A Tail of Two Number 2s - a Bonus Story

This China trip and the Korea trip to get Alex are so vastly different. The only common thread appears to be diaper changing and all the fun that comes with that. Read on...

When we picked up Alex at 3:00PM on Sep 2, 2004 we had one night with him and then had to be on a bus to the airport at 7:00AM the following morning. So our diapering was limited in the hotel room and airport. Well,,, once we were in the air for a spell the inevitable happened - a poopy diaper. I have always boasted how I changed his first poopy diaper. I should have been given battle pay for it. There we were, two kindred spirits in the cramped airplane lavatory. He a squirming little guy of six months. Me a hate-to-even-touch-eaten-food-on-a-plate-while-cleaning-up 45 year old. The battle was on. Of course the lavatory had about as much elbow room as a straight jacket. The little fold down changing table left no room to lay anything else. As I deftly slid the dirty diaper off and sat it aside a sigh of relief was heard all the way to the cockpit. I was halfway home. Then disaster almost struck! The cramped quarters forced me to lay the dirty diaper a little too close to the kicking feet of the squirmer. As I had both hands busy strapping on the new diaper, a powerful left foot kicked the dirty diaper like Beckham on a break-away. I, however, summoned all of my decades old sports talent and quickly snagged the flying detritus out of mid-air before it could land in my lap. It would have been an unpleasant 10 more hours on a plane smelling like a dirty diaper. Victory to the big guy!

Now for Aidan's inaugural. On Sunday after the gotcha event, just the three of us went across the street to the Blue Bird restaurant. A multi-cuisine place with a little bit of Italian mixed in. Aidan was happily chowing down whatever he could find when all of a sudden he tried to stand in his hi-chair with a squeal and a grimace. His inaugural poopy couldn't have happened at a better moment. Knowing he wasn't quite used to diapers yet, and he was now sitting in a lovely pile of who knows what, quick action was needed. Without weighing the consequences, Angie jumped to her feet, grabbed Aidan and the diaper bag, and ran off to find a restroom. After asking a few workers and getting through the language barrier she finally made her way up some steps and off to save the day. I sat back and sipped on my ice cold beer, savoring a moment of quiet. Oh to have been a fly on the wall for this one. First of all, the ladies room only consisted of a "squatty potty" which are holes in the ground where the duty falls as you squat over it. The room was small with just the hole in the ground and no where to set up camp. While struggling to set up the changing pad on the cleanest section of the bathroom floor (notice that I didn't imply "clean") the cleaning lady burst into the room in a flurry and started offering help - in Chinese of course. Angie is wrestling Aidan and trying to get at the wipeys. Ms. Cleaning Lady is grabbing wads of toilet paper and insisting on using that. A battle of wills so to speak. Somehow between the two of them, in this dark and dingy little room with a hole in the floor, they managed to cross the great divide and work together as one to clean little Aidan's butt. Can you spell detante?

Feel free to cast your vote of who changed the best inaugural poopy diaper.