She's cradling Grace, a 10-month-old baby, in her arms in a motherly embrace that spells love. That's because she loves Grace. The baby has the blackest of silky straight hair and matching long eyelashes combined with a sweet, sweet smile.
The rocking chair rocks, but only slightly. Grace is cocooned in a soft white blanket.
The young woman who rocks her, kisses her lightly on the head and talks gently to us while we watch -- she is not Grace's mother. She is Cathy, a primary care-giver in the infant rooms of the Downtown Baltimore Children's Centers (DBCC). Cathy has experience and all the qualifications, as do all the trained staff at the Children's Centers who spend the long daytime hours in this nurturing environment. She also has raised children of her own.
This is model day-care. It is a private, non-profit organization that provides high-quality day-care programs for parents living and working in the Baltimore metropolitan area.
I was there this particular cold winter day to see the infant day-care facility. I became an advocate of quality day-care.
We have recently all read the national statistics and national disgrace of flunking grades for many day-care operations. The vast majority of the 5 million children in the United States who spend their days in child-care centers are receiving poor to mediocre care, and among the most troubling findings in this data was the relatively lower quality of care for infants.
The researchers, who observed 400 centers nationwide, say that parents overestimate the quality of care their children are receiving. If that doesn't scare you, try this: At one in eight centers, the children's health and safety was found to be threatened.
Frightening isn't it? It is when you think Congress is debating whether to require millions of single mothers on welfare to work, which would then increase the need for more day care.
But in the spacious infant space here at Children's Center there are enough smiles, laughter and well-being to assure the visitor it can be done -- better day care.
The problem is it has to be paid for and we have to find better ways.
But back to the land of infants. Grace is placed lovingly in her crib in the nap room. There is a one-way mirror for parents to observe, and the door is always open.
"Our babies don't cry themselves to sleep here," says Edith Garrett, infant toddler coordinator.
And indeed the rhythms of feeding and sleeping are based on the babies' needs, not a tight schedule.
The key to this center's success story is that there are nine infants here this day, and four full-time staff members to care for them. A ratio of about one adult to two infants. Another plus is that the center tries to approximate a home-like environment for those in its care, children aged 4 months through kindergarten.
The cheerful kitchen section holds appliances, and while I am there one of the care-givers is washing toys that the children have been using.
Cleanliness is noticeable everywhere.
Susan Sandstrom is education coordinator, which means she trains staff, observes other day-care centers and programs and goes to seminars.
"Twenty percent of our children receive scholarship assistance. We probably lose money with our infant program because we have a high teacher-to-infant ratio," she says.
Ms. Sandstrom thinks the only hope for better centers is support from government, whether it be state or federal, and grants from the private sector. "I think it is terrible that most pay for day-care teachers is lower than a supermarket clerk, yet day-care people handle the most precious of commodities," she says.
"At DBCC, our staff is highly trained and they have to have 90-hour early childhood certificates," she says.
Nancy Kramer, executive director of DBCC's two downtown locations, attended the National Association for the Education of Young Children. She discusses the recent sad findings, and adds: "At the workshops we found that other industrialized countries subsidize the cost of child care. Historically those countries have been willing to pay for child care, but in the U.S., workers have paid the cost of going to work."