"WHHHHEEEEEE!"

It was all I could do not to laugh as Aj, Nick and Howie ran past Leigh and I, laughing and giggling and having what appeared to be a wonderful time. One would never have guessed these were the same three men we'd had to drag kicking and screaming out of the studio and into the car this morning to get them to even go shopping with us.

"WHHHEEEEE!"

Nick nearly ran Leigh over with a stroller as he ran past again and Howie hollered at him to watch out for his unborn daughter. This time an employee intervened and put a stop to the madness. She scolded the three men and called them out for acting like... in her own words... 'children.' She was right afterall, the three of them had been having stroller races through the aisles of the BabiesRus for the past half hour while the two of us had attempted to register for baby items. Baby items that our husbands were supposed to be offering input on. I'd known we should have just come by ourselves.

The three of them returned the strollers to their rightful positions and sauntered pitifully over to where we stood, huffing and puffing in an all around whiny fashion.

"She's no fun at all!" Nick moaned making a face and sticking out his tongue in the direction of the woman, who luckily now had her back turned towards our group. Aj and Howie nodded in agreement.

"Good Lord!" Leigh said poking Howie in the back with her pen and causing him to nearly jump out of his skin, "Stop acting like fools and help us out!"

"Yeah!" I retorted as Aj backed away from me before I had a chance to poke him, "These," and here I motioned towards our now huge stomachs, "are your children too!"

Nick scoffed and rolled his eyes as he threw his hands up in defeat, "Well since I had nothing to do with 'these'," and he took his turn at motioning to our stomachs, "I guess I'll just be going." He started to walk away and Aj ran after him grabbing him by the ear and yanking him back to where we were standing.

"Dude if you want a prayer of a chance at being the Godfather you are SO stuck with us today!"

Nick laughed and jumped up on the back of the cart. "Well okay, but only if you push me through the store!"

Aj rolled his eyes. "Do we really need a baby Jess? We already have Nick!"

I was basically ignoring the two of them. Leigh and I were focused on strollers and carseats now, having already picked out our bouncy seats and Pack n' plays. "Shut up and help me pick out a stroller Aje," I asked in a half-assed attempt to evoke help that I knew wouldn't really be all that helpful. I knew I was right when he started whining almost immediately.

"Can't Nick and Howie and I go pick out toys instead?" He whimpered as he pointed to the rows upon rows of baby toys that I knew fully well our child wouldn't need until at least next year.

"Don't bring me into this man!" Howie said after Leigh shot him a look that said, "Don't even think about it." She was already focused on the pink patterned strollers and Howie was trying his best to be enthusiastic, offering comments about "tork" and "suspension" that had Nick lifting his head in interest. Leigh rolled her eyes and looked over towards me with a look that said, "Help me please!" and I had to laugh because we should have known exactly what we were getting into.

"How about this one then?" I heard Aj yell out to me as I walked over and examined the stroller he was eyeing. I recognized it right away as the 'celebrity status stroller'... the exact one I swore I'd never in a million years be seen strolling down the street with. "No Aje," I said flipping the price tag towards him and watching as he shrugged. Of course I should have known it wouldn't seem much to him... he was, afterall, a celebrity.

"Why not?" He asked as he lifted it from it's position on the shelf and took a turn at pushing it down the aisle. Howie and Nick stopped and watched in awe and Leigh gave me another eye roll, this time accompanied with the "crazy" hand gesture. I had to agree.

"I'm not... no... we're not paying $900 for a stroller Aj McLean."

"But... Jessica McLean... it's nice and I like it!" He protested as I stood my ground and shook my head.

"Aj... baby, I don't care that it's nice... so are all of these other strollers. And I don't care if you like it... I don't like it near enough to pay that kind of money for it." He shook his head at me.

"I don't see what the big deal is."

"I do Aj. Do you realize that $900 added up to three... count that, THREE of my car payments when I was paying off my car before I met you? Do you realize that there was a time when $900 was TWO paychecks for me? I don't care if we can afford it... I'm not spending that kind of money on a stroller."

Nick looked at me like I was nuts... at that point I didn't care. "But baaaabe..." Aj continued and I reached out and pulled a hair on his arm like I always did when I meant business and he wasn't listening.

"No. And that's final. Why don't you and Nick go find a nice bedroom set to spend an exhorbitant amount of money on... that I'll allow." Mainly because I knew Aj would be more reasonable in that area. The two of them looked at each other and grinned before bouncing off across the store to get into God only knew how much trouble picking out a crib and changing table. Howie trailed along behind them on his own quest for the perfect white crib for baby Dorough's room and Leigh and I were left alone in peace once more.

"Are they always this immature when they're together?" I asked watching as Leigh finally settled on a pink flowery travel system.

"Yep... sometimes worse," she responed as I glanced at the stroller, carseat combo I'd set my sights on and sighed. "That's what I thought."

"What do you think of this one Leigh Duroe?" I asked pointing to a pretty mocha and green colored system that I'd looked at the few times I'd come into the store before.

She laughed at my use of her fake registry last name and nodded in response to my question, "I love it Jessica McNeal."

We had a good chuckle over our aliases as I added the stroller to my registry before the two of us sauntered off together to see what kind of damage our men were doing in the nursery section of the store.