A whole new world

We took full advantage of this little perk.

Although Aladdin and his magic carpet were not involved, Saturday Scott and I ventured into a whole new world — for us anyway. We went registering for baby gear. I felt pretty prepared. My friend Heather had provided me with an extremely detailed Excel document charting all of the things she and her husband had registered for when expecting their daughter. (Obviously this document was the product of a self-proclaimed Type-A and her accountant husband.)

Armed with several printed pages of baby needs, Scott and I walked through Babies R Us's automatic doors into a sprawling almost warehouse of baby goods. Suddenly the 226-item list in my purse seemed like a mere drop in the baby bucket. We stood with mouths wide at an entire wall of baby bottles. Who knew there could be that many? What could the differences possibly be?

Slowly but surely we walked through aisles of carseats, strollers, bath accessories, bedding, toys, books and everything else you would ever need (or think you need) for your baby. We finished before Scott could request a paper bag to breathe into.

Next, we ventured to Target to repeat the process. We were both incredibly thankful that Target only has six aisles of baby goods, which we had already familiarized ourselves with at Babies R Us. We felt like old pros at this point.

Throughout the day, when either of us would become frustrated and equate our lack of knowledge about baby swings with our future parenting skills, I would remember that Preston will have two parents who love him, a house to stay in, and food to eat. That's all a baby really needs ... plus swing that moves front to back, left to right, bounces, and has six different sound functions.