“It sounds like Princess Caydee is awake,” grunted Laura, who was curled up on Jake’s left, her nude body snuggled into him.
“Yep,” Jake said, looking at the clock on the wall. It was 6:37 AM. Right on schedule. “I’ll get her.”
“Thanks, sweetie,” she said, giving him a little kiss on the cheek.
He turned a little to his right, where Celia’s nude body was snuggled into him from that side. Her face was resting on his chest and there was a little puddle of her drool there. She was still sleeping quite soundly. He touched her back and shook her gently until her eyes fluttered open. She looked at him.
“Caydee’s up,” he told her. “I need to get out of bed.”
“Oh ... okay,” she said softly, rolling away from him. She then noticed the drool. “Ewww. I slobbered on you. That’s gross. I’m so sorry, Jake.”
Jake laughed. “Think nothing of it,” he said, sitting up. “I’m pretty much covered in your bodily fluids anyway. What’s a little saliva on the pectoral?”
“I suppose,” Celia said, though she was still visibly embarrassed by the unintentional faux pas.
Jake pulled himself out from under the covers and then shimmied forward, so he could put his feet on the floor. He, like the ladies, was completely naked. He rather reeked of their combined sexual musk. It was not exactly an unpleasant smell to his nose, however. He picked up a pair of sweatpants that was sitting on the dresser and pulled them on. He then went into the bathroom and washed his hands, his face (he did not want to kiss his daughter with the mouth that had been doing what his mouth had been doing last night), the drool off of his chest, and brushed his teeth really quick. Caydee’s “do, do, do’s” continued from the second bedroom, becoming a little louder and more insistent. Experience had taught her parents that they had about five minutes before she would start getting seriously pissed off and screaming for them.
Shirtless, but with his face and breath no longer smelling of vaginal secretions, he walked into the main room of the suite and then the smaller second room where Caydee’s travel crib had been set up. She was standing up in it, holding onto the rail to support herself. She still could not stand unassisted, let alone take a step that way, but she was getting closer to that particular milestone. She saw him come into the room and her eyes locked onto him.
“Do!” she barked. “Do, Do!”
Jake understood Caydee-speak quite well by this point in the relationship. The translation: “My diaper is dirty, Dad, so get it changed! On the fuckin’ double, please!”
“I hear you, little girl,” he told her, holding out his arms and picking her up. Even if he had not been able to understand her vocal communication, there was a distinct olfactory subtitle to help him along. “Whew. You are not smelling like a rose this morning, Caydee-girl.”
“Do!” she agreed, judiciously not mentioning that he was not smelling so great himself.
He put her down on a blanket on the bed. The hotel staff knew that Celia was staying in the suite with the Kingsleys but they were under the impression that this was Celia’s bed. She had not slept in it a single time, though they went to great effort to mess up the covers every morning and then rumple up the sheets so the maids would think she had been. In truth, the whole room was for Caydee and the bed was her changing table. When they left the room each day to go on their adventures, they always moved the crib back into the main bedroom.
He stripped her out of her onesie pajamas and then opened up her diaper. By this point, he was a veteran diaper changer and nothing that he saw in there crossed his eyes even a little. He expertly wiped most of the poop away with the front part of the diaper itself and then, holding her by her left thigh and elevating her little butt above the diaper, he wiped everything else away with a handful of disposable baby wipes, which he then tucked into the dirty diaper and folded up with it. He did a quick visual inspection for any signs of diaper rash—there were none, and there had been none for a few weeks now, thankfully—and then tucked a clean diaper up under her and plopped her butt back down on it. He folded the front up, adjusted it a bit, and then secured the diaper using the little plastic sticky tabs. He then wiped his hands using another of the wipes and tossed it and the dirty diaper in the garbage can. He kept one hand on her chest as he looked in her clothing suitcase for something to wear (she was a crawler now and could take off like a shot when the mood struck her). He pulled out a little pair of denim jeans with an elastic waistband and a pullover short-sleeved shirt that had a picture of an electric guitar on it and had the motto: I LOVE TO ROCK!. He put her legs in the jeans and then stood her up, her arms around his neck, so he could pull them around her waist. He then sat her back on her butt and told her “arms up.” She lifted her arms in the air. He pulled the shirt on her and then laid her back down and put a pair of socks on her. She fought this a little bit—she did not really like wearing socks—but finally gave in.
“All right, little girl,” he said. “You ready to face the day here?”
“Do!” she told him happily. “Do, do, doooo, do do!”
“Understood,” Jake said. “You’re hungry. So am I. I worked up an appetite last night, truth be told. Breakfast will be served shortly. And today’s a travel day, so you’ll get lots of sleep.”
“Do!” she said agreeably.
He carried her back into the living room and set her on one of the couches. He then opened her bag that was sitting on the table and quickly mixed up a bottle of powdered formula and bottled water. He shook the concoction until all the powder was dissolved and then handed it over to Caydee. She no longer cared if her formula was room temperature or not. She grabbed it eagerly and stuck the nipple in her mouth and starting sucking on it, making little coos of contentment.
Jake walked over to the blinds (keeping a close eye on Caydee and ready to dive toward her if she looked like she was going to start mobilizing and possibly fall off the couch) so he could open them. The view out their window was nothing short of spectacular. Their suite looked out over Swiftcurrent Lake and several peaks of the Rocky Mountains rose just on the other side of it. The alpine lake was sparkling blue and the rising sun was shining brightly off the glaciers and granite rock of the mountains. Jake believed Glacier Park to be one of the most beautiful places he had ever gazed upon, even better than Yosemite.
He walked back to the couch and sat next to his daughter, stroking and playing with her foot while she drank her first bottle of the day. She took the bottle away every now and then to smile at him and to gaze at him with that look of love and contentment that always made his heart feel warm. And then she went back to drinking and kicking his thigh with her other foot.
He sat there with her for the better part of thirty minutes. She drank down the entire bottle in about fifteen minutes. She then gave him a resounding burp while he patted her back. He then put her on the floor, where her play blanket and toys were located. She played a little bit and then assumed the crawling position and headed off to explore. Jake watched her carefully as she went from place to place, making sure she did not get into any trouble like playing with electric outlets or pulling over end tables or tugging on cords.
Celia emerged from the room. She was freshly showered and dressed in a pair of khaki shorts and a spaghetti strap top. Her hair was damp and loose. She was barefoot. She looked at Caydee playing on the floor near the television counter and she smiled down at her. Caydee looked up at her, gave her a little “Do” of greeting, and then went back to her exploration.