Kaitlin wakes Laura up early in the morning. To the relief of both of them, her diaper is wet but not messy. Like the night before, Kaitlin gives Laura a bottle of milk to drink during her diaper change. She makes a comment about hoping that Laura can hold off on number two for an hour, but Laura, distracted by her breakfast, doesn’t notice.
Once Laura has been changed into a fresh diaper, she is dressed. To her distress, Kaitlin chooses an incredibly adorable and infantile outfit for her: a white dress with sunflowers on it, a bright yellow diaper cover, and matching yellow shoes. She even puts Laura’s hair into pigtails tied with yellow ribbons.
“Perfect!” Kaitlin coos, poking Laura’s nose. With that, she’s brought into the kitchen, put in the highchair, and given some dry cereal to eat while Kaitlin finishes getting ready. Laura’s finished with her cereal by the time Kaitlin comes back. “Sorry, Laura, but I accidentally slept in, so we don’t have time to make a plan of attack for all this.”
“But-” Laura starts. Kaitlin pops a sparkly yellow pacifier into her mouth. Laura suckles on it instinctively.
“Don’t worry, we’ll talk about it after work.”
“What me do?” Laura mumbles around the pacifier.
“Did you forget the office has a daycare?” Kaitlin asks. Laura’s mouth drops open. Her pacifier falls out. Kaitlin quickly pops it back in. “Don’t worry, no one would recognize you even if I called you Laura. But to make you more comfortable, I’ll say you’re my niece Hailey, okay?”
“Okay,” Laura mumbles.
“Great!” Kaitlin picks Laura up. They load up in the car and drive off to work. Laura feels dread growing as she is carried into the office. Kaitlin walks into the office daycare and up to the person manning the front desk. “Hi, I was hoping I could have my niece Hailey stay here for the day? My sister dropped her off last night because she had an emergency pop up.”
“Not a problem!” chirps the daycare worker. “How old is she?”
“Two.”
“Is she potty-trained?”
“No, and she hasn’t had her morning poop yet, so-” Kaitlin starts. Laura grunts softly. Kaitlin laughs. “Spoke too soon.” As Laura continues to mess her diaper, she belatedly realizes that the dread she felt earlier was actually the need to poop.
“Set her down so she can squat. She’ll go faster that way, and we can finish filling everything out while she makes boom-boom,” the employee says. Kaitlin sets Laura on the floor. Laura bends her knees into a squat and continues to grunt, her face turning red from the force of her pushing. By the time she’s done, she’s been checked in.
“Think you can handle her dirty diaper?” Kaitlin asks.
“Of course! Some days, it feels like that’s all we do here,” the employee says with a laugh. Kaitlin laughs as well.
“Have a good day, Hailey!” she coos, ruffling Laura’s hair. She leaves the daycare. The employee comes around and picks Laura up.
“I have to man the desk, but there should be someone who can clean you up,” the employee says. She heads to a play area and makes a beeline for an employee supervising some toddlers. “Hey, mind changing Hailey? I’ve gotta get back to the desk.”
The employee turns around. Laura pees instinctively, horrified. She knows them. It’s…