Baby dolls

Dolls creep me out. They're always looking at you! Besides, I'm not really the playful parent (better at the rule making and dinner cooking...) My husband is the goofy playful one and he likes to bring out the cars and the blocks while playing with our daughter. We really hadn't planned on buying any dolls for our little girl, nor have we encouraged any mommy play. So, we were shocked at our daughters obsession with baby dolls while in nursery at church. There are probably seven dolls that live in the nursery and they're typically strewn about the room on the floor, in some toy bins and even in the cabinets. The past couple of weeks, our little girl has found every single one of those lost dolls and proceeded to feed them and cover them up with blankets and devote all of her energy as a diligent little mother to all of her babies! Good thing the nursery is mostly little boys who don't care that she isn't sharing the dolls...

Last week I wasn't feeling well and had to take our daughter out of nursery early so that we could come home. Forcing her to abandon those babies was a horrific, dramatic event and she cried all the way home! Yea, I felt like a schmuck. I'm sure she thought I was punishing her when she did absolutely nothing wrong! So, first thing this morning- right after breakfast- we drove to wal mart to right this terrible wrong. I wish I had caught our daughters reaction on video camera when we cruised down the doll aisle. Her face lit up and she started bouncing up and down in her seat in the shopping cart and stretched out her arms as far as she could trying to grab them all up! (Keep in mind our little mother is only 14 months old!) Thank goodness she only has two hands! We intended to buy her one baby doll, but we were lucky to get out of there with only two. And, as far as dolls go, these aren't very creepy. No noises or movement and certainly no wetting diapers. Goodness, what will those toy makers think of next. Our daughter wouldn't let them go once she had them in her arms, not even for the cashier to scan them, so they gave dear husband the scanning gun to find the bar codes beneath protective fingers. She held them tight in the car all the way home and carried them around our apartment for a good while too. A few hours later the newness has worn off, and maybe she trusts me not to take her away from them this time, so she'll leave them be on the floor. But every so often, she runs over to give them kisses. It really is endearing. It's amazing how happy making our child happy makes me!