Chapter Sixteen
"This is going to be so much fun!" said Lila as they walked hand-in-hand towards Babies-R-Us.
"I think this is going to be a lot of hard work!" They had started to select items for their registry on line but Lila and Eddie both insisted they had to go to the story to do it properly. They were going to spend the afternoon registering for baby gifts, and Steven had a feeling that it wasn't going to be quite as much fun as Lila was envisioning, but he was still quite excited.
"How will it be hard work?" Lila asked Steven.
"Lila, we've been in here before to buy gifts for other people's kids and the place is huge!" answered Steven. "They've got 15 different models of everything, more than that of some things, and it's pretty overwhelming."
"It can be, yes," replied Lila. "But not if you've done your own research and you know what to look for. We did all that already, so relax."
"Well, that makes me feel better," said Steven as they neared the service desk. They sat down at the service desk, and an employee came over to help them
"Hi, welcome to Babies-R-Us," she said. "Are you starting a gift registry today?"
"Yes, we are. What do we need to do?" Lila asked. She massaged her belly with one hand and held Steven's with the other.
"I'll need to get some information from you to put into the computer," said the employee behind the counter. "And then I'll explain to you how the registry works and you can get started."
"Okay, great," said Lila glad that Steven had agreed to come with her for this special moment.
"Alright, what is your first name?" she asked.
"Lila"
"Last name?"
"Tenney"
"Your due date?"
"September 9th," Lila replied. They were past the half way mark already. She was every bit as excited as she was nervous.
"Would you like the father's name on here also, that way folks can search under either name?"
"Definitely"
"Okay, his first name?"
"Steven."
"Last name?"
"The same, Tenney," Lila replied thinking it was a sad state of affairs that so many people did this with two last names for reasons that had nothing to do with identity or profession. Steven didn't mind it, to each their own was his thought.
"Do you have a theme picked out for the nursery, or any info that folks may find helpful in choosing a gift for your baby, colors you really like, etc.…?"
"Hmmm…. well, it's twins so we need double the stuff. We don't know what we're having, so neutral colors would be best."
The girl behind the desk entered the last bit of Steven and Lila's information into the computer, and handed them a scanner gun. "Have you used one of these before?" she asked them.
"No, never," said Steven as he looked at it with great curiosity. Lila had done the wedding registry herself, and this gun was very different than the ones he had used at the grocery store.
"Well, it's very simple. All you do is choose an item you want to place on your registry, and scan the barcode on the shelf with this. The item number will appear in the screen, and you'll be asked to enter the quantity desired. Once you do that, press enter, and move onto the next item, it's really easy."
"I'm sure between the two of us, we can figure it out," said Lila, laughing a bit at the way Steven was mesmerized by the scanner. She knew he was sheltered but this was a little much and that was saying something coming from the Reagans.
"You're all set then, just let any one of us know if we can help you with anything."
"We will, thank you," Steven replied flashing a winning smile at her. "Okay babe, where do we start?" he asked Lila as they left the service desk.
"Let's start with the smaller things and work our way up," she suggested. "We already know our stroller and car seat so that part will be easy."
"So over there with the bibs and such I guess?' asked Steven.
"That's fine, yeah," said Lila, and they walked in that direction.
"You know what you want, so you need to go ahead of me and point it out so I can scan it," said Steven.
"Oh, and just who says you get to do the scanning?" asked Lila with a teasing intonation to her voice.
"Isn't that how it works - the mother picks everything out and the father scans it?" said Steven, teasing her back.
"No, Smokey, it's not 'how it works at all, but since it's so important to you, you can have the dubious honor of scanning each and every single little thing I choose."
"Thanks, my love," said Steven, thoroughly enjoying himself. "And Smokey?"
Lila shrugged with a giggle, then started eyeballing the wall with the bibs on it. "Two of each of those….those….that one…a couple of those…. oh, this one is too cute, two of that," she said, referring to a white bib with a yellow teddy bear on it.
"Are we really going to need that many bibs?" asked Steven. "I know we're having twins but we've got enough bibs chosen here to go around a football team!"
"Spoken like a man who's never been around a baby!" laughed Lila. "You have no idea how many bibs we'll go through in a day, babe. Besides, we'll need some to leave at my parents' house.
"I'll take your word for it," said Steven as he shook his head. They were about to move away from the bibs when he spotted one he really liked.
"Oh, we've got to have this one, Lila" he said, pointing to a white terry-cloth bib with blue gingham trim and a firetruck on it.
Lila chuckled, "Sure, we can add that one if you like it, that's fine." Steven scanned the barcode beneath the firetruck bib, entered "2" for quantity, and caught up with Lila, who was already on the next aisle over.
"Wow, Lila, I had no idea there were this many baby bottles to choose from!" said Steven as he got a look at the endless rows of bottles. All different shapes, sizes, colors, styles - it was almost unreal. "Do you know what you want?"
"Yep, these," she said, picking up a Playtex Nurser set. "I did a ton of research on which ones are best to use while breastfeeding, and these were always on the list."
"Really? Wonder why?" asked Steven.
"They're supposed to very closely resemble breastfeeding, so the baby doesn't have a hard time switching back and forth," Lila explained. "Plus I'll be able to pump and freeze milk into the liners that go in these, which will make it easy for whoever ends up making the bottles - just thaw it out and pop it in."
"That'll be me or your mother, so I'm all for easy. Which ones do you want and how many?"
"Let me see, two of the boxed sets, four of the 4 ounce ones, two of the 8 ounce ones…" said Lila.
"What about extra pieces and parts" asked Steven.
"Umm… 4 packages of newborn size nipples, 4 packages of the next size up, and….. 4 boxes of 4 ounce liners," said Lila. "That should get us started."
"I think it will," Steven laughed. "What about these?" he asked, pointing to the breast pumps.
"I'm still deciding on that. I think I'll talk to my Mom about that more. She had two different kinds, one she said hurt a lot," Lila explained. "We'll probably just end up buying that ourselves once I choose one."
"You're the one who has to be happy with it, I have no say in that one at all!"
"Well, if you had any thoughts on it, I'd of course listen, but somehow I can't see you comparing breast pumps and shopping around for one with all the important features, so I'll reserve that for a day when you're on duty."
Steven laughed a bit, "Well, no, but if you do want any help with it, just say the word."
"I know, babe, you're so good to me," replied Lila as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him.
They proceeded from there to the strollers and car seats. Steven was pleased to find the one they chose online had an adjustable handle that would accommodate Lila's short stature and his more ample height.
"We need two extra bases for the car seat, one for your car and one to put in Mom's car," Lila told him as Steven examined the seat.
"Oh, good. This has the five point harness that is much more secure than the shoulder strap, we made a good choice here."
They spent 4 hours walking through the store, carefully choosing everything from bibs and bottles to a crib and dresser. The most confusing item of all proved to be the crib bedding. Steven was adamant on each baby having it's one theme, especially if the twins were not identical. "Steven, the babies will share a room, we can pick one for now and when they start to develop personalities, we can change their bedding to be specific to that."
Lila pointed to a brightly colored comforter set with baby jungle animals on it, "I like this one."
"It'd be fine for a boy, but not a girl," said Steven. "What about this one?" He pointed to a light denim comforter with primary colored balloons on it.
"I think that'd be good for a girl, but not a boy" said Lila with a little laugh. "We're not having much luck here!"
"We'll find something. There are only about a hundred of these things to choose from here." They continued looking, each of them disliking everything the other one chose, until Steven spotted one that was just perfect.
"Hey, what about this Pooh one?" he asked, pointing to a white comforter with a scene on it comprised of Pooh and all his friends having a picnic in the Hundred Acre Wood.
"Oh, I love it!" said Lila, "And it'll be great for either a boy or a girl!"
"Hallelujah, we've done it!" joked Steven as he scanned the Pooh bedding set. From there they chose some blankets, bath towels and the like, and then it was time to look at clothes, which again would be a challenge.
"How totally adorable!" squealed Lila as she picked up a tiny little pink sleeper with a kitten on it.
"We can't register for that, Lila," said Steven.
"Sure we can," said Lila. "We're having two babies, we have a good shot at getting at least one girl!"
"We've got just as good a chance as getting two boys. And it goes without saying that no son of ours is going to wear that!"
"Tell you what," said Lila. "How about we each pick 1 thing for a boy and 1 for a girl, and the rest will be gender neutral? If we have one of each, we are set. If we have two girls Mom or Dad can exchange the boy outfit for another girl one or vice versa."
"Okay, I guess that'll work" said Steven. "We'll just keep the tags on everything we get until after the baby is born, and we'll return what we can't use."
"We wouldn't have to return it" said Lila. "We could just pack it away and…." her voice trailing off into silence.
"… and what, Lila?" asked Steven.
"…and use it for the next baby."
Steven stood there speechless. They were barely ready for the two that were coming, at least he didn't think they were ready.
"You want a big family?" Steven asked.
Lila stopped, "Why? You don't want more children in the future?
"Lila, we can have two children or ten, I'll be happy just as long as you are their mother." He gently leaned down to kiss her.
Lila smiled and brushed away a tear. "I love you so much, Steven."
"I love you too, Lila, and you two as well," he added, putting his hand on her tummy. "Let's finish up here and go to the grocery store, I'll make us something special for dinner."
"That sounds great, I'm getting hungry."
"Does our child have any special menu requests tonight?" joked Steven, referring to the many times Lila has craved a certain food and blamed it on the baby.
"No, not tonight," Lila replied shaking her head. "It's daddy's choice."
Steven smiled, he just loved that word. "Daddy".
A/N: I apologize for any typos that I might have missed I am preparing this for posting with a fever so I might not have caught all of the mistakes. This chapter was very fluffy preparing us for some bumpy chapters ahead. I am doing my best to add more family members to the story, but this one was just for our parents to be. I'd love to hear from you, I have noticed views and reviews both are less, I hope I am still holding interest.
Next Up – May 14 – Frank and Lila encounter some trouble while home together during the Policeman's Ball and must rely on the now familiar Indian food delivery drive for help.
