Kallie had to leave to go back to work not long after I’d told the story of her coming home with us. She was apologetic, but I told her not to worry about it and that if she really wanted to hear the rest she could just ask me later. She rolled her eyes at me and said that she really didn’t think she needed to hear stories about her diapers being changed. She left after a quick hug for each of us.

“She’s such a smartass sometimes,” I told Alice fondly. “Takes after you.”

I got the same eye roll from Al as I’d gotten from Kallie, and it made me laugh. “I can’t really blame her though. I didn’t even want to remember the whole diaper fiasco, but now I can’t get it out of my head.”

Alice made a sound at this that I thought was probably laughter, so I decided to go with it. I took her hand and smiled at her. “Yeah, laugh it up. You did then, too. Every time you won the bet and didn’t have to change her.”

She just smiled in response. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was only a little after two, so I decided to go ahead and continue the story. There didn’t seem to be much else to do.

**********

It surprised me, how easy it was to get adjusted to the presence of a baby in our lives. Somehow I’d thought it would take a long time to get used to even the idea, let alone the fact that we were actually caring for her and responsible for her well-being. It really didn’t take long at all, though. I’d had her added to all my insurance policies as a beneficiary, and had taken out policies in her name too. By the time she’d gotten a little big for her bassinet and we decided to try having her sleep in her own room, both of us had gotten so used to having her there that we didn’t touch each other even though we knew the room was empty aside from ourselves. She’d become such a permanent fixture in our lives that it was harder for us to sleep without her in the room than the other way around.