Chapter 6

Colin's eyes fluttered open. The room was somewhat brighter than what it had been when he'd fallen asleep. Beside him Marshmallow was sleeping soundly, Mr. Snuggles cradled in her arms while the nipple of her baby bottle was limply in her mouth, the bottle lying lop-sided by her head. Looking down he noticed that her diaper was wet and sagging, the end result of her feeding last night before being put to bed. It wasn't until he moved around that he noticed his own diaper was a messy, it filled with the food that had been turned into bodily waste only after a few hours of having eaten it. He smiled to himself. Oddly enough, he loved the feeling of a full diaper. Wearing as many diapers as he could put on at one time accomplished this feeling, as it did for both Erik and Marshmallow.

He had no need to stand up and call out for Renee to come in. She always woke up early in the morning to fix a fresh pot of coffee and get ready for work. During this time she would check on Marshmallow or Erik and Colin to see if they needed changing or wanted an early breakfast. Right on cue she walked in the room and smiled upon seeing that Colin was already up and waiting for her. He bounced up and down on the mattress, not caring at all if he woke up Marshmallow at all since she needed to be changed anyway. He reached out for her as she approached him and let out a cooing sound when she picked him up and cradled him in her arms.

"How's my baby boy today?" she said sweetly, tickling his chin, making him giggle and kick his legs. "Did you sleep well?"

He nodded his head, staring up at her and smiling.

She put a paw on his diapered bottom, although she didn't need to necessarily do this to notice that he needed to be changed. She carried him over to the changing table and removed the first six diapers before finally removing the seventh and final one, the one that was dirty. The remaining six were clean, oddly enough. She cleaned and powdered his genitals and his furry bottom before slipping the remaining six diapers back on him. During the process, they both heard a whine from behind and both looked to see that Marshmallow had awakened and was waiting her turn to be changed. Renee reassured her daughter that she would get changed as soon as she was done changing Colin. Once she was finished with Colin, she set him down on the floor and proceeded to change Marshmallow before going and changing Erik's diaper.

Once all three were changed, they were led to the kitchen by Renee for their breakfast while Alvin continued to sleep on. For breakfast, they each chose to have a couple of Pop Tarts before Erik, Colin, and Renee went to get ready for work while Marshmallow stayed in Erik's room and watched Alvin sleep, sucking on her thumb, her white and silver-gray tail swishing back and forth like a dog that was about to be fed by its master.

Just before leaving for Erik's Eats, Colin woke up Alvin while Erik went and got the car started so that it was nice and toasty by the time they left the house. The red-clad chipmunk woke up and rubbed his eyes and listened carefully as Colin explained that he would now be left to take care of Marshmallow while the others went to work, telling him that she had already been fed her breakfast and therefore wouldn't need to be fed until around lunchtime. If they so wished they could sleep until then or try to find something to do to entertain themselves. After his speech and making sure that Alvin understood him well enough, the raccoon left the two of them alone.

Yawning, Alvin turned to Marshmallow, smacking his lips. She smiled up at him while she sucked her thumb. He lied back down and she lied down next beside him, placing a paw on the pillow and the other underneath it. Their eyes met and they smiled at each other.

"What say we get a few more hours of shut eye before getting some lunch, eh, Marshmallow?" Alvin suggested.

She nodded her head before yawning, stretching her mouth as wide as it would open before smacking her lips and getting close to Alvin, snuggling into his chest and closing her eyes to go to sleep.

It was a little past noon by the time the two of them woke up. By this time Marshmallow was in need of a diaper change. Alvin took her into her room and changed her diaper without any problems at all. She was grinning ear from ear, sighing in content as Alvin changed her diaper, inhaling the smell of the baby powder deeply, letting out a moan of pleasure in the process and giggling when Alvin playfully tickled her tailhole, making her tail wag.

The two of them went in the kitchen soon thereafter and began looking through the cabinets in search of something to eat for lunch. For her there was a large quantity of jars of baby food. For him there were a few packets of Ramen Noodles and jars of peanut butter and grape flavored jelly for sandwiches. Knowing Marshmallow she would eat a few jars of baby food and then ask for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He looked down at her and noticed how terribly thin she looked. Looking at her one wouldn't think that anyone properly fed her. He was going to feed her as much as possible, hopefully make her a tad bit fatter. Hopefully, her family wouldn't mind. Surely Erik and Colin wouldn't. As for Renee, he was unsure.

He picked her up and carried her over to the high chair. He strapped her in before walking back over to the cabinet and looking through the different flavors of baby food. He didn't think it would matter which ones he picked. He tried his best to pick a flavor for every food group. For veggies and meats he picked mashed turkey and peas. For fruits he picked banana. There were no flavors for grains. Not finding any flavors for any of the other food groups, he decided to pick some flavor for dessert. He was surprised when they had pumpkin pie as a dessert. Sensing that she had a strong sweet tooth like her brothers he grabbed it. With his arms full of jars of baby food, he walked back over to the high chair. Once he piled the jars on the table he pulled out a chair and sat down, positioning it so that he was facing her. She smiled at him while she watched him pry off one of the lids to the jars (quite difficult to do, mind you) and was about to feed her until he was reminded that he had forgotten her spoon.

Once he had her spoon (he wasn't surprised to find that it was pink) he went about feeding her. Unfortunately for him, she was quite stubborn when it came to baby food. He tried but failed to get her to eat, only to have her keep turning her head away from the spoon and pushing it away, constantly whining "Mm-mm," whenever he begged her to eat the stuff. He honestly couldn't blame her. The food didn't smell too pleasant, so he imagined that it didn't taste any better. Shrugging, he decided to try a bit. As soon as he tasted it, he spit it out, making her laugh wildly in the process, and put the jar of baby food aside. With the spoon resting against the rim, it fell over due to the weight of the spoon, spilling a little bit of baby food on the table. He removed the spoon and set it aside before setting the jar upright and cleaning off the baby food with a discarded washcloth.

He turned to her. "Well, since you don't feel like eating baby food, what do you feel like eating?" When she shrugged her shoulders, he unbuckled her from the high chair and carried her over to the cabinet while stating, "Come on, let's go see if we can't find something for you to eat." No sooner had he opened the cabnet door was it that she grabbed the nearest jar of peanut butter that she could find, giggling happily and hugging it to her chest, squirming around in Alvin's arms, smacking her lips, her eyes growing wide.

She was put back in her high chair while he went about fixing her a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, as well as a couple for himself. He cleaned out her baby bottle that he'd found in her crib and fixed her a baby bottle of warm milk with honey for sweetener. Curious as to how the concution tasted he decided to fix himself a glass of the stuff, hoping that it tasted better than the baby food that he'd tasted. Pondering if it would taste better with the stuff in it, he added at least one teaspoon of nutmeg and mixed it in with the warm sweetened honey. He smiled to himself before giving her the food and her drink and then put his own food and drink on the table.

He was grateful that she was able to feed herself. This made it so that he was able to eat his food without having to worry about feeding her. He had no doubt, however, that if she had the choice she would have liked for him to feed her. Due to the peanut butter both of them were taking drinks of their milk every so often to prevent themselves from choking. She remembered what Erik had gone through when he'd eaten too much peanut butter at one time and hadn't been able to reach the sink to get a drink of water in time. If it hadn't been for Colin saving him by way of slithering his tongue down the skunk's mouth (and she'd thought that Colin was kissing him against Erik's will) and managing to get the peanut butter out of Erik's throat, the skunk would have choked to death. Luckily for her and the rest of the family, Colin knew CPR, but he hadn't exactly classified what he'd done as CPR.

The two ate in silence. After a while he got up to get her a bib, feeling that she would have preferred one anyway. There was a pink one and a blue one. He chose the blue one since it went well with her blue t-shirt. He clipped it on her just as some jelly dangling from her chin fell. It hit the edge of the bib and slid down towards her shirt, not that she seemed to mind. She chuckled and took another large bite out of her sandwich, smacking her lip and happily chewing, just as he was.

After they were done with lunch, Marshmallow, for the most part, was quite a mess, covered from head to toe in peanut butter and jelly, while some milk stains had somehow managed to get on her shirt. She laughed as she stared at herself in the mirror in the bathroom once Alvin had taken her out of her high chair and carried her to the bathroom to give her a bath. Her shirt and diaper were removed, the diaper being tossed in the trash can in the kitchen and the t-shirt put in the hamper in the garage where the washing machine and dryer were located. She remained in the bathroom sucking her thumb while he went to her bedroom to get her a new shirt and a fresh diaper.

Instead of taking a bath in the bathtub she, for some odd reason, preferred to take one in the sink. He had no problems with this. She at least fit, which was more than he could say for Erik and Colin or himself, for that matter. He used the sprinkler next to the faucet to rinse the soap and shampoo off her, making her laugh. He watched as she happily splashed in the water and played with her little ducky and other bath toys. At long last, sadly, she was removed from the tub and wrapped up in a towel and set down on the floor so he could dry her off while the warm water was drained, leaving mounds of soapy suds in the tub along with her bath toys. He dried her off and, upon hearing her yawn, suggested that she be put to bed, to which she happily agreed with an enthusiastic nod of her head. He put her in her bassinet with a bottle of warm milk and gently tucked her in, sitting down beside her and rocking the bassinet with his hand, watching her until she finished her bottle of milk and went to sleep.

With it being only two more days until Christmas, Renee and the others decided that it was a good idea to go ahead and get the Christmas tree set up. The group hauled in the Christmas decorations from the garage and Alvin helped Erik, Colin, and Renee load in the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree was placed right in front of the living room window, a couple of feet away from the front door. The cardboard boxes that housed the Christmas decorations (aptly titled "Christmas decorations") were set down and the five of them began sorting through the tangled mess of Christmas lights and ornaments. Erik and Marshmallow somehow managed to get themselves all tangled up in the Christmas to the point where they were covered from head to toe in them, even their tails were tightly grasped by the Christmas, making it so they couldn't move. After laughing at them for a while (and Erik and Marshmallow also laughing back sarcastically before demanding someone help them out of the mess), Alvin and Colin untangled the pair out of the Christmas and they went about decorating the tree, starting with the Christmas lights that were woven around and around the tree before the ornaments were put on display via the branches.

Because of her small stature, Marshmallow oftentimes had to be picked up in order to put an ornmaent that was far above her head near the top of the three. The others didn't seem to mind this, although they did end up taking turns due to the strain on their backs that picking her up caused, not that she was severely overweight, mind you. However, since their return home, the other members of the family had noticed that she had gotten extremely fat since they'd left her alone with Alvin earlier in the day, and expected that the chipmunk had spent the day feeding her as much as possible as a means of fattening her up, probably feeling that she was too skinny. Oddly enough, as he thought about this, Colin wished that he would receive the same treatment, feeling that he himself was too skinny and since he loved food and eating.

Erik also needed to be hoisted up to reach high places on the tree. The two people to do this most often were either Alvin or Colin. The latter did it most often because Erik insisted on it. While not very bright, Alvin knew the reason behind Erik's desires. Hopefully, the skunk would admit his feelings for Colin before Christmas so they could spend the entire day together, just the two of them.

After all of the Christmas lights and decorations were put on the tree (the house having already been decked with festive lights) the others went in the kitchen and cooked some popcorn and attached the pieces to bits of string before wrapping them around the Christmas tree. Erik and Colin seemed to be unable to resist the urge to sneak few bites of popcorn as the two were constantly eating at each end and ending up meeting each other in the middle. More than once their lips touched in a soft but sweet kiss and both instantly pulled away, embarrassed, although Alvin could see that Erik was elated at the incident, whereas Colin appeared to be disgusted, much to Erik's dismay, Alvin observed. Even Marshmallow wasn't immune to her appetite. While not as fat as Erik, she did have quite a ravenous appetite like her brothers, an appetite that seemed to be awakened by Alvin. She also couldn't help but eat a few pieces of popcorn and she and Erik ended up kissing each other as they met in the middle, only the two of them found the moment extremely sweet and cute, unlike Colin. For some reason when Erik and Marshmallow ended up kissing, the raccoon couldn't help but smile and think the moment was cute and sweet, probably because they were brother and sister and there was a big age difference between them, whereas he and Erik were brothers and relatively the same age. Using this logic, Alvin could understand the raccoon's differing views on the matter.

Once the Christmas tree was fully decorated (with bits of string with several missing pieces of popcorn to complete the ensemble) the family went in the kitchen and each fixed themselves a mug of hot cocoa, Marshmallow having someone fix hers since the others were afraid she would burn herself. The skunk didn't seem to be bothered by this in the slightest. It was clear to Alvin by the diapers, the baby food, the baby bottles, and the other babyish paraphernalia that the white skunk absolutely loved being the baby of the family, and her family treated her thusly, much to her delight. They went in the living room and flipped on the television, although no one was really watching the programs that were on. With it being Christmas the usual TV specials were on. While drinking their hot cocoa with marshmallows, they talked amongst themselves, particularly Erik, Colin, and Alvin. Meanwhile, Marshmallow and her mother snuggled close and enjoyed being close to each other while they drank their hot cocoa.

Marshmallow was the first to fall asleep. Almost as soon as she finished her hot cocoa she let out a yawn and snuggled into the warmth of her mother's fur on her belly and went to sleep, curling up into a tiny ball, wrapping her tail around her body to serve as a blanket. Renee lovingly cradled Marshmallow in her arms and rocked her baby skunk back and forth until Marshmallow's soft breathing indicated that she had fallen asleep. The others simply watched.

Alvin watched Marshmallow closely as she was rocked back and forth. She looked so . . . happy, so peaceful. He let out a depressed sigh and wondered what it was about the holiday season that always seemed to get him in a depressed state. He'd heard that lack of sunlight could cause depression. That would explain why there were so many suicides in Alaska this time of the year. At least that's what he'd heard. He continued to watch Marshmallow. He shook his head at the thought of some of the neighbors or some of Erik and Colin's friends (what little they had, mind you, not many people wanting to spend time with the basketball star who'd befriended the loser of the school) claiming that Marshmallow was nothing more than a spoiled, pampered brat just because her family seemingly gave her whatever she wanted. Such wasn't true, at least not from what Alvin had observed.

From what he'd seen, the family's ultimate goal was to make sure that all of the members of the household were happy, including Marshmallow. If diapers and being treated like a baby were what Marshmallow happy, then what kind of family would they be to deny the right to be treated like the baby she was. After all, she was the baby of the family, and she seemed to take this role quite literally. What, with the diapers, the pacifiers, the baby food, the baby bottles, and the being cared for by her brothers and her mother, especially her brothers. With her being the baby of the family of course she would have to be looked after quite often, while others merely stated that the others waited on her hand and foot like they were her slaves.

And yet, Marshmallow wasn't the only one who was the baby of the family. It seemed the baby lifestyle had also infected Erik and Colin as well, from what Alvin had seen over the past couple of days. The two of them enjoyed being diapered and babied, as indicated by the fact that Alvin had seen Colin in diapers and a t-shirt sleeping with Marshmallow in her crib when he'd woken up to get something to drink the previous night. The sight had really been adorable, at least to him. He was glad that Renee didn't mind treating them like the babies they were.

Maybe that's what was wrong with him. Maybe he was fed up with the rushed pace of his life and wanted to slow down a little, to return to a simpler time when his life wasn't so hectic. Still, he couldn't bring himself to ask Renee if he could be treated like Erik and his siblings were. He was the tough one, after all. Not only that, but he would most likely piss himself if he even attempted such a thing. He would be too nervous to get the words out. He wondered how lucky Erik and the others knew they were.

Marshmallow was carried to her room and placed in her crib and tucked in by Colin. Alvin loved how fatherly the raccoon was towards the baby skunk. It was a really touching, sweet, cute sight to behold, one that the red-clad chipmunk doubted he would ever get sick of. Once he'd put her to bed with a fresh diaper, Colin himself decided to go to bed, and Renee also retired to her bedroom to get a good night's sleep soon thereafter, leaving Alvin and Erik alone in the living room, with Renee requesting them not to stay up too late and to get to bed early to get a good night's sleep. They promised they would. Alvin most likely wouldn't keep his promise and would unintentionally stay up a little past midnight.

The television was still on, still going, but neither one of them was watching it. Their eyes were glued to the living room window. Thanks to the tree they could barely see out of it. From what they could see out of it, though, it looked as if they were going to have a white Christmas.

"So," Alvin said, turning back to Erik, smiling at the portly skunk, "have you decided yet?"

"About whether or not I should give Colin his special Christmas present?" Erik asked.

The red-clad chipmunk nodded his head once.

The skunk looked down at the floor, fiddling with his toes. His striped tail managed to find its way to his front and he began stroking its tip, looking nervous. "I," he swallowed, "I don't know. I-I-I mean, what if he says no? What if he rejects me?" He gripped his head and let out a groan. "What if he wants to move out and never wants to talk to or see me again?!"

"Erik, Erik, Erik," Alvin replied gently, "you're thinking about this way too hard. Come on, you should know Colin better than that. From what I've seen, he would never do that. He cares why too much about you and this family to just up and leave just because you've got a somewhat disturbing crush on him."

"Disturbing?" The skunk looked at Alvin curiously.

"Well, you do have a shrine dedicated to him in a secret corner of the garage."

Erik blushed and groaned once again. "Please promise me you won't tell him."

"I think he would find it rather sweet, flattering, even."

Erik glared at him.

Alvin sighed. "All right, all right, I won't tell him."

"How did you know?"

"I discovered it when I was getting the last box of decorations. Colin asked me what I was looking at, but I managed to get him out of the garage before he could get a decent look."

Erik sighed in relief. "Thanks."

"I won't tell him," Alvin repeated, "but you should. You keep this all bottled up it's going to end up making you sick."

"I just don't want to be rejected again," Erik replied sadly, hugging his tail, "like I have been so many times before."

Alvin shook his head. "I'm sure Colin knows of your past relationships, and I'm sure he would never do anything to hurt you."

Erik smiled and nodded his head. "Yeah, maybe you're right." He suddenly leaned forward and pecked Alvin on the cheek. "Thanks for the talk, Alvin."

Alvin ruffled the white fur on Erik's head. "Anytime. You should be getting some sleep."

"Yeah, I suppose I should." He yawned and stretched. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Are you working tomorrow?"

Erik beamed. "No. The restaurant's closed. It's Christmas Eve tomorrow, remember?"

Alvin nodded. "Right. Okay, in that case, yeah, I guess you will see me tomorrow."

Erik's face lit up and he clasped his paws together excitedly. "Great!" He scampered down the hall, then suddenly stopped and turned back to face Alvin. "Are you coming?"

Alvin nodded. "Yeah. You go on ahead. I'll be in there in a minute."

Erik smiled. "Okay." He turned on his heel and went down the hall.

Alvin stared at the television screen for a moment or two before lifting the remote and turning it off, the screen going blank with a flash of white light, the light fading to black in the center of the screen until the entire room was shrouded in darkness, save for the light on in the dining room. He turned it off with a flick of a switch before walking down the hall and entering the bedroom that Erik and Colin shared. He smiled sweetly when he saw the two of them in Colin's bed, the raccoon holding the skunk tightly, as if protecting him from unseen force, whispering something in Erik's ear that Alvin couldn't decipher. It wasn't any of his business anyway. He walked across the room and pulled back the covers of Erik's bed, earning a nod from the skunk as he did so, letting him know that it was okay if Alvin used his bed for the night since he wouldn't be needing it. Alvin climbed in the bed and turned his back to them, pulling the covers up to his neck and pretending to be asleep so the two of them could have some alone time together.

The Matthews home was abuzz with excitement the following day, each member of the household in a cherry mood. Even Colin, who was usually somewhat grouchy in the early mornings until he'd had his coffee like his mother, seemed to be in an upbeat mood, even before he'd taken his first sip of coffee. The group sat at the coffee table sipping their coffee, Marshmallow settling for warm milk with honey for sweetener, which came as no surprise to anyone in particular.

"Mail," Alvin announced, walking in the room with a wad of envelopes.

"Anything for me?" Colin inquired, taking a drink of coffee. "I'm expecting a letter."

Alvin looked through the various envelopes. Not to his surprise most of them were the usual bills and mortgage payments. Every now and then he would come across an envelope addressed to someone other than Renee Matthews. There were some envelopes for Erik and Marshmallow, probably holiday cards with money inside from relatives. Smiling, he finally found an envelope addressed to Colin, though he was perplexed as to why there was no return address. He handed the envelope to Colin without question, and the raccoon eagerly ripped open the envelope and pulled out what appeared to be a piece of printer paper. Alvin watched as the raccoon's eyes drifted from left to right. Apparently he was reading. Alvin could only guess that he was reading a letter.

He didn't want to be nosey, but Alvin couldn't help but be a little curious. "Who's it from?" He gripped the raccoon's shoulders and began massaging them. He didn't know why. He supposed it was just out of habit. Still, Colin didn't seem to mind in the slightest. He heard the raccoon let out a soft moan of pleasure and lean back into the hands that gripped his shoulders.

"It's from my secret admirer," Colin replied, grinning as he continued to read.

Alvin looked up to see Erik watching Colin intently and he smiled to himself, having a pretty good idea of who Colin's secret admirer was. He was glad that Erik had found a way to reveal his true feelings towards Colin without the raccoon finding out that it was him, but Alvin saw potential harm in this strategy. How was Colin going to react when he found out that it was Erik and not some hot babe who was his secret admirer? True, Colin cared a great deal about Erik, but Alvin didn't think that the raccoon was actually in love with the corpulent skunk, although Colin had shown on numerous occasions he had a great deal of affection towards Erik. Realizing this, Alvin at least hoped that things would go over well for the skunk. If there was one thing that he had in common with this family, it was that he cared a great deal about them, all of them, especially Erik and Marshmallow.

"You want to read it?"

Alvin looked down to see that Colin was looking over his shoulder, holding up the folded letter to his face. He nodded and took the letter and unfolded it and began to read, smiling. It seemed as if Erik had wanted to be completely honest in his letter. Of course at the end of the letter there was no signature. There was simply the words "your secret admirer" and that was it. Nothing more, nothing less, just as it should have been, at least in Alvin's opinion. He folded the letter and handed it back to Colin before walking over to the coffeepot and began fixing himself a mug of coffee while Renee went towards the table with breakfast.

"Alvin, would you mind fixing Marshmallow her bottle?" Renee asked.

"Sure," Alvin replied, nodding.

She kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you." She walked over to the table and set Erik and Colin's plates in front of them. She looked up when she heard Marshmallow whining in her high chair, kicking and squirming. "Calm down, Marshmallow. Your breakfast is coming. Alvin's getting it." She ruffled the silver-gray fur on her daughter's head and planted a kiss on her daughter's forehead. "Just chill out."

Marshmallow nodded and began sucking on her thumb to satisfy her craving for some warm milk, a large smile appearing on her face in the process.

Seeing as how he'd done so once before, it wasn't hard at all for Alvin to fix Marshmallow a baby bottle of milk. He knew how to fix it. He added honey for sweetener and a dash of nutmeg before heating it up in the microwave. He smiled as she let out a squeal of joy when he approached her with her bottle. He unstrapped her from her high chair and carried her to the living room. He set her in his lap and began feeding her, she smiling up at him while she sucked on the nipple of the bottle, kicking her little legs, her diaper rustling as she performed the action. She rubbed the front of her diaper with one paw while she gripped her bottle with the other, moaning in silent pleasure at the sound that her diaper made when she moved her paw up and down on it. He could wait for breakfast. He wasn't that hungry anyway. Making sure Marshmallow got her nourishment was more important. Besides, she looked so cute when she was acting like a baby that he couldn't resist wanting to treat her like the baby she was.

To keep her entertained during her feeding, he picked up the remote and turned on the TV and began flipping through the various channels, only to be dissatisfied when he realized that there was nothing on. What else was new? He shrugged his shoulders and decided that they could listen to some cherry Christmas music while he fed her. He changed the channel to one of the channel that was something like a radio where it played nothing but music. Aside from the information box that listed the song, artist, and the album the song could be found on, the screen was completely black. He set the remote down and began rocking her back and forth while he kept feeding her, the slow melodic Christmas tune seeming to put her to sleep. Whether it was the music or the warm milk that was making her sleepy he didn't know, and honestly didn't care. The only thing was that she would want to be put back to bed once she was done with her bottle, which was probably for the best since there was nothing to watch on TV and he still needed to help Erik with impressing Colin, although the skunk seemed to be doing that well by himself.

Hearing a burp, he looked down to see Marshmallow smiling, patting and rubbing her belly. She opened her mouth and pointed, although she did look like she was about to fall asleep. Nonetheless, he decided to fix her another bottle of milk. He set her on the floor and went in the kitchen where Renee was busy cleaning the kitchen. He declined the offer of breakfast, stating that he wasn't hungry at the moment and could wait until lunch for something to eat.

While waiting for Alvin to return, Marshmallow began crawling around on the floor, her diaper rustling audibly as she moved, a sound that she felt she would never get tired of. She crawled all over the living room, observing different objects of interest such as pictures and the brightly colored wrapping paper of the presents and the pretty bows on top. She examined the tags on the presents before looking up and giggling at her reflection of the large orbs that were one of the ornaments that hung from one of the branches of the piney Christmas tree. Seeing Alvin in the reflection of the orb, she swiftly turned around and crawled over to him, hugging onto his leg and staring up at him with glee. She was once again picked up and set in Alvin's lap. No sooner was she in this position was it that she grabbed the bottle of milk and began drinking, squealing in joy and kicking her legs wildly, her tail wagging happily.

"Slow down, sweetie," he said gently, stroking her silver-gray fur tenderly. He was relieved when she slowed down her sucking, as if realizing that if she didn't she would choke herself. He continued to pet the silver-gray fur on her head while his other hand held the bottom of the bottle. She looked so happy that he couldn't help but smile to himself. What couldn't he achieve this happiness that she and the others seemed to have? Maybe role playing as a little baby had something to do with it. Yes, that must have had something to do with it. The only problem was that there was no one in his family that would be willing to diaper and baby him. Maybe Simon would, but no one else probably would otherwise.

She closed her eyes and kept sucking on the nipple of the bottle, some milk trickling down her chin. Luckily, the drops of milk fell on her bib, saving her t-shirt from getting dirty. She opened her eyes and her smile widened upon seeing Alvin smiling down at her. She snuggled closer to him to keep warm. She felt slightly chilly, which she shouldn't have since the house should have been nice and toasty to combat the cold weather outside.

At long last the last drop of milk was drank and she was put in her crib for a nap while Colin left for the mall to do some last-minute shopping. Alvin was surprised that the mall was even open on Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, Erik went with Renee to run some errands, claiming that he needed to run some errands himself, once again leaving Alvin with Marshmallow, not that the red-clad chipmunk minded. He loved spending time with Marshmallow and taking care of her.

The skunk woke up around lunchtime. Assuming that the others would grab a bite to eat while they were out, Alvin decided to go ahead and fix some lunch for the two of them. He couldn't think of anything good. Besides, he wasn't in the mood for anything real specific. The only thing he felt like eating was Ramen Noodles. He fixed two bowlfuls of the stuff and hoped that Marshmallow wouldn't mind. He went and got her when he heard her crying and carried her to the kitchen where he strapped her into her high chair and handed her the bowl of noodles before sitting down at the table and beginning to eat his own meal. He was grateful when she started eating without complaint, although she did begin whining when she realized that the food was too hot for her to eat. He suggested just letting it cool for a couple of minutes while he continued to eat, the two of them making idle conversation in the meantime.

After lunch, Marshmallow went to go play in her room while Alvin mingled in the kitchen. Smelling something sweet, she walked in the kitchen, dragging Mr. Snuggles behind her. When she reached Alvin she tugged on his sweater. When he looked down at her she asked, "What are you doing?" She stared up at him, sucking on her thumb, waiting for an answer from him. She sniffed the air and licked her lips and rubbed her belly. "Mmm! Something smells good!"

He knelt down so that he was eye-level with her. "D'you like cookies?"

She nodded her head eagerly, still sucking her thumb. "Uh-huh!"

He stood back up and beamed down at her. "Great!"

She peered into the stove window, her thick striped tail wagging. "Is that what you're baking? Cookies?"

"Christmas cookies, to be exact." He took off the oven mitts and set them aside on the counter by the sink.

"Yay!"

He grinned and ruffled the fur on her head. "I thought you'd like the idea."

"Can we try some after they're done?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Why not?"

"Yay!"