Lucy doesn't like Cheryl

Lucy loves her Day Care – she’s been there since October and she has loved every minute of it!

Mary Beth and Donna are her primary care takers in the infant room. She adores both of them and when she sees either one of them (especially Donna), her face lights up and she starts to giggle.

Brenna, Lisa, Brittany and Liz are a few of the other girls who watch after Lucy and again, she likes all of them.

For a time, she did not really care for Jackie and Courtney…….but she warmed up to them and is just fine when she’s under their care.
But for some reason, Lucy appears to not like Cheryl. I’m not sure why….Cheryl is quite a nice woman….she’s a grandmother for goodness sake! But Birdie just does not seem to like her.

Yesterday, Sean dropped Lucy off at the usual time, 7:30ish. He calls me and says that Lucy was crying and wailing when he left – that she crawled after him as he was leaving and stood at the gate (doorway) of the infant room and just cried and cried and cried…..

Should I go back he asked?

No, she’ll be fine I say. Mary Beth or Donna will be there soon.

It was awful Maria, Sean tells me. It was so hard to walk away…

I know honey, but she’ll be fine.

What I did not tell Sean is that after we hung up, I was worried about Lucy for ½ hour! It’s hard enough to leave her every day but now, all I could feel was guilt for knowing that my baby was upset and neither Sean nor I were there to snuggle and comfort her. So I obsessed about it for a bit, said a little prayer for her and then moved on…

Mary Beth called me at 8:30

Maria, was Lucy okay last night? Is there anything we should know? she asks.

What do you mean Mary Beth?

Well, when I got here at 8:15, Lucy was laying on the floor in front of the gate crying her little heart out! As soon as I scooped her up, and she nuzzled in to my shoulder, sob a couple times and drifted off to sleep……is everything all right?

My heart sank and truthfully, I might have choked up for a moment

No Mary Beth, everything is fine with Lucy…I mean she slept fine last night and was in a great mood this morning…..but Sean did call me when he dropped her off and said that Lucy was crying and did not want him to go….that she was more distraught than ever…..

I paused swallowed and decided I should just tell her…I mean I know I can be passive aggressive and all but this is my baby we’re talking about here.

I think MB (that’s what we call Mary Beth), Lucy may have an issue with Cheryl….this has happened before but never this bad….I don’t think she likes Cheryl……I blurt out

I hear MB chuckle and she says well, maybe it’s just a bit of stranger anxiety

Mary Beth! How can it be stranger anxiety, she sees every one there every day including Cheryl! I’m gonna be honest with you here, no mincing words, I don’t think she likes Cheryl! She’s done this before when Cheryl is on....and sometimes when I've picked her up at night and she's with Cheryl, she squirms out of Cheryl's arms! With the other girls, I have to pry Lucy out of their arms! I don’t think she likes Cheryl!

Mary Beth is silent and then just starts laughing...I love your honesty she says to me and yes you are probably right. I just wanted to make sure it was nothing else....

No MB, I think it’s Cheryl.

And then I proceeded to apologize for our daughter not liking Cheryl.

She's okay now says Mary Beth so we won’t worry about it

Call me if you need to Mary Beth and thanks for taking care of Lucy.

When I got there too pick her up, Liz and Brittany were both with her giving her extra loves and cuddles as they had heard about what happened earlier...and both agreed with my sentiment. But both said sometimes kids just don't like someone...and they know we're not down on Cheryl...and that Cheryl is a nice person...its just that for some reason, Lucy does not like her.

Now please, don’t get me wrong, Sean and I like Cheryl, She really is a nice woman and is quite easy to talk to.

But Lucy did it again this morning; Sean dropped her off, Cheryl was on and Lucy cried and cried. I spoke with Mary Beth and she said that Lucy was ok when she got there but as soon as Lucy saw Mary Beth, she started to cry and scrambled over to MB to be picked up and cuddled!

I don’t think Lucy likes Cheryl……

Or maybe Cheryl doesn’t like Lucy!