POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_DIAPERING DUCKY

Sister, Ducky (her 15-month old baby), and I were in The Cocoa Bar, our new favorite place to sit and sip latte. We were sitting in the window seat, a good place for watching the people walk by on Seventh Avenue.

Ducky had a dirty diaper. Sister knew that the public bathroom was out-of-order so she started to change her on the seat, with her trusty diaper pad. Knowing this was a dicey thing to do, in a cafe and all, I stood in front of her so no one would have to see what she was doing.

"Make sure you have everything you need," I said in an attempt to make it a speedy operation. She got out the diaper, the wipes, a plastic bag for the dirty diaper.

Everything she needed.

I stood in front of Sister trying to hide the baby from view. Ducky wasn't real happy about being changed in public and she twisted and cried a bit. But it all went very quickly and cleanly.  The whole operation took less than two minutes.

Afterwards, Ducky went back to sitting in the stroller, sucking on a rattle. My sister packed up the dirty diaper and I took it out to the garbage pail on the corner of Third Street and Seventh Avenue. Sister went into the out-of-order bathroom and washed her hands. Then I went in there. We were sipping our lattes when one of the cafe barista's came over to us.

"I know you had to do it. But we can't allow you to do that here," the barista said.

"Sorry," Sister said.

"We did it here because the bathroom was out of order," I chimed in aware that I might sound defensive.

"I know. But for future reference. You can't do it here. It's against the law," the barista said.

"I'm really sorry," Sister said looking really embarrassed.

"Thanks for telling us," I said.

"Okay," she said and walked back to the coffee bar.

All in all, it was a very civilized exchange. I could tell that Sister felt funny about the whole thing. I knew it wasn't the best idea in the world to do it in the first place. Who likes to see a baby being diapered in a restaurant? Actually it's pretty damn gross. But what were we to do?

"Did you ever imagine that you'd be diapering a baby in a cafe," I said to my Sister.

"Nope," she said.

Sister became a mom just over three months ago after longing for a baby for years and years. Pre-baby, she would sometimes get annoyed by the child-centered parents of  Park Slope. The stroller grid-lock. The kids running wild in restaurants. The public breast feeding (Sister says she didn't mind this: it was just that everyone had babies and she didn't.) The parents gloating over their so-called adorable children. 

It was hard enough not having her own child. And worse to be surrounded by so many people with children. But then it happened, Ducky arrived and everything changed.

Three months into motherhood, Sister is already becoming one of those child-absorbed Park Slope parents. And we're all thrilled.

Diapering a baby in a cafe. Imagine.

Even though we both knew it was a terrible thing to do. Terrible. I must admit, it was kinda cool being reprimanded by the barista after Sister diapered  Ducky.

BECAUSE she was diapering Ducky, her baby, her very own little girl.