2011

Nanny Lyn stood to one side, filming Ry throwing the ball to Fishtail and the dolphin bouncing it back. Fishtail was super quick and accurate, easily intercepting the beach ball and using his snout to push it back towards the dragon child. He’d probably played catch thousands of times.  When Ry spat out some water, she did wonder where it came from. The dolphin had kissed him on the cheek, after all, not on the mouth. They played for quite a while, until Ry stopped throwing the ball and turned to look at his caregiver.  Lyn stopped recording, letting the video save to the gallery. She put her phone in her apron pocket, listening to what the blue dragon said. She smiled and shook her head in reply.  “No, not yet. We’re going to do a walkthrough of the aquarium to see all the other fish and animals. It’s lunch time after that. But if you’re getting hungry, you still have those Doritos and M&Ms in your diaper bag. Here, I’ll get your stroller out so you can sit and rest while you eat. I’ll push the stroller and you can look at the different fish and stuff while we eat,” she offered, kind and patient as always.  The blonde woman shifted the diaper bag she was carrying, moving it off her shoulder and to the ground. She crouched and dug out a capsule with a tiny stroller inside, pressing the button on the front and tossing it gently on the ground. With a ‘boomph!’ and a small cloud, a stroller big enough for Ry appeared.  “Alright, Sugar, hop in. Then I’ll hand you your snacks.”  Nanny Lyn helped Ry to sit in it and buckled him in, nice and secure. She then took the pack of Doritos chips and the M&Ms out of the diaper bag, cleaning Ry’s hands with a wet wipe before putting the snacks in his lap. She handed him his drink bottle, which was full of water, smiling affectionately when she noticed him sucking his thumb.  “Here you go, Honey Bun. Enjoy your snacks and have some water. I’ll push the pram around the aquarium until we get to the cafe and playground area.”  She pushed the stroller over to Castile, who had Aurora riding on his back, buckled onto a saddle and harness made of bubble magic. “Hey, Castile, we’re all done playing with the dolphin. Where are Samuel and Miss Lily?"  ============================================== Castile smiled and pointed over towards the third dock, where Sammy and Lily were finishing up as well. “Right over there. I can’t wait to see that rainbowy mantis shrimp. And all kinds of other animals! I’m defs gonna be hungry after the tour, though. Fish…mmm,” he licked his lips in a feline way.  The sweet candy scent of Tutti Frutti was wafting from his fur. He smelled so good today! Castle was grinning, seeing how ecstatic Aurora had been riding the dolphin. She got to perform a lot of tricks with it as well. Now she was looking a little tired, quietly humming a Disney melody to herself with a permanent happy smile on her face as she looked around with gleaming eyes, wanting to see what other creatures she would see next. She loved the aquarium so far. ================================================ “Kay~ We’ll watch some of the Jurassic Park classics later today,” she agreed, glad he liked the idea of a movie sesh in the games room. "Aw, thank you for forgiving me, Sweetie. That’s lovely of you. I don’t like to make little ones sad.”  She said while they were walking over to the nurses’ station. She felt his grasp on her hand tighten and gently squeezed back, rubbing her thumb over the back of his much smaller hand gently to try and soothe him.  “Shhh, it’s okay.” She whispered to him once they got to the counter and Darla popped up.  The bubbly pinkette listened to the little boy with an intrigued expression, studying his animal-like ears as he explained them to her.  “Ohhh…I see. A failed experiment, huh? That doesn’t sound so good. But if you got some sweet monster ears out of it, maybe that’s okay. Hmm…they kind of remind me a little bit of…floppy rabbit ears…but with green claws on the ends. Wonder if you flapped ‘em hard enough, they’d let ya fly~” she said, letting out a soft laugh to show she was only joking.  The green ‘stripes’ on them almost looked like big green Band-Aids to her.  “Come along, Peanut. Let’s check you out,” she said sweetly, calmly leading the way into one of the small clinical offices which looked just like a doctors’ office.  Nanny Tori held Dan’s hand the whole time, following half a metre behind her, in no hurry, calm and relaxed. She led Dan into the room and went to take a seat by the desk, bringing Dan with her.  The pink haired nurse took a clipboard with some papers on it, clicking her pen on. “Alright, Dan…do you think you could stand on that funny looking scales over there, so I can measure your weight and height? No need to be afraid. I promise it doesn’t hurt.”  Once he complied and she took his stats down, she got Dan to sit on her exam table while she listened to his lungs and heart with a stethoscope, put an inflatable cuff on his arm to take his blood pressure, used a digital thermometer to take his temperature on his forehead, and other such things.  While she examined him, writing down all the results, she asked some simple questions. “So, do you have any allergies, Dan? Like, foods that make you have bad reactions? Or medicines? What about hayfever, or latex?...”  She also paused every time, directing her attention to him.  “Any questions?” she’d ask, in case he wanted to tell her anything about his health, or if he had any special conditions such as asthma…things like that.  Once the exam was complete, the head nurse got down a container from a shelf, holding it out to Dan to show him. It had packs of stickers in it.  “We are all done, Angel Face. Since you were so good for me, would you like to pick a pack of stickers?”  ============================================== Tanya gave him a reassuring smile, her eyes soft and understanding. “Ohh, that’s good. So you know about this place. That makes it a little easier. Okay, then, Dear, please follow me.”  Tanya let him come inside and gently closed the front door behind them. She then turned and walked back over to him, ready to lead him to the nurses’ station first.  “Coulter, that’s a name that I don’t hear very often. I like it. I was expecting something more…exotic sounding, given your type. But Coulter is lovely. Ohh…check-in isn’t a big deal. It’s just seeing the nurses so they can collect information about you, such as your height and weight. Exactly! And you can tell them about any medical conditions or requirements you have, medications, allergies and the like. They’ll usually listen to your heart and lungs, check your blood pressure with an inflatable cuff, examine your ears, eyes and throat…stuff like that,”  She said, explaining slowly and clearly as she gently took the tiefling’s whitish hand and began to lead him along with her through the halls at an unhurried pace, allowing for him to look around while they made their way to Darla and co.  “It’s nothing to be concerned about, Honey. Every new Little One has to do the intake procedures when they first arrive. After we see the nurse, we can go over to the nanny station for the more fun parts. By the way; do you have any preferences when it comes to what kinds of diapers you would like to try? Cloth or disposable? Any kind of designs? More medical looking, or more colourful and childish?”  Once they made it to the nurses’ station, Nanny Tanya waited with him at the front of the desk. “My daughter, Darla, is the head nurse here. Oh…I can hear her in one of the rooms nearby! She must be with a newcomer. I’m sure she’ll be out soon,” she said, looking down at the young one with a kind smile.  “Do you mind if I ask; what is your species called?” The woman with Snoopy characters on her scrubs asked nicely.  ====================================== Lily grinned with joy, watching Samuel pet Marina, who leaned into the rubs. When he refused to take the dead fish, Lily put her hand out instead, taking it from the trainer with an apologetic yet grateful look.  “Thanks. Okay, Sammy…watch. She’s gonna eat it!” she said softly, before she leaned over and gently placed the fish in Marina’s open mouth, on her tongue.  The aquatic mammal snapped her jaws shut and swallowed before swimming in circles, clearly showing off her happiness at the snack. She made clicks and squeaks towards them, swimming back to the edge of the dock and jumping gently to perch her belly on the side of the wooden planks. She extended her flipper, leaning towards the small boy and his caregiver.  “Oh, Marina wants you to give her a hi-five! Can you do that, Buddy?” the trainer asked Samuel. “Miss…Lily, was it? Do you wanna show him how?” he offered.  Lily chuckled and nodded. “I’d love to. Look, Samuel. This is a hi-five. Just put your palm up and -” she lightly smacked the dolphin’s fin with her palm. “Smack! Hi-five~!”  Lily said with a laugh. She watched as Marina held her fin out again, offering him a go.  If he chose not to, Lily would slap her hand with the dolphin’s fin once more, laughing as she chittered and spun around in a circle. She then saw the brunette boy starting to look around and spotted Castile with Aurora, along with Nanny Lyn and Ry, who was in a large stroller.  “Ah, they must be finished their dolphin encounters. Alright, thank you very much, sir. Bye, Marina! Thank youuuu!” she called to the dolphin, waving to her and laughing when she ‘waved’ back using her fins. “Time for us to go and walk through the rest of the aquarium. Come on, Kiddo.”  So saying, she rose with Samuel in her arms and placed him back into the twin stroller, checking to make sure his sunglasses and hat were still on and he had his water bottle and phone. She buckled him in and pushed the stroller towards the rest of the group.  “Alright - that was awesome! Shall we go look at the other tanks and exhibits, guys? Then we can stop for lunch. And the kids can stretch their legs at the playground.”  ============================================== Castile and Nanny Lyn agreed, so they all began to walk around the rest of the expansive building, looking at all kinds of fish, seahorses, the otters, where they could hold their paws through a hole in the glass, or watch them forage for food and play around, a few different types of penguins inside freezing, temperature controlled rooms filled with snow and ice, the crocodile exhibit, some different kinds of sharks, tropical fish, freshwater fish, ocean fish…there was so much to see. There were crabs and shrimp…including the rainbow mantis shrimp, who could boil water with their lightning fast punches. Castile took oodles of pictures and videos, especially of the brightly coloured marvel shrimp. There were also octopi, and, in the darkest parts of the tour, near the end, glowing jellyfish of various sorts, pulsing and drifting serenely in their big, dark tanks, lighting them up so prettily. Like the Christmas Lights of the Ocean.   The group had made a complete circuit of all the tanks and exhibits, eventually coming back out to the areas with the cafe and kid’s cove; an undersea-themed playground area with pirate and mermaid features for all the play equipment and decor. It was fenced in, with a gate similar to a pool gate, to be safer, so that little ones couldn’t stray away from their guardians and get lost.  Nearby, there were some touch tanks.  Once they got to the final display; the touch tanks, there were so many creatures they could feel or interact with. The kids were allowed to put their hands in the water. There were sea urchins, shells, stingrays, small sharks, hermit crabs, sea stars, sea cucumbers, pistol shrimp, brittle stars, moon jellies, snails, crabs, horseshoe crabs, sea anemones, shells, seaweed, turtles and some other things.  Once they gently played with the animals, the nannies helped dry off the kids’ hands and clean them before sitting everyone down around an indoor picnic style table for lunch. Aurora and Samuel were put into highchairs. While Ry could sit across from Nanny Lyn, facing her.  The gift shop was not far away, it was close by here. But it would wait.  A waitress at the seafood themed cafe came over with some laminated menus, placing them down on the table for them to look at. They had pictures of each food and drink beside the description and price, so kids could point to what they wanted.  Castile cheerfully spoke up first, addressing everyone.  “Okay…what does everybody want for lunch? Aurora…what do you want? Can you point to the food that looks good? I can read it to you. And what drink do you want with your food?” he asked, letting nannies Lyn and Lily ask their own children.  They had the usual kids’ options, like fish and chips, chicken nuggets shaped like sea animals, fish sticks, fish burgers, potato scallops, seafood mini pizzas, shrimp fried rice, tuna pasta salad, and lots more. There was also water, juices, soda, tea, iced tea, coffee and more to drink.  Aurora chose the fish shaped fish sticks with dipping sauce and a side of fries, along with some strawberry soda.  Castile, with his huge appetite, ordered fish (premium Cod) and chips with potato scallops, calamari, crab claws, prawn cutlets, fish bites, a side of shrimp fried rice and a big, juicy fish burger, along with lots of dipping sauces. He also ordered a Spider/soda float, which was a big glass of cola over ice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Miss Lily ordered fish bites with sweet potato fries, battered pineapple rings with cinnamon sugar, tuna salad and some iced sweet tea.  Nanny Lyn ordered a salmon burger with a side of chips, two crab claws and some pineapple juice on ice.  That left Samuel and Ry remaining to put in their orders. After they finished ordering their food, all three nannies fastened bibs around the children's necks. The waitress came back over with boxes of crayons and activity sheets.  “Here you go, this should keep the lil squirts occupied till the food comes out. Have fun, Sea Stars!” she chirped, waving at the children while wiggling her fingers playfully.

Nothing ever is.

I find that wet goodnites and actual baby diapers smell so much better when wet, a nostalgic smell, compared to adult diapers that just smell like a bit musty when well used…. maybe they don’t put odour neutralising chemicals in kids diapers, just adult’s diapers. But for me the holy grail of stale pee smells are cloth nappies/diapers

Hmm.  Better check out my emergency kit too. I imagine it's still serviceable but I've not looked for a while. Just a drybag with a disposable (a Betterdry I think), and a plastic bag as a nappy sack. Probably spare plastic pants too. It's under the car boot floor next to my charging cable, or was last time I looked. Maybe spare pins? Sounds like I'm getting sloppy in my emergency planning... 

The only good tena are the European kind, the active fit plastic backed maxi and ultima are like a less absorbent slightly lower profile variant of the better dry. They are bullet proof for at least a couple hours, and very discreet and soft. They are less than $0.70 US cents per diaper in the UK, so are a economical and comfortable daily driver for 24/7. I have purchased both maxi and ultima via US resellers as well, but they are a lot more expensive ($1.50 per diaper atm). That makes them marginally cheaper than a better dry ($1.7). It's annoying how much importing diapers increases the cost. But it makes sense, they are large and bulky and take up space on boats and trucks and warehouses, and somebody needs to be rewarded for all the risk and hard work. But I digress. Internationally, tena sell a variety of usually lower quality regional models. Most of them are cloth backed with weak tapes and single elastic leg cuffs (no raised separate leg guards). They are not at all reliable if you have any amount of flooding.