Voyage of the Mimi
"Everywhere journeying...."[fn.67]

		ome days, after work, I pick up Mimi from her all-day day-care pre-school: "All Aboard" (Mt Kisco NY). I park in a "15 Minute Pick Up and Drop Off" space; I walk up the ramp to the front door; I enter the building; I walk the short entry hall; I open a second door; I key in my security code; the person at the front desk lets me in; I go through the security door; I turn left and walk down a longish corridor where I can see different groups of toddlers in their rooms thru the glass walls; I go thru another door and down more corridor past a couple more classes. At last I come to the door to Mimi's room ("The Ponies"). I open the door, and find Mimi engaged in some activity with the other children and teachers, or since the door is all glass, sometimes I see Mimi in the room before I open the door.... Time to leave. Sometimes, when Mimi sees me standing in the entrance to her classroom, she spontaneously stops what she is doing and comes over to me. Sometimes I have to say to her: "Come on, Mimi, time to leave!" Sometimes it takes considerable coaxing to get her to leave.... It's winter, so Mimi's preparations for going home involve at least putting on her coat and me zipping it up, putting on her knitted hat, and pulling up the hood of her coat over her head. This reminds me of an astronaut preparing for a space walk (Mimi's coat is quite bulky, and just her hands and the round circle of her face are visible once she is zipped up). After she is "suited up", Mimi expects and gets her little Beany Baby stuffed animal: "Ginger cat" [See below], and her "Baba" (bottle). Firmly holding on to her Ginger and Baba, Mimi turns toward the door and begins walking forward (her "space walk"...). I walk beside Mimi down the hall, opening the doors for her to walk through, back to the security desk, then out of the building, and down the ramp to my car, where Mimi temporarily hands me Ginger and her Baba, so that she can use her hands to help herself clamber up into her car-seat. Once Mimi has got herself into her car seat, I strap her in, and give her back Ginger and Baba. I get in the front seat, and we drive off from day care, back home for the evening -- until Mimi will return to day care either the next day, or if it's Friday, on Monday....
omehow, I find this image of Mimi the brephonaut (brephos is Greek for: infant) embarked on her spacewalk from day care to the car (embarking for her voyage from All Board to our home...), "symbolic", and "representative" -- and poignant. As Mimi sets off in her coat like a spacesuit, with her Ginger and Baba, what does she think about and feel? Does she summon up resolution to tear herself away from what she is doing in school, to do what she now has to do: to get on with "getting going"? Does she just forget that her "school" world exists until she returns the next morning (and forget about home during the day)? Her Ginger cat and Baba may be, in Winnicottean terms, "transitional objects", but they are also: continuity objects. Wouldn't it be more secure and sensible if Mimi lived in a small communal setting where several families raised their children in common, and she did not have to "switch worlds" twice a day?
Somewhere in The Tale of Genji (ref. lost), it says: "Nothing lasts forever in this world, where one season changes into another." But it seems desirable to have as secure and encompassing a foundation of continuity in our life as we can, on the firmest basis of which to face whatever dislocations we cannot avert. Winnicott called this a "holding (also: facilitating) environment".
Am I "projecting" my own fears and disappointments, in seeing Mimi, as she ventures forth from day care each evening, either as (1) a resolute little trooper (brephonaut...), or else as (2) perhaps oblivious of or even repressing what is happening to her? And, of course, not just to her, but to many of us in this society, each day? (I daily shuttle between home and office.)
		Mimi photo at top of page: About 7:30AM Saturday morning (22Feb03; Age ~ 23 mos.). Mimi is watching a Sesame Street video: "Elmo in Grouchland", in which a nasty man steals Elmo's blanket (Elmo's "Binky" -- like Mimi's Ginger cat [See below]...) just because the man is nasty. Elmo is greatly distressed at losing his Binky, but Elmo's friends finally help Elmo get his Binky back from the nasty man. Thus emphasizing the importance of having good friends.

In March, 2002, my wife and I adopted Mimi from China. On January 28th, 2002, we learned the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCCA), in Beijing, had picked Tong Miao Miao for us (see "Letter of Seeking Confirmation from Adopter"). March 15th, 2002, we returned from China with our new daughter. Tong Miao Miao, now: Mimi, "turned 2" on April 1st (2003) -- they really are "the terrible twos".... [For information about Chinese adoption, go to: Families with Children from China (F.C.C.).]

E-mail me your thoughts.

 
See portrait of Mimi at age 2 years 8 months
See more cute pictures of Mimi (incl. baby pics)
 

See	pictures of Mimi from local newspaper, at Chinese Bluegress concert, one day before her 6th birthday: 1 - 2 - 3.

---

Meet Mimi's Maine Coon kitty friend, Abiko.
 
See child's lost stuffed animal, looking for its owner....

---

Ask: What will the world be like when Mimi is a mature adult?
 
"Shipwreck with Spectator" (Life as a voyage...).
Touching Maurice Ravel opera about a child: "L'Enfant et les Sortilèges".

---

Learn  about Bank Street College's multimedia science education project: The Voyage of the Mimi.
Go to website Table of Contents. Return to Brad McCormick's home page. Go to site map.

---

http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/sq/Mimi030222.html Copyright © 2003,2004 Brad McCormick, Ed.D. bradmcc@cloud9.net 31 March 2007CE (2007-03-31 ISO 8601) v05.02 Mimi with her constant companion: a Beanie Baby cat ("Nip") she calls: "Ginger". Mimi often loses Ginger, which results in long searches which always eventually find her. Sometimes Mimi plays very roughly with Ginger (Ginger once had whiskers...) -- this Beanie Baby must be a very well made little toy! See another picture of Mimi with Ginger! (28Nov04; Mimi 3yrs 8mos -- with paint on her hand)		Some Mimi words:  Mimi     Meaning Baba Mimi's bottle (var.: "Warm Baba", "Milk Baba"). Magain Play the video tape again. Poopie head Shit for brains.(?) Uppie! "Lift me up!" (So Mimi can get into something she shouldn't) Note: Ever since she learned it was an option, Mimi always wants: "Warm Baba!" Is part of the reason that she enjoys making us jump through hoops to warm her Baba? If it took us more effort to give her cold Babas, would Mimi prefer her Baba cold instead? ~ At a certain point, Mommy made Mimi go 'cold turkey: No more Baba.... In the immediacy of stimulating engagement with Mommy, Mimi eagerly agreed she wanted to be "a big girl" and give up her Baba. In the long empty time of trying to go to sleep alone in her bed, Mimi's real need for her Baba returned, resulting in fits of screaming demanding that Mommy stay with her -- even a year later. Was it a good idea for Mommy to make Mimi give up her Baba, considering the suffering it has caused Mimi, and also the toll it has taken on Mommy who has had to spend hours each nite trying to get hysterical Mimi to go to sleep? Mimi also drinks less liquids without her Baba, which cannot be good for her kidneys (etc.). Older (3.5 yrs) Mimi words:  Mimi     Meaning No...oh I won't [whatever]. I'll fight you as long as you try to get me to. Ple...ease, Daddy I want [whatever]. I'll throw a tantrum until you let me do/have it.