Maddy was stirred awake by the sound of her crib door unlocking. She groaned and stretched as Janice swung open the crib door.

“Wakey wakey,” Janice said sweetly as she opened Maddy’s onesie to assess the damage to her diaper. As always Maddy woke up with a wet diaper, a very wet diaper. Maddy noted so herself as Janice squished it against her. Maddy wordlessly made her way over to the changing table and Janice followed, electing to leave Maddy unrestrained as she was still too groggy to wiggle that much.

“You ready for today?” Janice said tossing the used diaper in the changing table’s diaper pail.

“Sure am,” Maddy gave a sleepy smile. “Getting to see you in skimpy swimsuits.”

“And getting to see you in cute beach outfits,” Janice countered. The two gave each other a knowing look as Janice changed Maddy into a different diaper. This diaper was a sunny themed diaper to match the mood of the day. The landing strip featured a sunny meadow and the diaper itself was decorated with subtle yellow colors. “The diaper pail needs to be taken out,” Janice reminded as Maddy stood up. She handed the heavy trash bag to Maddy who took it with a frown. It was fair game that, since Janice changed all the diapers, Maddy had to take out the diaper pail’s trash when it was full. That didn’t mean she enjoyed the chore, however.

“Pick me out a cute outfit, ok?” Maddy more commanded than asked as she left the room hauling the heavy trash bag of worn diapers. Janice smiled, happy to accept the task. She moved to Maddy’s closet and sorted through her wide array of cute dresses, rompers, and skirtalls that was Maddy's usual aesthetic. Given that they were going to be trying on clothes Janice opted for a dress, something that would be easy to get Maddy in and out of. The dress she picked out was more of a white shirt with an extended light blue skirt. A shooting star with a rainbow trail decorated the shirt part of the outfit. Knowing Maddy preferred having something to hold her diaper up, Janice also picked out a light blue diaper cover with white ruffles on the butt.

“Good choice,” Maddy said as she returned. She started to put a new bag in the diaper pail. “Did you pick out a harness?”

“I thought we’d put you in the stroller today,” Janice mused. “I’ll have plenty of time to keep you on a leash on our trip, I can’t pack the stroller in a suitcase.”

“Aren’t we going in stores though?”

“The stores you shop at have room for strollers.”

“Yeah, but yours don’t,” Maddy countered already looking through her harnesses. “We can still use the stroller, just switch to a leash when we need to.” Maddy offered when she noticed Janice’s mood sour a bit. “I still wanna use the stroller too, my feet always end up hurting when we go to that mall.” Janice smiled as Maddy started to dress herself in the provided outfit.

Janice left to go get her own outfit ready leaving Maddy to dress herself. Janice was less discerning about her own outfit than she was about Maddy’s, quickly grabbing a white crop top and high-rise mom jeans, with some thick comfortable shoes. When she was done getting dressed Maddy had entered her room in her own outfit. Maddy’s dress, like most of her clothes, was made with diaper checks and changes in mind, meaning the ruffles of the diaper cover were rather adorably on display. She had also added some white tennis shoes and frilly ankle socks. Maddy had managed to get her harness on, a simple, light blue, leather chest harness with a large panel on the front that covered the design on her shirt. Janice wordlessly spun her girlfriend around and tightened the harness so it was snug but not tight.

“Ready to go?” Maddy asked eagerly.

“You’re not,” Janice answered. “Where’s your paci?” Maddy rolled her eyes and went back to her room to get one. Janice was always astounded by Maddy. A girl who insisted on wearing a leash but balked at adding a pacifier. Of course it made sense to her internally. Leashes were something that was required for people still in the stage of potty training she was, but pacifiers were always optional. Maddy saw using a pacifier as a choice to be more babyish, while most other things were just a requirement for girls not potty trained. Even still, when she had one, she used it often enough. The trip to the nursery was quick enough and there was now a light blue pacifier clipped to Maddy’s dress collar.

“Now we’re ready?” Maddy asked.

“You got your diaper bag packed?” Maddy handed the bag over. It was a fairly plain backpack style diaper bag in a modest grey. Janice looked through all the pouches to make sure it still had everything it needed. “Fix yourself a bottle and we’ll go.”

“Got it,” Maddy bounded downstairs. Janice made a brief stop in the nursery, grabbing a stuffed animal, an otter named Squibby, to put into the diaper bag in case Maddy needed it.

Maddy was waiting by the garage door, baby bottle of juice in hand. She offered it to Janice to put into the diaper bag, but Janice told her to keep it with a wave of her hand. On their way out of the door Janice grabbed a set of nylon reins from a series of hooks by the door where they kept the leashes and reins to Maddy’s harnesses.

In contrast to leaving work yesterday, Maddy was eagerly sitting in her car seat, buckling herself in. Janice gave her work a quick inspection before grabbing the stroller frame and storing it in her trunk. With everything and everyone finally secure Janice started the car and opened the garage and started her drive.

“Hey babe,” Maddy asked modestly from her car seat.

“What’s up?” Janice looked at her through the rearview mirror.

“Do you mind if I shop for a business outfit while we're out, for my presentation.” Janice was quiet for a moment, hiding her concern well enough. She highly doubted that a nice outfit would make any difference in Maddy’s presentation, because Maddy’s presentation was likely already doomed to fail. It was a waste of money and effort. She had to remind herself that it was Maddy’s money to waste. Even if she rarely looked like it, Maddy was an adult with her own money, and she had enough to splurge on a nice dress if she really wanted to. It wasn’t Janice’s place to tell her no which suited her fine because she didn’t particularly want to crush that hope. “I want something new, something that'll stand out.”

“Yeah sure,” Janice answered with a smile. “I know just the place.”

“Thanks,” Maddy said flatly, sticking her pacifier in her mouth when she was done talking. Janice worriedly stole glances back at her as she drove to their first store. Maddy’s emotions were either complicated, or she was good at hiding them. Whatever it was disappeared as they pulled into Bright Eyes, their first stop for the day, and where they would be getting Maddy’s beach attire.

Bright Eyes was a clothing store for teens and young adults, specifically those that were behind on their potty training, or had a preference for cuter fashion choices. Maddy fit into most of those categories. Though one couldn’t tell at a glance that she was twenty years away from being a teenager.

Janice parked the car close to Bright eyes. The store was part of the strip mall, and the second store they would be going to was in the same shopping center, on the opposite end. Maddy’s stroller would get some use.

“Hang out there while I get the stroller set up,” Janice yelled before she left the car. Maddy gave a thumbs up from inside and contentedly suckled her pacifier. Janice opened her trunk and folded out the frame for the stroller, and it really was just a frame. A solid metal construction in the vague shape of a chair with a cloth undercarriage for storage and a canopy for keeping the sun out of the eyes of potentially sleeping occupants.

The whole thing was missing a crucial piece though; one Janice was about to get. She opened the back seat of her car, the side Maddy currently wasn’t sitting in, and proceeded to disconnect the vacant car seat formerly used by Jhon. In the many years of developing use furniture for children still in diapers, one of the more recent developments was modularity. A car seat could become a highchair, a bouncer, or a stroller just by putting it in the right frame saving money and space. Janice had one such car seat, and she expertly detached the car seat from its car seat frame and added it to its stroller frame. With a few snaps of locks securing everything in place a stroller had appeared. Next was the occupant. Maddy was stopped from freeing herself by Janice who handled it herself, as well was resecuring Maddy into the stroller with the familiar five-point harness. The last touch was a plastic bar that Janice attached to the frame and brought down so it was resting at Maddy’s chest height. The bar served as a place to potentially dangle some toys from, but for Maddy it was used more as a place for her to rest her arm.

The stroller kept Maddy sitting comfortably high off the ground and at a slight backward incline which helped keep her feet from dragging on the ground and interfering with the stroller’s operation. Maddy tapped away on her phone while Janice loaded the diaper bag and the reins into the stroller’s bottom storage compartment. She sighed from the effort before grabbing the singular plastic bar at the top of the stroller.

“You want the shade down?” Janice asked.

“I’m good for now,” Maddy spoke a little loudly so her voice would carry behind her to Janice.

“Oh, can we go to Gatsby’s for lunch?” Janice could feel the stroller shift from Maddy’s weight as she moved with excitement.

“Sure,” Janice shrugged. She didn’t have any lunch plans, and the restaurant was in this shopping center as well, so it all worked out.

It was a pretty lengthy stroll from Janice’s car to the actual stores, the strip mall was a popular destination, so the parking lot was pretty full. Despite the popularity of the place no one gave the thirty-one year old being pushed in a stroller a second glance. It wasn't because that wasn't odd, it was. Maddy was much too old to still be in diapers, but on first glance, or even second glance, she didn’t look like it. She looked like any other teenager still in diapers. Maybe one a little bit too old to not have moved out of a stroller yet, but not anything as out of the ordinary as the reality. Maddy and Janice could get away with this without being accosted. It made Janice a little uncomfortable that everyone saw her girlfriend as her daughter, and it didn’t help that Maddy constantly made fun of that. What were partners for if not for friendly bullying?

As they approached Bright Eyes a group some patrons exited. Two girls of about the same age, one in a pair of brown shortalls with a green onesie and the other in a cute light blue dress. Even though they were at least far enough along in potty training that they could be out by themselves, some still preferred the look of the youth, Maddy wasn’t the only one with that penchant.

A noise chimed as Janice pushed the stroller bound Maddy into the store. Inside was a veritable wonderland of cute clothes and they would all be right at home in Maddy’s nursery closet. In fact a lot of the clothes in Maddy's closet came from this store. All the racks were full of various clothes and were spaced pretty widely apart to make room for strollers such as the one Maddy was in, and in the back the changing rooms were for both trying on clothes and changing diapers. There was a sign off to the side as soon as they came in that said “Those with Bright Eyes tend to wander” with cute drawings of a girl being held on a baby leash and a boy sitting in a stroller, both smiling. A cute reminder to keep those that still required it on a leash or in their stroller.

“Fancy seeing you two again,” a knowing voice greeted the two from the checkout counter.

Like most mall stores the checkout counter was manned by a teenager on a summer job. Even though this one was probably far enough along in their potty training to be able to have a job, she was repping the store she was working at. Whether that was a requirement or her own personal choice remained to be seen. She had on a short white dress with a pink apron decorated with embroidered yellow ducks. The pink ruffly diaper cover underneath was very visible. Though the diaper cover left it ambiguous, Maddy got the feeling the girl wasn’t wearing a pull-up underneath it. The girl twirled a pacifier around in her mouth playfully. If having to wear the childish attire bothered her, she didn’t let it show and Maddy and Janice got the feeling it did the opposite of bothering her since she had been at the job long enough to recognize Maddy and Janice as regular customers. She must have realized by now Maddy’s true age but never made a negative comment about it.

“Anything I can help you with?”

“You guys don’t happen to sell swimsuits, do you?” Janice asked hopefully.

“Well, ya know diapers and water don’t usually mix,” the girl said playfully. “But we do have some outfits for playing around in the sand.”

“I feel like sand in a diaper is worse that water,” Maddy commented.

“Thankfully I’ve never had to deal with either,” the girl started walking away from her counter, the diaper cover being made even more obvious with her sashaying walk. “We’ve got a fair amount of beach outfits, but you’ll have to get the swim diapers from Bigger Babies.”

“We just keep adding stops to our little shopping trip,” Janice sighed.

“C’mon it’s all fun,” Maddy tried to be the optimist. “Oh, look at that one,” Maddy said pointing as best she could while being strapped into her stroller.

“I’ll see if we have it in your size,” the store attendant said with a smile.

AUTHORS NOTE: back to our regularly shceduled programming. We got another Nepo Baby chapter. Maddy and janice get started on a day of fun shopping for their upcoming conference/vacation. Hope you all enjoy, and if you do check out my ream https://reamstories.com/bigred0603 or subscribe star https://subscribestar.adult/bigred0603 pages to read things a week early.