Daycare
Joy pulled her minivan up in front of Sara’s house the next morning, tooting the horn twice and then glancing at her kids in the rear-view mirror. They seemed to be fine, though Rachel was still looking cranky. Joy hoped her little girl would get over her sour mood soon, her constant whining was getting tiresome.
Rachel sat in her car-seat in the middle row of the minivan with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. She was going to daycare now, daycare! Kindergarten had been bad enough. What kind of boring, mindless activities could she be expect to be subjected to now? In the car-seat beside her, Danny had no such worries of course. Dressed in a Toy Story t-shirt and loose blue sweat pants his feet were still free of shoes or socks. Danny was perfectly content to swing his dangling legs back and forth and munch on his thumb.
Meanwhile Rachel was again disgusted with her outfit. Today Mommy had put her in a blue and white checked dress with short sleeves and a hem that fell to her mid-calves. Underneath she wore a Tangle inspired cartoon print pink pull-up. She couldn’t take solace in the fact that she had shoes today because they were ugly white kiddie sneakers with Barbie decals. The laces were covered in glitter and her clumsy fingers meant she’d need to ask for someone’s help to tie them. The frilly white socks only added to their silliness. Though they matched the girly dress and the big pale blue bow Mommy had fixed atop her head.
As they waited in the car the front door of the house swung open and Sara appeared leading Brian out by the hand. Rachel felt slightly better upon seeing her friend in his toddler getup. Sara had dressed the young man in a pair of blue and white pinstriped train engineer shortalls over a bright red t-shirt. A Thomas the Tank Engine decal was even visible on the bib of his shortalls. Once again Sara had seen no need to put shoes on the twenty-something, so he padded barefoot down the front steps, holding his mommy’s hand.