After Davy married and moved into the house that Ruth had bought and given them for a wedding present, he began calling Rose “Mommy” exclusively and became completely dependent on her. He barely noticed when his mother stopped taking care of him and left him to the exclusive care of his ostensible “wife”. Executive control of the monies from David’s trust fell into Rose’s hands as Davy’s legal guardian. Rose was an excellent guardian and manager of the monies that had been entrusted to her by her dead father-in-law’s bequest. She reinvested the excess funds from David’s monthly allotment wisely and was able to double the value within a year. Nonetheless, she was able to provide for her new household without pinching pennies. Rose had the nursery’s bathroom completely remodeled to provide a changing area as well as an elevated tub with safety rails to make bathing her charge easier on her back and had a industrial style diaper rinser installed so she wouldn’t be constrained to rinse the diapers provided by the diaper service in the altogether unnecessary toilet. She even had an electric patient lift installed over the tub so she could sit him in a special bathing chair and have an electric winch lift him into the tub and lift him out again when the bath was over. A heavy duty washing machine and gas dryer were installed in the bathroom as well as a small pantry was added with a dish washer, refrigerator and stovetop for warming his nightly formula. Her object was to make as few trips to the kitchen and utility room as possible to take care of him. To finish the bathroom, she had a combination button-style lock installed on the door to keep him out of danger.
Aside from getting a new suite of adult-sized baby furniture in his nursery and a number of shortalls and onesies, Davy never saw any difference in his life caused by the substitution of Rose as his Mommy. True, his nighttime bottle came quicker, and he enjoyed riding in the electric lift when Rose bathed him, but these were mere bagatelles to his way of thinking. The important person in his life was the one who took care of him. He had Rose and she was all the mommy he needed. Rose inveigled her obstetrician into giving her a prescription for some hormones that would make her lactate so she could nurse Davy. Of course she still kept prepared bottles of apple juice in the pantry’s refrigerator for him to drink in the mornings, but by and large, she breast fed him when she could. If her breasts overproduced milk, she used a breast pump to mechanically express her milk so she could save it in bottles for late night feedings and outings where breast feedings would be inappropriate or exhausting.
Once Rose got Davy on a schedule and started nursing him several times a day, she began to see the advantages of having a baby on a total breast milk diet. His stools stopped smelling and she discovered something about nursing she had been totally ignorant of before she started suckling Davy. Although she had sex with him once a day, Rose missed the foreplay before they had sex. Once he started nursing at her breasts, she discovered that her baby’s sucking on her tiddies was nearly, perhaps even more titillating than his clumsy teenaged gropes. They were a very happy couple and lived for many, many years. Rose never got married in the synagogue, Davy was a little too young in spirit and speech to be presentable to the congregation. Rose could imagine the commotion it would cause if they had to stop the ceremony because she had to change his diaper or demanded his mommy’s ti-ti in front of the whole community. Moreover, having the groom drop down on all fours to creep down the aisle the minute his hand was released wasn’t befitting the dignity of the synagogue. Rose never regretted the lack of a traditional marriage ceremony, she had other memories that more than made up for the formal wedding she should have had. Taking care of Davy was the ultimate experience for a Jewish mother; he was the child who would never grow up! Davy would be her be her baby forever!
When a new medical product came on the market five years later that simultaneously allowed Rose to realize her dream of having a real baby to for her very own while allowing David to return to his true age, Rose availed herself of the horrendously expensive drug immediately. The excess money from David’s trust fund had multiplied substantially under Rose’s frugal care and they were easily able to afford the expense. Within nine months, Rose had a little baby boy to bounce on her lap instead of having to take care of a superannuated infant-minded husband. Rose was able to sell David’s huge baby equipment and outfit his old nursery with normal infant-sized furnishings for her baby without additional expense. Strangely for Rose, it seemed there were other adult babies who were in such dire need of nursery furnishings that expense was no object. All it took was a few discrete ads on the Internet and David’s old nursery furniture and adult-sized baby clothing were sold within a week. Rose delighted in taking her new baby on outings. Instead of having to stay home to watch after a husband who was too immature to leave alone by himself, she was able to take her young baby everywhere with her. Rose was able to bring her new baby to the synagogue where the congregation could put their collective stamp of approval on Rose’s new family. It was a solution that pleased everyone, including Ruth, Rose’s mother-in-law. Ruth was finally able to put aside the role of being David’s mother and take on the responsibilities of being a grandmother to Rose’s little boy. Mother and baby were extremely happy together and lived in perfect contentment.
