Jim glances at the photos on the mantel and end tables. There are plenty of Toby and Sasha, and Kim and Sasha and of Sasha herself, but none of Toby and Kim. There are some empty frames, though. Jim feels uncomfortable, because while he’s here playing with their baby, his friend and his friend’s wife are meeting with lawyers to end their marriage.

Jim plays with dolls for the first time in about 15 years. He rocks a baby doll and puts it in a cradle, and feeds another doll with one of those weird toy bottles, and Sasha is cracking up because he’s pretending the stuffed puppy is a hat. Now she’s pressing Little People into his palms and he’s making them dance on her knees, and she’s belly laughing again.

He’s carrying her to her new toddler bed after she’s fallen asleep while he’s been reading the same book three times, and he doesn’t mind. She’s heavy in his arms, and before he sets her down, he imagines what it would be like to put his own child to bed. He gets a warm feeling in his heart and hopes that it will happen someday soon.

She’s pooped in her diaper, and it’s the worst thing Jim has ever come across, and he’s kind of glad he doesn’t have a baby right now, because he couldn’t handle this at this point in his life, and weren’t two and a half year olds supposed to be potty trained?

At work on Monday, Pam giggles when he tells her about babysitting, and then she tells him that Kristy and Mary Anne called to remind him that the meeting is at Claudia’s house, and he has no idea what she is talking about, but she’s laughing, and he really likes that.