Kevin lay pretty still while I changed him. I could see he had a thoughtful look on his face as I was taking care of him. I said to him, “Kevin, honey, you know we don’t have to keep doing this. When we get home, we can go back to you wearing boxers in the day. Think about what you want to do. I don’t need an answer until later.”

“Okay,” was all that he said in reply.

I noticed that the last diaper had leaked quite a bit in the back. I guess he released so much so quickly that it couldn’t absorb it all. Anybody who has taken care of babies would recognize the two semi-circles of wet on the just where his thighs meet his bottom. So after I put the clean diaper on him, I said, “I think you need a clean pair of shorts too.”

Kevin blushed and said, “Really? What are we going to do?”

“Relax. I’m like a boy scout, always prepared.” I went into my bag and got out the change of clothes I had brought along. I took the wet shorts over to the sink. “Let me give these a rinse before I put them in my bag. I don’t want to smell pee-pee later.” I told Kevin. I rinsed the shorts and wrung them out and before putting them in the waterproof compartment.

I finished up with Kevin and said, “All set. Where to now?”

“Could we go back to the sea otters for a bit?” he asked.

“If you like. But only for a bit. There is a lot more for us to see and the zoo closes in about two hours.”

“We could come back another time if we don’t see everything. Couldn’t we?”

“Sure we could.” I said and I lowered Kevin into the stroller and buckled him in.

When we got to the sea otters, Kevin watched them for a couple of minutes and it was clear that he was enjoying himself, but then he said. “Could we look at the gift shop?” The zoo, taking a cue from Disney had put little satellite gift shops next to most of their major attractions. This one was a bunch of rolling carts under an awning. It looked like they could easily put the whole thing away at night or if the weather got bad. I said, “Why not?”

I rolled Kevin into the middle of the carts and I asked him, “See anything you like?” He kept looking at a shelf with plush otters, but tried not to be obvious about it. I could tell he really wanted one but I think he was embarrassed to want a stuffed animal at his age. “Not really,” he said, “besides, I didn’t bring any money with me. We can go.”

“Oh,” I said. “Mind if I look around for a bit?”

“I guess not.”

I strolled around nonchalantly and went over to the shelf with the otters. “These are cute, don’t you think?” I said.

He glanced over and said, “I guess,” and then looked away again.

I held one up and said, “I think this one needs a friend.” I walked up to the cashier and took out my wallet and paid for it with cash. Kevin was watching the whole time and he looked a bit envious.

I put the otter in Kevin’s lap and said, “I think he likes you. Will you look after him for me?…What do you want to name him?”

Kevin’s eyes lit up like a little kid’s on Christmas morning. “Really? He’s for me?” Then he was quiet for a moment and said, “I saw you paid cash, that’s your own money…You didn’t have to do that…”

I cut him off. “Shhh. Look, Kevin, I wanted to…Now what do you say???” I asked the way you’d ask a little kid.

He smiled, “Thank you, Carrie” he said in a sing-song voice.

As I began pushing Kevin away from the gift shop. I asked, “So what are you going to call him?”

He thought for a moment, “Emmett. Definitely Emmett.”

“Good choice… But, if you show him to my middle brother, you might want to keep that to yourself. That’s his name too.”

“Oh. I don’t think he needs to know about any of this.”