Post 90: The Rooming House Gallery – Connecting the Dots

The Rooming House Gallery – Connecting the Dot

More Eva

Mrs. T walked over, carrying Peanut with a diaper bag slung over her shoulder. Josh kept looking at the baby, now three months old, wiggling, smiling and cooing. “Wow! He’s grown.”

They chatted a few minutes until a shriek curdled the air. Spidey was running too fast and slipped face first into the big elm tree. His nose and chin were bloody. Mrs. T flipped the baby into Josh’s arms, dropped the diaper bag from her shoulder, trotted over and picked up Spidey. “Josh, watch the baby. I got to clean this wild one up. Hope he don’t need stiches, Mr. T is at the store.” She turned to the kids. “Slow down. No racin and you mind Josh.” She carried the squalling Spidey across the street. She turned and hollered, “Quit holdin him way out from you. Hold him closer. He ain’t gonna break. Just support his head a bit.”

…..Peanut began fussing and thrashing around. “He’s hungry,” Eva yelled. “That’s his hungry cry. You know how to work his bottle?” Before Josh could answer, she opened the bag and pulled the bottle out. She twisted the lid off, reversed the nipple, checked for leaks and handed it to Josh. “Go sit in the rocker. You need to rock him. I’ll tell ya when to burp him.”

She followed him into the guest room where they kept the rocker and hovered over them as he sat down. The baby latched onto the bottle and sucked lustily, making little piggy noises. Josh couldn’t believe how noisy he was or how hard he sucked on the bottle. Eva kept checking the level of formula in the bottle. “Okay. You gotta burp him now.” She grabbed a burp-cloth out of the bag and put it on Josh’s shoulder. “Now put him up high on your shoulder and pat his back or rub it hard.”

“How will I know when he’s burped?” Josh patted at the baby’s back, afraid he might injure him.

“Harder. Them’s baby pats. You can’t hurt him.”

Josh patted harder. Eva grabbed his hand and made him pat harder yet. Josh jumped when the little guy let out a huge belch.

……The baby stretched and twisted and let out an explosion. Josh felt the diaper fill. Oh my God, now what?

Eva was right there. “You know how to change him? He just pooped his pants and the sooner you change him, the sooner he’ll go back to sleep. He gets crabby if he has to sleep in poopy diapers.” She whipped out a diaper and wipes and a changing pad. “Here, put him on the bed. You ain’t got a changing table.” Josh started to lay the baby on the bed. “No, Josh. Lay him on his back.” She watched Josh pull the little White Sox sweat pants off and stare at the next layer of clothing. “That’s a onesie. Now you gotta unsnap him and if he’s leaked through, then you gotta take everything off him.”

Under Eva’s directions, Josh unsnapped the onesie, it was still clean, and figured out how to undo the diaper. “Whew! Does it always smell this bad?” Tears came to his eyes and he choked a bit.

“He always smells. Ya just gotta get used to it. Want me to do it? Huh? I thought big people like you knew how to change dirty diapers.”

“No, no. I didn’t, but I can do it.” He lifted the little guy’s legs and pulled out several wipes. My God, he thought, how many cracks and crevices does a baby have? He wiped away, just when he thought he had a clean baby, he discovered another spot he missed. Peanut kept fussing at the inconvenience. At last, Josh stuffed the wipes and rolled the dirty diaper up. He set it aside, and leaned over to unfold the fresh one just as Peanut sprayed him, full force, soaking his T-shirt. “Whoa! I didn’t expect that.” He laughed with Eva.

“He likes to do that. That’s why you gotta learn to unfold the fresh diaper first and have it ready.”

Told ya Eva was cute…Read the book for a whole lot more of her. Officially coming June 20, but who knows? Sometimes they’re available sooner. Will see. Stay tuned.