Composed in 1914 and revised in 1941, this set of six pieces for orchestra depict, in a tuneful and richly colorful American impressionist style, experiences and states of mind in a child's day. The work, probably patterned on the 1903 Sinfonia Domestica of Richard Strauss, was championed by Chicago Symphony conductor Frederick Stock, who conducted its premiere.

Each movement in the suite is accompanied by charming and humorous program notes written by the composer from the point of view of a baby (perhaps the composer's daughter Ginny). "En Voiture!" (All Aboard!) describes being bundled up "after my second breakfast" by an old nurse (open fifths and wind solos), and strapped into the baby carriage. The music becomes gradually airy and light like a sunny day, with an "all aboard" rhythm interspersed. The title of this movement suggests Carpenter's awareness of Debussy's Children's Corner. The second adventure is with "The Policeman," in a slightly over-important march tempo that breaks for some wisecracks: "Some sounds seem like smells. Some sights have echoes...for instance, The Policeman...round like a ball, taller than my father...I try to analyze his appeal...I suspect it is his eye, and the way he walks. He walks like Doom." Adventure No. 3 is "The Hurdy-Gurdy," which alternates between a hurdy-gurdy waltz in reduced orchestration evoking that instrument and a passage for full orchestra, with hints of traditional tunes and popular songs wafting through. "Suddenly, at the climax of our excitement, I feel the approach of a phenomenon that I remember. It is the Policeman. He has stopped the music. He has frightened away the dark man and lady with their music box...but far off again I hear the forbidden music. Delightful forbidden music!" Adventure No. 4 occurs at "The Lake"; it is the most French and harmonically lush of the six movements, "I feel the quiver of the little waves as they escape from the big ones and come rushing up over the sand," Carpenter's baby says. "Their fear is pretended...Waves and Sunbeams!...This is My Lake!" The fifth adventure concerns some "Dogs": "We pass on. Probably there is nothing more in the World. If there is, it is superfluous. There IS. It is Dogs!...not one of them—all of them...they laugh, they fight, they flirt, they run...It is tremendous!" The last adventure is interior and is called "Dreams." Sounds from the day gradually quiet down, although impressions of the day's adventures continue to enter the child's reverie: "I lie very still. I am quite content...most of the time, my Mother and my Nurse have but one identity in my mind, but at night or when I close my eyes, I can easily tell them apart, for my Mother has the greater charm...how very large the world is. How many things there are!" Between a lullaby and Scheherazade-like textures, the music quietly closes.

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