When Ruth saw that he had taken the bottle, she pulled down the covers and put two fingers under the front of his diaper to see if he was wet. His diaper was soaked as she had expected. She pulled the covers off the bed and went to turn on the bedroom light. She had no intention of cleaning a dirty bottom in the dark. She set the changing supplies on the bed beside him and proceeded to pull the tapes of the sides of his diaper. Tony peeked around the bottle at her as she carefully pulled down the front of his diaper to check on the condition of his behind. He was a little messy, but it could be cleaned up with two swipes of the baby wipe. She told him, “Now lift your legs, Honey, so mama can clean your hiney. That’s a good baby! Bend your knees darling. More! That’s it.”

“What was she talking about?”, he thought in confusion.  “Had he pooped in his diaper? Why was she treating him like this? Was this some kind of punishment? She didn’t act like she was mad at him. She was acting like he was her baby!”

He knew he should object, but he found her presence oddly comforting. He discovered that he enjoyed being treated this way by her. She wiped his bottom clean, coated his bottom with Vaseline and put a clean diaper underneath his bottom before she would let him put his legs down again. Then she efficiently rediapered him, put the diapering supplies back on the dresser and put the covers back on the bed again to tuck him in. She found the pacifier in the bed at his side and took it out of the room with her, returning a few minutes later with a long cord tied to the ring. She bent over his pillow as he was finishing the bottle and fastened the end of the cord to the pillowcase with a diaper pin. Ruth took the bottle from his hand and put it on his dresser, then came back and helped him sit up in bed. She took a cloth diaper from her back pocket and threw it over her left shoulder and held him close to her as she patted him on the back. Tony couldn’t believe it. She was actually burping him! He started to tell her he didn’t need her help to burp, when all of a sudden he let loose a long belch. He was so astonished at her behavior and his belch that he was speechless. She laid him back down in bed and tucked the blanket around his arms and shoulders. Then she kissed him on his forehead and said, “Goodnight baby,” as she put the pacifier in his mouth. Ruth put the dirty diaper in the diaper pail and took the bottle from his dresser before turning out the light and closing the door.