Younger and Younger

7am

"Hi, I'm Kinley, and welcome to Toddle's Toddler Daycare!"  is what I've been saying to parents this morning as I welcome their little ones into the daycare. It's only my second week, but the parents are beginning to remember my name and the kids are becoming more excited to be dropped off with me.  I just finished up my second my year of college and so far this has been a great summer job! My mom's best friend Bea reached out to me a few months ago saying she could use some extra help at Toddle's and with my years of babysitting experience I was a perfect fit.

Another parent entered and I began chatting with him as he dropped his daughter off. She ran up to me to give me a big hug, and I grabbed her hand and led her to the playroom that was being supervised by the other staff. I waved to Jill as she looked after the girl and I made my way back to the entrance. The door opened and a frazzled father hurried in with his son in one arm and a bag of diapers in the other. He smiled when he saw me,

"Kinley we're so glad to see you! It's been a rush of a morning for us but Nate's super excited to play today!"

I saw Nate, a boy of about 2, squirming in his dad's arms. His dad set him down and Nate ran over to me and grabbed onto my leg giving it a hug. His dad laughed and set the bag of diapers off to the side before walking up to Nate, bending down, and giving him a goodbye kiss.

"Have a lot of fun today Nate, and be good for Miss Kinley!" he smiled and thanked me for looking after Nate before he walked out the door. As I went to grab Nate's hand to bring him to the playroom I caught a whiff of what could only mean that he needed his diaper changed. I picked him up and brought him over to the diaper change station, keeping an eye on the door in case another drop off came in.

I laid him down on the station and began to pull out the necessary supplies, then unbuttoned his jeans and removed the dirty diaper. I cleaned him up and grabbed for some baby powder and a fresh diaper. I shook the bottle gently, but no powder came out. I shook a little harder and still nothing came out, it must be jammed! I tapped it a few times and then gave a hard shake to get the powder out, and it burst out into a cloud of white powder! Nate let out a large sneeze, startling me, passing through the cloud of powder and getting some into my mouth. Gross, gross, gross! I wiped my mouth clean and tried my best to get rid of most of the powdery mess before diapering Nate and getting him ready to go play. Inspecting the area after I felt like I did a good job, so I picked Nate up and began to bring him over Jill. As I did, I felt a strange tingling sensation in my head that lasted a few seconds then went away. I guess I was holding back a sneeze? Or maybe I was allergic to the powder? It must be fine since it went away, so I went back to dropping Nate off.

The drop-off hour continued as normal, parents dropped off their little ones and we brought them to the playroom to start their days. And I made a note to be more careful around bottles of baby powder!