Baby Bottle Blunder

“Well, it looks like I’m going to be in the nursery at church by myself today,” Justin’s mom announced to the family as Dad parked their van in the church parking lot.

“Ooh! That could be tough by yourself. I’d help, but I’m teaching a class,” Dad replied.

Justin thought about offering to help, but knew he didn’t want to be in the nursery. Babies always slobbered on you, and they had stinky diapers.

Mom suddenly turned to him. “Justin! You could help me!”

Justin almost choked! “Huh? Me? Umm.”

Mom smiled. “Thanks, Justin.”

Once inside the church, Justin’s mom dropped Ellie off at her class then walked into the nursery. Justin followed slowly, cringing at the sound of a whining baby.

It turned out that only three babies were in the nursery today. One sat on a blanket and played with a toy rattle. Another baby slept soundly in a crib. But then . . . there was Joey. Baby Joey sat in the bouncy swing and drooled on his fist.

“Eww,” Justin said. “Why do babies slobber so much, Mom?”

“Because their teeth are coming in,” Mom replied as she gave Joey’s swing a little push.

“Justin, look in Joey’s diaper bag for his bottle. His mom said he’ll be hungry soon.”

Justin looked at the three diaper bags. But he didn’t see any names on them.

“Which bag is Joey’s?” he asked.

“The blue one with stripes.”

Justin grabbed a blue-striped bag and fished around inside for a bottle.

“Ah ha! Here it is.”

Then he noticed another bag that also had blue stripes. He reached into the second striped bag and found another bottle.

He set the bottles down and put the bags back.

“Here you go,” said Justin as he handed the bottles to his mom.

“Did you get both of these out of the blue-striped bag?”

“Well, yeah,” Justin replied.

Suddenly he felt confused. “There were two bags with blue stripes,” he explained, “and they both had bottles.”

“But do you know which one is Joey’s?” asked Mom.

“No. I guess not,” Justin admitted.

Just then, Joey saw the bottles and let out a howl as he reached for them. “Ba-ba!” he cried, “Ba-ba!”

“Oh no!” Justin’s mom picked up Joey and hurried over to Joey’s diaper bag, searching for another bottle.

“There aren’t any more. Justin, find Joey’s mom and ask her which bottle is his.”

“But, I don’t know where she is,” Justin stammered.

“Ba-baah!” Joey squealed.

“She should be in an adult class in one of the rooms close to where Dad is teaching. Please hurry, Justin!” his mom urged as Joey’s cries grew louder.

Justin grabbed both bottles and raced out the door. He sprinted up the stairs and slammed right into a crowd of people streaming through the main entrance.

“Excuse me. Excuse me,” Justin said as he squeezed through.

Suddenly Justin felt his big toe being scrunched. “Ow!” he shouted.

“I’m sorry, dear,” said a tall lady, peering down at him.

Justin tried to move on. Clunk! A huge purse whacked him in the head. Justin almost dropped one of the bottles. But he held on tightly and continued to plow through the throng of people and purses. Finally, he reached the other side and ran down the hall.

“Don’t run in the hallways!”

Justin stopped to see who was scolding him. It was Mrs. Blewitt staring sternly at him through her triangular-shaped glasses.

“Yes, ma’am,” said Justin. “But I have got to find Joey’s mom. It’s an emergency!”

Justin shook the baby bottles at Mrs. Blewitt to show her what he was talking about. Sploosh-sploosh! To his surprise, milk squirted out all over Mrs. Blewitt’s yellow dress. Mrs. Blewitt stared in shock at the milk splotches on her front.

“Sorry,” Justin stammered. “But my mom said I need to find baby Joey’s mom fast!”

“Well, I think I saw her go into that room.”

Mrs. Blewitt pointed to a door then quickly spun around and marched away to clean off her dress.

Justin couldn’t remember ever having a morning like this before. He wanted to sit down and quit. But then he remembered his poor mom all alone downstairs with three babies—who were probably all crying by now. Justin opened the door that Mrs. Blewitt had pointed to. A group of adults all turned and stared at him.

Justin was afraid to speak. He nervously looked around the room. Then he spotted Joey’s mom. Justin frantically held up the bottles.

“Which bottle is Joey’s?” he blurted. “My mom needs to know.”

The adults all laughed, but Justin didn’t care. He needed to find out the answer. He had a message to bring so his mom could feed Joey and make him stop bawling.

“It’s that one,” said Joey’s mother, pointing to the bottle in Justin’s right hand.

“Thanks!”

Justin turned and headed back to the nursery. He could hear baby Joey wailing when he got to the bottom of the stairs. Finally, Justin opened the nursery door and tossed the bottle to his mom.

“Ba-ba!” Joey clutched the bottle and stuffed it in his mouth.

“Whew! Thank you, Justin. I’m so glad you came to the rescue,” Mom said with a sigh of relief.

Just then baby Joey let out a satisfied, “Burp!”

Justin laughed. “I guess Joey’s glad, too,” he said.

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