Before she laid him down, she pulled a fresh diaper from the stack and laid it on the changing pad to prevent soiling. She smiled down at him and said as she began to pull his plastic pants down his legs, “Well! Aside from having a wet dydee, how’s Momma’s baby boy this morning?”

She tickled his stomach with her forefinger. He gazed up at her self-consciously as she unclipped the pins on his diaper, first the far side next to the wall and then on the side nearest her. As she loosened his diapers, a strong ammonia odor assaulted his nostrils and made him grimace. She smiled and prattled baby talk to him non-stop, while pulling the diaper up away from his stomach and down between his legs.