“That sounds fun, actually,” I said. “What’s Hannah going to be up to?”
“She said she still has some stuff down at her old place in Astoria. She’s getting that stuff put into a Pod so they can move it to their new house, but I don’t know if she was actually planning on doing that today or not. I have the feeling she’s just going to go to the spa and do nothing all day.”
“Well, what time do you have to be over there?” I asked.
“She said three would be best, but I was thinking about going over right after I eat.”
“So, now?” I asked.
“Now-ish,” she said. “Do you still want to come?”
“Sure. I need to spend more time around my niece. She needs to know critical, important stuff that Jordan won’t teach her.”
“Like what?” Chloe asked.
“Like what character to use in Mario Kart, how to build functional model rockets, how to perfectly cook steak. Granted, that last one might take a bit before she’s ready.”
“But teaching a baby how to build a functional rocket is fine?” she asked, laughing.
“I don’t see why not. Kids love exploding things.”
“Exploding?” she cried.
“Well, I mean, the explosion is really small. We would start out with Mentos and Coke,” I said.
We decided to drive to their apartment rather than walk, even though it was a nice day. Having the car in case of emergencies was important, and a host of those emergencies and the plan for how to handle them was posted on the wall by the refrigerator. Hannah had thought of everything it seemed like. Everything from sniffles that could be a cold to terrorist attacks were listed with a plan and numbers to call. Just in case.
“Alright,” Hannah said, picking up her baby and kissing her cute, rosy cheeks. “Mama will be back a little bit after dark, but Auntie Chloe and Uncle Matt are going to be here. You will be just fine.”
Hannah left, and it was just us and Claire, who was happily fiddling with something on the carpet. I crawled down with her and lifted her up much to her delight. She cooed and laughed and giggled as we played, and eventually I heard another sound that was awfully familiar, paired with a smell that left no doubt.
“Uh-oh,” I said. “Looks like someone has a full tank.”
“Oh,” Chloe said. “I’ll take care of it.”
I turned to look at her critically.
“Have you ever changed a baby before?” I asked.
“No…”
“That’s what I thought,” I said. “Well, grab the diaper bag. I’ll walk you through it. I’ve done this a bunch.”
It was an upside to most of my brothers being parents. As much as I had never really seen myself as a father, I was never uncomfortable taking care of kids either. Hell, I was a big kid. I knew that about myself. Changing diapers didn’t intimidate me when my brothers started having kids, and after a crash course with Amanda and Ava, I felt like I had a really good grasp on at least that aspect of parenthood.
The guest room was still in a state of flux, but Jordan had turned a corner of their bedroom into a nursery anyway. I laid Claire on the changing table.
“First things first, a warning. No matter what color it is, it’s fine. Unless it’s bloodred, but it won’t be. I can tell you it’s either going to be green or orange.”
“Orange?” she asked.
“Just wait.”
Sure enough, when the diaper was open, Chloe recoiled at the sight and smell.
“Oh God, it is orange!” she exclaimed while she laughed and put one wrist under her nose.
I guided her through wiping the baby down and getting her clean and then getting a new diaper on her. Claire kicked a bunch, and Chloe was worried about being too rough with her, but she did well. Once Claire was all clean and in a fresh diaper, the old one put in the diaper can, I picked her up and brought her back into the living room with me.
She was beginning to get a little fussy, and Chloe seemed to intuitively know what was happening. She went into the kitchen, popped some popcorn, and grabbed a couple of root beers and a bottle of milk from the fridge. After warming the milk up on the stove, she brought the whole collection over.
“I figured we could all have a snack and watch a movie, what do you think?” she asked.
“Sounds like a plan,” I said. “Though, I don’t think our normal show will work.”
“Well, yeah, the number of severed heads and full-frontal nudity not usually recommended for under one-year-olds,” she joked.
“So, what then? Disney?”
We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out, marathoning the show, making jokes about the special effects or the silly accents and with me pausing it occasionally to quickly explain lore to her. I knew it was just coming out of me like a giant, excited nerd, but she never made me feel stupid for it. I had gone through that before. The wide eyes and slow nod of someone who really wants you to stop talking but is being polite. Chloe wasn’t like that. Either she was genuinely interested in the show or genuinely enjoying how much I loved it. Maybe both.