First off. . . why did none of my good guy friends who have children give me a heads up about this?
Christie and I went to Babies-r-us to register last night and I have never felt so "out of my element" in my entire life. . . I guess it will become "my element" over time, but for now it was more foreign to me then my Honda Accord.
We walked in the store and up to the baby registry desk. As the nice lady at the desk took down our information, I slowly scanned the store for other "fathers to be". I found a few and was relieved to see that they had the same dazed and confused look on their faces as I'm sure I did.
I'm pretty sure that Babies-R-Us has spent millions researching the proper placement of the items in the store. It appeared to me that their plan was to freak me out at the start and then put me back at ease by the time we were done. The reason I believe this to be true is because the first item in the first row of the store is the breast pump with the last items being cute little baby clothes and toys.
Here is a short synopsis on how the evening went. . . from my perspective.
First stop, The breast pump. I was like a deer in headlights. . . . a deer in headlights looking at breast pumps that is. Possibly the most complicated device known to man. 10 Billion replacement pieces, each made for a specific brand. I've built custom computers, programmed dozens of web applications and databases, developed countless business models, but the breast pump. . . well, needless to say, it was no match for me. All of the years in college spent getting a degree meant nothing. . . . I was starting at ground zero. . . and I am SURE that this is only the first of MANY times I will be learning from scratch once the baby gets here. I have happily resolved with myself the fact that I know nothing. It was not the first time that I knew nothing about something. The only thing reassuring me was the fact that I felt confident that I would someday become an expert (or at least a novice) at "buying baby stuff" as I have in the past with other subjects that were new to me.As Christie and I walked around the store I was put in charge of the scanning gun. After further thought, I'm pretty sure this was actually a carefully thought out plot to keep me from wondering aimlessly away towards the toy section. Without me next the Christie's side, nothing could be scanned. It worked. . . with tactics like that, she is going to make a great mommy!
By the end of the night, we were tired but walked out with big smiles on our faces. The task of looking at every possible baby item ever created was over. The experience was somewhat overwhelming for me at times (it did take almost 3 hours!) but to me it was the defining moment that I realized the countdown will soon be over and baby will actually be here. My smile grew larger as I glanced at my beautiful wife and then down at her belly. We are having a baby girl. It was right then that I realized I was the luckiest man on earth.
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Feel free to check out our entire registry by clicking below:
http://www.babiesrus.com
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