Memorable Evening

            It seemed like a good idea at the time.  I would babysit for Benjamin while Dana and Shawn went out for dinner, taking one-month-old Joelle with them.

            By 7:45 p.m. Benjamin was getting sleepy.  I walked back to his bedroom to fetch his pajamas, and he toddled right on behind me and crawled up on his bed.  Never one to discourage bedtime for a three-year-old, I decided to change his diaper right there on the bed. 

            I had just unfastened his diaper when everything happened at once:  my left arm was suddenly soaked in warm pee; I shouted out in surprise, which scared Benjamin so he started to cry; and the front door opened. 

            Dana and Shawn quickly took my place so I could wash my arm.  Both laughing, Shawn finished the diaper job and Dana stripped the now-wet fitted bed sheet.  Benjamin stopped crying, and Joelle kept sleeping.  Unfortunately for them, she had not exactly cooperated for their dinner date.  Earlier, while she screamed in the car seat, they had driven around town for twenty or thirty minutes in the attempt to help her go to sleep, which she finally did.  Naturally, though, she woke up in the restaurant just as their meals were served.

            Let’s just say it was a memorable evening.