I took her into the bathroom and turned to Ibo, who stopped outside the men’s room.
“I’m dry but I have to go,” he said.
“Okay, hurry up,” I said, following River after making eye contact with a security guard. I normally would’ve made him come into the lady’s with me and River, but there were so many kids here the security was top notch.
Inside the bathroom River went into her own stall after I slipped her a fresh Pull-Up. When she came out I said, “Lemme see.”
“Come on, here?” she blushed again.
“River,” I said sternly.
She quickly lifted up her shirt just enough so I could see the familiar purple waistband poking out the top of her shirt.
“Okay, let’s go get Ibo.”
After about an hour of looking at robots and trains and the inside of a brain, River said she was thirsty. We stopped my by vending machine and I was dumbfounded.
“Four dollars for a bottle of water?! I can get two Cokes for half that.”
The kids lit up.
“We are not getting you Coke.”
But in all honestly, their mother must not have expected this when we budgeted food because I was running low on cash and I expected the price of chicken fingers at the cafeteria to be just as outrageous.
I looked down at the kids, their eyes wide with anticipation.
“Okay, fine.”
“YAAAAAAAY!”
“But,” I stipulated. “We’re gonna share one. All three of us.”
Naturally, after I took the inaugural sip, I never saw it again as the two chugged it down and went to the sugar zone for the next hour.
They didn’t exactly misbehave. They were just a bit more off the wall. They stayed where they were instead of running around. They kept quiet instead of shouting. But boy were they still a handful. They kept moving between exhibits, not staying anywhere for more than a minute, and would not stop giggling or snickering amongst themselves. But hey, they were having fun. It honestly only came down to a hundred calories each. One of the first times I watched them they each had two tall cups of orange juice and that was the end of my precious angels that night.
After the sugar started to ware down, I decided it was lunch time.
“Who needs a change?”
Both of them shot their hands in the air.
“Okay then.”
Ten minutes later I was with my two dry little angels in the cafeteria. While the chicken fingers were expensive, they were also big, so the two shared an order while I got a small yogurt and a banana.
We were about to head off to an IMAX show when Ibo tugged on my sleeve and whispered. “I need a change.”
“Ibo, you just got changed before lunch, what happened.”
River snickered and said, “Ibo pooped, Ibo pooped!”
“Shh you!” I said, “One more of that and I’ll be telling your mother.”
That certainly shut River up. For a woman who didn’t cook, their mother certainly had a lot of wooden spoons.
There was no helping it this time, I had to take Ibo into the lady’s room with me to help him change.
I’ll spare you the details.