“No sticking your hands or feet in the messy stuff,” I informed her. She wasn’t paying a bit of attention to me. She was staring at the colors on my comforter. “You like that huh?” I watched her while I waited for Heath to return and decided she wasn’t looking at anything. Her focus was on the fist in her mouth. I had a lot to learn about my child.
Heath returned with a plastic grocery bag. He handed it to me. “I don’t think you need a thirty-gallon garbage bag for one little diaper, man.”
“I guess I had better start saving these,” I told him.
“Yeah, I got some of those at home. I’ll bring some over. You only have about five. That won’t last till nighttime.”
My eyes shot up to him. He had to be kidding. Somehow, from the look on his face, I didn’t think he was. I laid the bag beside me and pulled the diaper back. I gagged and then Heath gagged too when he saw what was in the diaper.
“Man, I think I’ll sit in the living room.” His eyes were watering, and he wasn’t even in close, proximity to the dirty diaper.
“Thanks, brother,” I shouted to his retreating back.
“If I stay, you’ll have more to clean up than poop,” he promised me.
“Yeah, well then I guess it’s best that you leave.”
I opened the wipes. Then Seth decided to join us. He sprawled his lanky body across my bed. An amazing thing happened. He didn’t gag at all. He talked to Asia while I gagged and wiped. Gagged and wiped. I looked at Seth.
“Hey, do you want to do this?” I asked choking on the bile in my throat.
“Nope, you’re doing fine. I just wanted to see my niece.”
I held Asia’s feet in one hand while I shoved dirty wipes into the bag. Gagged and wiped. I thought she was clean. “Does she look clean to you?” I asked Seth.
He gave me the, are you serious, look?
“Is she clean, Seth?” I repeated myself.
My kid brother checked out Asia’s bottom. “She’s good man. Put her diaper on her before she pees on your bed.”
I tucked the dirty diaper into the grocery bag and tied it up. Then I slipped the clean diaper beneath her bottom just in time for her to pee all over it. “God dammit. Seth, get me another diaper.”
“At least it was on the diaper and not your bed.” My brother was laughing at my current predicament as he got up and walked around the bed.
“On my hand too,” I grumbled. I wasn’t sure how that happened. I wiped my hand on one of the clean wet wipes.
“Going well, I see.” I glanced up at Mom who stood in the doorway with Dad behind her. “We’re heading out to get a car seat, a dresser and a bath tub for Asia.”
“Don’t leave me with her.” I was ready to get on the floor and kiss Rachel’s feet if she would not leave me alone with Asia just yet. “Let Dad go get what we need.”
“Ben, AJ, Heath and Seth are here. You’ll be fine. Heath is really, good with her. You’ll see.”
I rolled my eyes at my mother. Heath had refused to help me earlier when I needed it and he was no help when it came to poop.
Seth handed me another diaper. I moved the wet one aside and put the clean on quickly before she had a chance to shower it and me with more urine. Then I put the tabs in place. “All good, baby girl.”
She started crying. “She’s clean. Now what?”
My brother shrugged. My mother sighed. My father laughed. I didn’t think it was a damn bit funny. “Try feeding her a bottle. Four ounces like I showed you.”
She turned and shoved at my father. “I’d like to stay a while and watch this three-ring circus.”
“Funny Dad,” I snapped at him.
I picked her up and realized that I hadn’t gotten the outfit pushed up far enough. It was wet too. I slipped it carefully off her shoulders and tossed it on the floor. Seth frowned at me.