She’d fill his nursery with the nicest baby furniture money could buy. “And toys too,” she thought, “I mustn’t forget toys!”
She smiled, thinking how cute it would look when she got finished. She fondled his cheek gently with her fingers and smiled with understanding as she saw his mouth make unconscious sucking movements. “I’ll need to get some baby bottles and nipples.”, she thought. “He’s not old enough to drink milk from a glass; he needs baby formula in a bottle.”
She got up and laid him down on the bed while she got dressed to go to a twenty-four hour grocery store. She buckled him into the front passenger seat. They stopped at a convenience store on the way and she went inside, purchased a small package of disposable diapers and came around to the passenger side of the car. Diane opened the door, put the diapers on the floor and opened the package. She unbuckled Philip and laid him on his back on the car seat. “Let’s get you in some real diapers before you have an accident all over my new seat covers.”
She removed his makeshift diaper and rediapered him, saying, “Isn’t that better, sweetheart? Is baby comfy in his dydee?”
He gurgled gaily and she sat him up and buckled him in the seat. “Momma’s going to get you a baby seat tomorrow, honey. You’ll be a lot more comfortable in a seat that’s made for babies.”
She closed the door and got in the driver’s seat. They continued to the store where she bought the diapers, baby food, bottles and formula that were on her list. He chortled and blathered while sitting in the baby seat of the grocery cart, delighted by the pretty colors and shapes of the baby goods hanging on the racks. Philip pointed to the opposite aisle and she saw that they sold baby T-shirts and feeding bibs, as well as pacifiers, feeding plates and spoons and changing supplies. She put several T-shirts and feeding sets in the cart. She also stocked up on diaper changing supplies. By the time she had finished in the baby aisles, the cart was two-thirds full.
She finished buying the rest of the food on her grocery list and checked out at a stand with a young male checker. She didn’t want to answer questions about why she was buying a full basket of baby items and an eighteen-year old boy would be too inexperienced to think that it was an unusual purchase. Diane loaded the groceries into the car and took him out of the cart and buckled him into the front seat. She looked through a bag and opened a package with a pacifier, then put the pacifier in his mouth to keep him occupied on the way home. She drove home and took in the groceries, then returned to the car and got Philip. “I’m absolutely got to buy a playpen tomorrow!”, she told herself. “I can’t continue to leave him in the car while I unload groceries.”