Mayra stumbled back as James made a break for it, the smell of his bulging Huggies trailing behind him as he scrambled up the staircase to the main floor. She gave chase, a little faster this time as there was no hiding what he had done or the very real fear she had that it could leak. She followed him back upstairs where he hide across the coffee table, trying to maneuver past her. He faked her out to the left, going around her from the right as he barrelled into the kitchen. “Ay, be careful, pequeño,” she called, hurrying after him. “You might trip and…”

No sooner did she say that did James’s feet get tangled around the green tail of his sleeper as his feet struggled to gain traction on the slippery kitchen floor. His soft, padded dinosaur feet couldn’t help him regain his balance as he stumbled back and promptly slipped to the floor, landing on the thick soft cushion that only a very messy diaper could provide.

James winced as he felt the Huggies explode out the top and through his leg gatherings, his thick mushy mess gushing out into his dinosaur onesie. It quickly stained with a darker green spot growing and spreading around his bottom and down his legs a little. Mayra was hardly concerned about the diaper though. James took greater priority as she rushed to his side and picked him up, cradling his bottom through the damp sleeper as he began to sniffle and pout.

“Oh, mi pequeño, my poor baby,” Mayra soothed him over and over as she stroked his back, holding him against her shoulder as he bounced him up and down a little in her arms. “Are you hurt?” James shook his head no and it was clear he was sad he had blown his diaper out. Mayra rubbed his back soothingly as she walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs to the nursery.

“Shhhh,” she soothed as he wrapped her arms around her, hugging her tight and trying to fight back his sniffles. “Señorita Mayra isn’t mad, pequeño. I know babies mess their diapers, sometimes more than they expect to. That’s why I’m here. I’m going to make it all better. You’re going to feel so good and be so happy, you won’t even think of it as a bad thing you did.”

Opening the door, James was again made familiar with the pleasant scents of babyhood, but now in a whole new light. They weren’t a harbinger of doom or something terrible like that, but a gentle and calming reminder that in this place, everything was all right. This room was a place of love and tender care. He smiled as Mayra got him to relax, laying him down on the changing table before unzipping the sleeper.

Truthfully, Mayra didn’t know if it could be saved. The heavy earthy odor rose out of the opening as though it had been trapped for hours inside. Carefully peeling the sleeper open, Mayra started with the clean parts, removing James’s arms which began to reach with playful curiosity at everything in sight.

“Be still, pequeño,” Mayra soothed as she did not wish to make him any messier than he already was. Next was the legs. She pulled from the footies of the sleeper, keeping a firm hand on James’s body as she eased it out, immediately seeing the thick mess, the color and texture of melted candy bars, covering his left leg. She managed to get it free before doing the same with his right leg, careful not to spread the mess or get it on her hands.

“What in the world…?” she asked as she tried to lift James off the sleeper… only to find that it was stuck to his backside. She had little doubt as to what was acting as the adhesive. “You made such a big messy, pequeño. We might need two tubs of wipies to take care of this job.”

James began to warm up, realizing he was going to be taken care of and that Mayra wasn’t mad with him in the slightest. Picking James to his feet, the dinosaur sleeper still clinging to his lower back, she turned him around and laid him flat down on his tummy on the changing mat. Gingerly with her fingers, she carefully peeled the dinosaur sleeper back revealing how far the mess went up his backside, blown out with such force by the fall that it was nearly up to his armpits.

“Ay, dios mio!” she waved her nose playfully, fanning away the smell that she knew could not be gotten rid of so easily. “So stinky! Such a stinky little baby boy! We need to get you all fresh and clean pronto!”

Before she could even remove the dirty diaper, she had to first clean his backside, reaching under the changing table, she searched for the right baby wipes for the job, finding a bright red tub of Huggies Supreme Care wipes. Unwrapping the plastic seal from the tub, she placed it near James’s head, so he could see the happy, smiling baby on the label as she popped the lid open and withdrew the first wipe. There was no being selective as she laid the wipe flat over his back and pulled down gently across his side, mopping up as much of his muddy spill as the wipe could. Without a dirty diaper to put the wipe in, she placed the dirty cloth near the foot of the changing table and repeated the process, again and again as James shivered and wriggled on his tummy as the fresh scent of the wipes blended with the smell of his mess, making the whole room smell like the nursery of a real baby boy. James sighed a little, content, knowing that this was his nursery, that he was that baby boy.