Fired up about "fine"

I think the infant room at daycare is turning into the ragged edge of the universe. I walk in there in the afternoons and ask how the day was, and it's always the same.

"Oh, she was fine today."

"Yeah?"

"Had a couple toddler moments."

"Oh? Anything else?"

"Not really. She had a fine day today."

Thankfully boring conversations can't kill you. The trouble with the infant room is that it's full of infants, and Lyla doesn't fit that description anymore. So these teachers are excellent at the rocking, the tummy time, the bottle feeding, and all that, but I don't think they know what to do with Lyla. They like her very much, but I think they're counting down the days until she moves to the toddler room.

So am I. In fact, tomorrow when I pick her up, I'm going to insist that they transition her to the toddler room next week instead of the week after. It's in Lyla's best interest, perhaps, but really it's in my best interest. I just can't have that conversation again. "She had a fine day today." Please. I have 140 students to their 8 and I can come up with something more specific than "fine" for every one.

I'll try not to sound like such a dick tomorrow.

Hey, in other news, Julie invented a hilarious game called Taco. Let me see if I can remember the rules.


1. Strip the child and place her in the center of a fleece blanket.

2. Gather up the corners of the blanket slowly, to build suspense.

3. Say "TACO!" while grabbing the child and wrapping her in the blanket.

4. Unwrap the child and repeat.

Here's how a round of Taco sounds:

"Lyla, are you ready for Taco?"

"Ta-ta!"

"TACO!"

"HEE-EE-EE-EE-EE! More."

I sit down every single night and write about my daughter. How dare anyone spend the day with her and sum up the experience with "fine."