The Tale of Zachary Willowbrook: A Leap Day Paradox

Chapter 21: Zachary's "Third" Birthday

Stacy, having carried a tired Zachary up the stairs, placed him in his room. It was the night of February 28, 2016. With David focusing on getting both Audrey and Timothy ready for bed, Stacy could focus on readying her "special one" for bed.

With Zachary's third birthday party tomorrow, Stacy was excited. She placed Zachary down on the center of the floor. Zachary's eyes squinted open. He was barely awake.

"I pee-pee...." Zachary announced, yawning with a big smile on his face.

Stacy nodded. Nice of him to announce that to me. Now, if only he could tell me this after he uses his potty! Approaching the same mental age as last leap year, she knew that Zachary would only treat his potty like a toy. But maybe, just maybe, this year would be different. She hoped that it would. She prayed that it would.

The nighttime routine began, for what seemed like the millionth time. Stacy undressed Zachary, removing his pants and shirt, leaving him in nothing but his undershirt and his diaper. Stacy went to the closet, swung the door open and opened a new package of Dreamies night time diapers. She pulled one out and placed it next to Zachary.

From there, she knelt down on the floor and reached for the tapes on Zachary's diaper. She pulled them off and opened up the diaper. Right next to her, she grabbed a baby wipe and cleaned Zachary. And then, taking the new diaper, she opened it, lightly powdered it and lay Zachary on it. With the wet diaper, she rolled it up and placed it in the diaper genie. She then lifted up both sides and fastened the tapes to the center of the diaper.

After doing this, Stacy opened up her tally book and made another tally. Fourth one today, she said to herself. Since he's been born, I've done this 27,997 times....!

Putting her tally book away, Stacy focused her attention on Zachary, who was getting a little restless. She opened up a drawer and reached toward the back, pulling out a red fleece footed sleeper. After placing it on Zachary, she noticed that it fit a little different. While his weight was not a problem at all, he was a little taller, so the pajamas fit a little snug.

"You haven't worn this in a while," she told him. "Not since last winter. But after tonight, you're not going to wear it anymore."

Before placing Zachary in the crib, she inspected the tag on his footed sleeper. "3T?" she gasped. "You're definitely going to be wearing 4T's now...." She then lifted Zachary up and placed him in his crib. "Be right back with your baa baas, Zacky." After patting him on the head, she left his room.

After going downstairs, she prepared Zachary's nighttime bottles - one bottle of warm milk and one bottle of water. As she was doing this, she shook her head. Why am I still doing this? After thinking about it, she knew the answer. Two weeks ago, She tried once again to get rid of his bottles. With Zachary on the sippy cups during the day, she tried replacing his nighttime bottles with them. Big mistake. Zachary kept everyone awake with his loud and destructive tantrums. After one sleepless night, Zachary got what he wanted. The next night, he slept with his nighttime bottles.

With the bottles done, she carried them upstairs, sighing. "What Zachary wants, Zachary gets," she whispered. "For now, at least. I'm hoping that I can get rid of them eventually...." Stacy entered Zachary's room and placed the bottles in his crib. "Good night, my little angel. You have a very big day tomorrow..." She kissed him on the cheek and left his room.

Tired from all the birthday planning, Stacy staggered into her bedroom, got ready for bed and fell asleep.

After much planning and anticipation, tomorrow finally came. The day was February 29, 2016 - the day of Zachary's third birthday. With all the planning that still needed to be done, Stacy was very eager to get both Audrey and Timothy off to school. To speed up the process, she had Timothy shower in the kids' bathroom and Audrey shower in hers. With the lunches all packed, she piled the kids in the car and took off.