When AT was two years old, she attended day care at my school. I worked part time, two days a week. Maya and I had "home days" and "school days". I so enjoyed it. AT loved the day care and they loved her. When you have a little one, of course, you miss more days of work because the little ones easily get sick. Once, about the middle of the day, Miss Kim called to say that AT was very sick. She would play happily then suddenly grab her stomach and bend over. She did it once while playing and once when on the changing table. I arrived at the day care, and, as I listened to the story, the staff was so concerned that I wondered aloud maybe I needed to go immediately to the doctor's office, or perhaps to the emergency room, but I then decided that I should watch AT for a while so I could better describe her symptoms to the doctor.
I loaded up AT in her car seat and we headed home. Before we stopped at the first stop sign, AT's happy baby voice said, "We go home, Mama?" I remember thinking that this did not sound like a sick child. Twenty minutes later, we arrived home and I still didn't see a sick child, so I called the day care to learn more about her symptoms so I could report to the doctor.
"We are so sorry. AT is not sick!" Since we had left, the staff had discovered why AT was clutching her stomach and bending over. She was grabbing herself in fear! While AT had been home the day before, the day car staff had drawn, on butcher paper, life-size tracings of the children. The tracings were taped on the walls around the room, including over the changing table. AT happily played, then would grab herself every time she looked up to find a tracing. "We've already taken all the drawings down!"
And we had an extra afternoon off!
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