing and cuddling Noah, who seems completely fine. Throughout the discussion, every time we look over at Jane, she smiles and babbles, and Noah points and says “Dane!”
The next morning, I called our church day care, which is NAEYC accredited, and asked about getting on the wait-list. They don’t have any openings right now, but they often have openings come up around the holidays or early in the year. And because we’re church members, we go on the priority waiting list.
Special bonus? More time driving by choo-choos with Noah! That’s my good spin on the fact that going to the church day care will add between 20-60 minutes to my commute, depending on traffic and time of day. It isn’t *far* from my office, but they are on opposite ends of Atlanta’s downtown/midtown business district.
I’ll be dropping off the waitlist paperwork on Sunday.
That decision was affirmed yesterday, when Noah came home with a bruise and bump on his forehead. Which they didn’t mention to Jill.
Yes, toddlers fight and bite and fall. But I’m not feeling safe. It should happen less.
And like what was going on with Emilin, Noah still cries and resists leaving the house almost every morning.
*Names have been changed to protect the guilty. And the innocent.
November 11th, 2007 at 9:19 am
That was a big adjustment for me at Dillon’s chid care. I’m a big believer of “hands to yourself” and he is old enogh to understand. But that is not enforced at his school — it is more of a rough and tumble, let kids be kids, type of place. So he would come home with unknown bruises or complaints about other kids poking him. We stuck it out because we really do like our director and agree, in general, with her philosophy. She also took our suggestion and created an incident report form so at least some times we have a record of what happened. And, Dillon has been dong really well — more confident, more secure when we drop him off, and learning basic skills — so we are happy we stuck it out. But, it was a hard decision and he was probably there more than a year before I decided I liked it. I hope you guys find something that works for you and Noah. And, I am a fan of NAEYC accredited schools, so I hope that works out.