A/N: AT LAST, A NEW YEAR AND A NEW CHAPTER. I WILL NOW CONTINUE WITH THE MAIN STORY. AS ALWAYS, I HOPE YOU LIKE IT AND PLEASE READ & REVIEW. NO, I DIDN'T GET THEM FOR CHRISTMAS, SO I HAVE TO SETTLE FOR BORROWING. ALSO, I DON'T HAVE ANY CLAIM TO A STORE CALLED BABYLAND, (IF IT EXISITS AT ALL).
CHAPTER 20: ADVENTURES IN BABYLAND
It was a cold night in late January, Jordan began to toss and turn, waking herself from a sound sleep. Sleep was a rare thing these days and a sound sleep was even more evasive. She curled up into the covers on her side of the bed, trying to find a comfortable position, only to find that position a few minutes before she had the urge to use the bathroom…..again. She slid out of bed, careful not to wake Woody. She turned to look at him and sighed when she noticed he wasn't there. Jordan looked over at the bedside clock, it read 1:47am, she new exactly where he was. It was where he had been, every night, for the last two weeks.
A few minutes later, Jordan walked sleepily down the hallway to the third bedroom and slowly pushed the door open. She wasn't at all surprised to find her husband sitting at his desk, busily typing away. "Woody? C'mon its almost 2am, come to bed.", she whispered from the doorway. He looked up from the computer, "I will, I promise. I'm just waiting for the last few pages to print.", he said excitedly as he pressed enter on the keyboard. Jordan smiled and walked into the room, she stood next to him and ran her hand through his hair. "I don't want to go there tomorrow and not be prepared.", he added, sorting the newly printed pages into a binder marked on the inside, 'Operation Baby Hoyt'.
Jordan chuckled, pulled the desk chair over, and sat next to Woody. "I'm sorry. I didn't wake you did I?", he asked, putting the binder down and pulling Jordan into a hug. " I seems your baby has insomnia. And to pass the time, it decided to play soccer with my bladder.", she laughed, patting her belly. Woody smiled as sympathetically as he could, and put his hand over hers. Jordan gave Woody a kiss on the cheek and picked up the ever growing binder.
Woody had been working on this project for some time now, close to a month. It started out with the both of them talking to friends who had kids, then reading numerous baby magazines, and in the last few weeks, he began to spend every possible moment on the computer. He was rating, comparing and choosing the best and safest baby products out there. Jordan paged through the book, just as printer ended its task.
"Here, it's finally done.", he said, showing her the last seven pages. "So, what are these?", she smirked, waiting for his answer. He clipped the pages into the back of the binder, "Um, recalled and unsafe products.", he stated shyly but very seriously. Jordan laughed as she stood up, she pulled the binder out of his hands and laid it on the desktop, "That's great. Can we go back to bed now?", she asked walking to the door. When he didn't answer, she turned back to see him looking through the binder again. "Woody!", she whined pleadingly. "I know. I'm coming.", he looked up at her and grinned, pushing away from the computer desk.
The next day was Sunday. With the bustle of the holidays over, all attention was turned to 'baby watch 2007'. With the baby showers and due dates steadily approaching, both sets of Hoyts decided to spend that day registering for baby items at the local baby superstore, 'Babyland'. Even though both Woody and Cal had finished each nursery for their wives as their Christmas present, there was still a great many things they both needed. It was going to be a little easier for Cal and Colleen because they knew, from the sonogram, that they were expecting a baby boy. The other baby Hoyt was notas cooperative, not wanting to give away the surprise, Woody and Jordan's little one would not reveal its gender.
The couples met around 11am that morning at the baby store, they excitedly filled out the needed paperwork, given bar-code scanners, and sent off into Babyland. "I can't believe a little baby needs all of this stuff.", Cal stated as he looked nervously at the baby product filled aisles. They headed down the first aisle, baby bottles. Cal pulled out the scanner and started to aimlessly scan anything. "Wait Cal, bottles are on page five.", Woody said, looking up at his brother,then pulling the binder out of his backpack. "What the hell is this?", Cal laughed, grabbing the book from his brother. "Woody did his homework. We have every baby product imaginable, listed in this binder. Anything you want to know, safety, price, function.", Jordan smiled and leaned down to kiss Woody, then scanned the bottles they had chosen. " Woods, I want my kid to be safe, but this is goin' a little too far. Don't ya think?", Cal asked, rolling his eyes as he paged through the book."I can't believe you rated pacifiers.", he laughed again. "Well in ten years, when your kid is getting braces on his teeth, don't say I didn't warn you.", Woody smirked, grabbing the binder back.
The rest of the afternoon was filled with comparing and decision making. Colleen was happy to find that most of the items she wanted were rated high on Woody's lists, safe and cute, just what she wanted. Cal insisted on picking out the 'cool' items, the bedding, clothing and toys,which was fine with Colleen, because the stroller he liked was just about the ugliest thing she had ever seen. Jordan and Woody had already agreed on most of the items, although where she was a little more concerned with the ease of use, especially for Woody's sake, he was concerned with only one thing; safety. So they ended up compromising on a few things. In all it was a very easy and fun experience, thanks mostly to Woody's hours, researching on the computer.
The group had planned to spend about two hours at the baby store, but they ended up being there for five hours, due in part to them playing with most of the toys, the numerous bathroom breaks, and the hour or so the ladies spent trying out each rocking chair and glider."Can we please go get something to eat now?", Cal whined for the third time, finishing the last of the candy he had bought from the vending machine. "See what you have to look forward to Colleen. Not one, but two babies.", Woody joked as they left the store, laughing, registry lists in hand. "Funny Woods. Very funny.", Cal chuckled, then came up behind Woody and pulled him to a stop, snatching the half-eaten snack bag of potato chips out of Woody's jacket pocket. "We can't take those two anywhere, can we?", Colleen asked jokingly, as her and Jordan followed the boys out to the parking lot.