Deny my child, see what you get.

I picked up Mateo yesterday, and when I got there, I noticed the parents of one of the little girls was there and it seemed like they had been there for a bit already. When I looked in Mateo's cubby, there was a party gift bag. Now it made sense. It was the little girl's birthday.

Right after I made that deduction, one of the daycare ladies told me about the party and how there was cake.

"Since we didn't know if Mateo could have cake or not, we put him in the high chair (read: locked him up) and gave him crackers (read: you can't participate in cake fun, you loser!)," she told me.

"Oh." I said. "Well, he can have cake. For the next time," I told her.

"There is plenty left over, so he can have some tomorrow," she said.

"Okay," I said. "Good."

Then I thought about it. How mean is it to locked up a kid, not allowing him to participate or at least eat at the table with the other kids, and having to eat crackers in lieu of tasty cake? My poor baby. Sad, very sad indeed.

At some point Mateo had grabbed a baby rattle and was lugging it around with him while I held him. I knew he had it, but by the time we left, I didn't think about it.

When I put him in his car seat, I realized he still had a grip on it.

That's what they get for not giving my kid cake. Locking him up as if he were a criminal. Now he's resorting to crime and stealing daycare toys!

(I brought it back today and told them he took it and it's dirty and needs to be cleaned.)