Daycare Is More Than Childcare: Chi at 7 Months
- Jazmyn Moses
- Jul 3
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 5
🎥 Watch Chi’s 7-Month Video Update
Prefer video? Watch our one-minute update on Chi’s first seven months, daycare adventures and favorite new activities.
The last time we updated the blog, Chi was 3 months old.
At the time, we had just survived the newborn stage and were figuring out what life looked like as a family of three. We shared her birth story, talked about those first 90 days and celebrated her starting daycare.
Now she’s 7 months old.
The baby who arrived just before Thanksgiving is crawling all over the place, pulling herself toward anything she can reach, holding her own bottle and developing strong opinions about what belongs on her plate. Her first two teeth have finally broken through, and they seem to be helping with her latest hobby: eating.
I’ve been telling people lately that my favorite thing to do is eat, and I’m starting to think I should have been giving that answer my whole life instead of saying swimming. Chi appears to agree.
Her favorite is still sweet potato puree, but she’s also a fan of waffles for breakfast, graham crackers for a snack and breast milk in between. We’re still nursing and, if all goes according to plan, we’ll keep going until she turns one.
Why We Chose Daycare
A lot has changed over the last few months, but one thing I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about is daycare.
Before she was born, Anthony and I had different opinions about daycare. Anthony had spent years hearing reasons not to send kids. My experience was different. I attended daycare as a child. My sister used daycare for her children. One of my grandmothers spent her career in education and got her start in daycare settings.
So when I thought about childcare, I wasn’t thinking about a last resort or a necessary inconvenience. I saw it as another place where children learn and grow.
Even before she was born, I liked the idea of Chi being around other children, following a routine and experiencing things that are hard to recreate at home every day.
Finding the Right Fit
When I was pregnant, I thought Chi would start daycare at 6 weeks old. Then she got here, the holidays rolled around and reality set in.
Those extra weeks together turned out to be exactly what I needed. Looking back, I think all three of us benefited from having a little more time together before starting that next chapter.
By February, though, we were ready.
The first daycare checked all my boxes. It was clean, professional and organized. The challenge wasn’t the quality of care. The challenge was consistency.
After Chi was sent home a second time because of staffing ratios, I spent the day driving around Cleveland with her looking for a new option. I called centers, followed up on waitlists and toured facilities until I found a solution.
By the end of the day, one of our preferred centers had an opening in their infant room.
A few days later, Chi was enrolled and starting fresh. Honestly, it felt like a blessing. And it has been.
How Daycare Helped Chi Grow
Her teachers tell us she loves watching the older children and trying to keep up with whatever they’re doing. That curiosity follows her home.
Chi is actually a very sweet and calm baby. She’s content to observe a room before deciding whether she wants to join in. But once she’s ready to move, she wants to move.
She’s crawling circles around her playpen now. Diaper changes take twice as long as they used to because she no longer believes in lying still. The baby who once stayed put on her changing table is now rolling, twisting, standing and reaching for whatever catches her attention.
She’s also figured out how to claw at the tabs on her diaper and remove it herself, which suggests she has developed strong feelings about clothing in general. At the moment, those feelings appear to favor nudity.
If I had to put money on it, I’d bet she’ll be walking before her first birthday. Her teachers think so, too.
Chi has always been alert, curious and engaged. You can see it in photos from her first couple weeks of life. Daycare didn’t create that. But it absolutely gave her a place to express her curiosity.
What We Didn’t Know About Childcare
One thing I’ve come to appreciate is how comprehensive childcare really is. In fact, while I was working on this blog post, I got a call from Chi’s daycare asking us to pick her up because they noticed a possible health concern.
As new parents, it would have been easy for us to look at the issue and assume it was nothing. But daycare providers spend their days caring for children, so they know what to look for and when something deserves a closer look.
What might seem like a normal rash to us could be the beginning of something more serious, like hand, foot and mouth disease or another illness that spreads quickly among children. That level of attention is invaluable.
Before becoming parents, I thought daycare was mostly about supervision, socialization and learning. What I’ve come to realize is that quality childcare is much more comprehensive than that. They’re paying attention to children’s health, development, behavior and wellbeing throughout the day.
The Systems Behind Quality Childcare
The communication has also been a gift. Through the app, photos and daily reports, we get a glimpse into a part of Chi’s day we would otherwise miss. We know when she ate, when she napped and what she spent the day doing.
As working parents, those little details matter more than I expected. There is comfort in knowing that so many caring eyes are looking out for Chi when Anthony and I can’t be there ourselves.
As I’ve learned more about what quality childcare actually involves, I’ve found myself becoming curious about something I never expected: compliance.
I’ve started paying attention to regulations, staffing requirements, documentation and the systems operating behind the scenes. What started as a search for childcare has turned into a growing appreciation for everything required to operate a quality center.
That curiosity has stayed with me. More on that another time.
Life Outside Daycare
When Chi isn’t at daycare, there’s a good chance she’s at the Children’s Museum.
Her great-aunt gifted us a membership, and it has become one of our favorite weekend activities. The padded play area gives her room to crawl, explore and interact with other children in a safe environment. It’s also helping Anthony and me learn more about her interests before we spend money filling our house with toys she may never touch. We try to visit on Saturdays and save Sundays for church.
One of my favorite moments from the past few months happened when my line sister and her children drove from Columbus to Cleveland Heights just to meet Chi. They spent the afternoon loving on her before we all went out to eat together.
That dinner felt special. One of our favorite things to do together has always been trying new restaurants, so getting to bring our children along for the experience felt like a full-circle moment. It was Chi’s first restaurant outing, and as a fellow foodie, I was probably more excited than she was.
Honestly, she did great. Which isn’t surprising, considering she seems to have inherited my favorite hobby: eating.
Life feels full these days. Seven months in, the biggest surprise isn’t how quickly Chi is growing. It’s how much Anthony and I are still learning about childcare, about development, and about the systems that help children thrive. But mostly, we’re learning about Chi.
📸 The Photos Tell It Best
Explore more favorite moments from this stage.
Comments