Dirty Diapers

Night 4 of our time at the lake, the professional organizer and I had a bit of a surprise. At 1 am our door handle began rattling and finally opened to the youngest child of the HR guru and the hip dad walking in. He’s about a year old (give or take) with red hair and a round child figure. A bit confused, we asked him what was up and we greeted with the response, “I want this.” In his hand were those snack packs of cheese and crackers. If only life was that simple for us: 1 am, I’m hungry, my parents are asleep, I know where the food is and those two ‘new’ people’s light is on in the room across the hall…

Of course we opened the crackers and took him back into his parents’ room to find that they were not only asleep they were OUT… out as in so far asleep nothing could wake them. This is all well and good as we placed him in his bed with his snack and began reading bedtime stories (by the way – they’ve changed since I was a kid and are much more PC now). So far, so good. The kids happy, the parents are asleep and it looks as though he’s going to pass out at any minute. Then comes the look…

Anyone who has taken care of kids knows that look, a slight turning up of the lips, a widening of the eyes with a little twinkle and then the eye-brows go up before all of it gets scrunched together and you hear it… thwap. A poopy diaper.

It’s been almost 17 years since I changed a diaper. I tried to wake up his mother, the HR guru, I looked at the professional organizer and then resigned to my fate; a dirty diaper at 2 am. Granted, the kid loves his getting his diaper changed, I mean who wouldn’t: you have someone’s undivided attention, you’re getting cleaned up and best of all - you don’t have to do it yourself. At least he was cooperative and responded well to my questions, “Is that right?” (the saddest part was that at 2 am, I expected a logical response from a one-year old.)

In the end, I was reminded of the times I changed my brother and fell asleep with a smile knowing that 1) I can still do it when I have to; 2) I know at least one person was appreciative of something I did for them that day; and 3) I’ll be ready if kids ever come up for me in my future.