Spain Dad, a baby blog

mens bathroom
Photo by ChrisDigital™.

“Did you see a changing table in the women’s bathroom?” April asked.

“No, no changing table,” Grandma said. She pursed her lips together in an apology.

“But it seemed clean enough,” she added.

“I guess I’ll have to change Alleke’s diaper on my lap,” April said, taking one more bite of her sandwich and setting it aside.

“I can do it,” I said.

April hesitated. “Okay,” she said.

I gulped the rest of my water, then reached for the diaper bag.

“Okay, what do I do?”

April raised her eyebrows.

“I mean, what do I do if there’s no changing table?” I asked, lifting Alleke into my arms.

“Well,” April said. “You sit down in the bathroom. You put Alleke on your lap. And you change her diaper.”

“I have to sit down?” I asked, grimacing.

April smiled.

“Oh, and I would put down that water-resistant mat we have in the diaper bag,” April added. “You don’t want her to pee on you. We still have three more hours in the car.”

I shook my head and walked off to the bathroom.

The bathroom was one small room, a cube, with a toilet and a sink. It looked clean enough, but looks don’t tell you much in a public bathroom, especially when you’re contemplating sitting on the floor.

The floor looked about the same everywhere (well, at least everywhere I looked. In better judgment, I chose not to look behind the toilet or under the sink). I decided on a spot close to the door because it was as far away from the toilet as I could get, which in actuality, wasn’t that far.

I didn’t want to touch the floor with my hands, so instead, I pressed my back against the wall and slowly lowered Alleke and myself to the floor. It felt a bit like repelling off the side of a rock face for the first time–slow and steady, fully aware of what awaits below if anything goes wrong.

We got settled on the floor alright, considering, and with a little extra care, I managed to change Alleke’s diaper without dropping anything on the floor and keeping Ali entertained.

“We did it,” I said, walking up to our table where April and Grandma were waiting with their coats on.

“She didn’t cry,” I said, “and neither did I.”

We walked to the car, and I told them the whole story. I finished as we pulled onto the highway.

Grandma was holding her book on her lap, and she looked at me.

“Maybe next time,” she said, “you could put down the lid on the toilet and sit there while you change Alleke.”

She paused.

“Instead of sitting on the floor,” she added.

She smiled, thoughtfully, then opened her book and began to read.