Whew. There has been so much going on, so much to share, but I just have not has a spare minute. My daughter is now into everything with such enthusiasm I can’t leave her alone for a single minute or she will disassemble the entire house. Just because she can. I can seriously spend an entire day following her around closing cabinets, putting things back into drawers, and sticking magnets back on the refrigerator. On the rare occasion when she takes a nap long enough that I can shower and eat a meal sitting down, I grab the computer to start writing but quickly have to stop because the story I want to tell has some fabulous pictures that accompany it and unfortunately I am not currently able to put up any new pictures. No, not because my site is broken or my photo gallery is having issues, but because I have simply taken too many pictures.

In the three years I have had my Nikon D70 I have taken well over 18,000 pictures. Yes, you read that correctly. EIGHTEEN THOUSAND. And now my poor computer simply refuses to accept another image. I have a memory card in my camera full of images of our trip to Bend, playing in the pool, Ana’s first Thanksgiving (which we hosted!), getting Ana’s ears pierced (she only cried for a second…then we gave her a lollipop), and my first attempt to put tiny pigtails in her hair (so adorable!) but I have to wait until Simeon does some creative organizing to make room or our computer will quite literally explode into a million pieces.

So we are all here. Alive and well. Keeping busy with planning Miss Ana’s first birthday celebration while simultaneously trying to teach her not to go down the stairs face first. Why she understands that she needs to slide down from our bed on her stomach but not on the stairs is beyond me…

Lately I have thinking a lot about getting back into shape (I never really had any baby weight to lose since I actually lost weight when I was pregnant, but I am still no where near where I would like to be) and I know the first step is going back to the gym. Simeon and I have a membership to 24 Hour Fitness that we used pretty regularly. That is, before we had Ana. Sim has actually been working out lately, but I haven’t gone since I was pregnant. I called around to the clubs in my area and found out about the day care they offer. It was reasonably priced, and super convenient, so I checked out the class schedules and decided to commit. This morning I got up, decided I would start with a Pilates class, and today Ana and I would go to the gym.

Knowing there would be paperwork to fill out, I arrived a little early, paid for my book of child care passes, and brought Ana into the Kids’ Club. I completed all the paperwork, said good-bye to Ana, and set her down to play. She quickly crawled off to check out all the new toys without giving me a second glance, so I felt comfortable sneaking off to my Pilates class.

When I came back to get Ana after my class (which, in case you were wondering, kicked my ass in the best possible way) the first thing I noticed was one of the ladies was holding Ana. Then I saw that her face looked a little red. Assuming she just fell and bumped her head or skidded on the carpet, I signed her out. The lady handed Ana over to me and I honestly gasped out loud. I quickly turned Ana around to face me and noticed her face was red and puffy, completely covered in scratches, and there were even a couple cuts that were actually bleeding. I asked what happened and the lady had the audacity to ask me if Ana had a rash when she got there. I turned Ana towards her and said this was not a rash. She was obviously scratched to the point that blood was drawn. I asked what happened and all the employees got quiet and kinda looked at each other. One of the other moms was picking up her child and said she was sure they couldn’t assume responsibility, but she was sure it was her daughter’s fault. I told her I didn’t think she should leave her daughter in day care knowing she was likely to attack the other children. She yelled back at me, “I don’t know how many children you have, but this is just something they do!” and then proceeded to slam the door on her way out.

I turned back to the workers and told them this was absolutely unacceptable and demanded they refund my money for the Kids’ Club because there was no way I was going to pay for my child to be neglected. One of the ladies told me she would take me to the manager so we could deal with the situation. He apologized, promptly refunded my money, and said he would have a talk with the other employees. While we were still talking, another mother came in with her son in her arms and pointed out his face which was covered with marks similar to Ana. Seeing that both children were clearly attacked by the same person, he said they would make a note on the other girl’s chart and not allow her back into the day care center. I thanked him for trying to handle the situation, gathered up Ana and headed to our car. As soon as I got into the parking lot I completely lost it and started crying. I felt so guilty for dropping off Ana, for leaving her in sub-standard care, and for the marks all over her face. Of course the first time I ever leave Ana without close friends or family something awful has to happen. I am seriously going to have a hard time leaving her any time soon!

Now don’t get me wrong, I understand things happen. I know how children, especially babies, don’t always understand that their actions have consequences. I know babies get hurt all the time and turn out just fine. What I cannot understand is how something like this can happen. There were three employees working the day care and only four children. The workers clearly were not watching the kids. Ana could have been scratched before they were able to separate her from the other girl, sure. But the number of scratches in multiple places means it didn’t happen in the blink of an eye. And certainly the fact that TWO children were cut and scratched obviously means there was a lapse in supervision.

But the employees are not the only ones to blame. The mother of the “bully girl” knew her daughter was the culprit, which means it has most likely happened before. I don’t understand how she could, in good conscience, leave her child knowing she has a tendency to lash out on other children. At the very least she should have mentioned something to the workers so they could have kept a closer eye on her.

I took some pictures a couple hours after the fact. Keep in mind that I washed off the dried blood and the majority of the redness and swelling had already gone down. What you still see on Ana’s face are the deep cuts and scratches. And even those don’t look nearly as bad in the photos as they do in person. My poor baby!