Bring me back to 1989...

I was eight years old and I loved dolls.  Not Barbie dolls, but baby dolls.  Barbie was a grown woman. I didn't care too much about her.  No, my favorite dolls were most definitely babies.  I loved playing house!  I would take my babies grocery shopping, take them to school (where I was the teacher, of course), cook them dinner and put them to bed.  I was definitely a little mommy.  I truly believe that caregiving is my God-given gift and it shows with my life of service jobs and how much I still love to care for children.  Of course, as I grew I always hoped that I would some day have a little girl who loved babies as much as I did as a child.  

Well, so far Caroline has fulfilled that wish.  She has many babies and she is already learning how to care for them. She feeds them a bottle, puts them to bed and loves on them all the time. I love watching her and seeing how gentle she can be already.  Today, Nana brought Caroline the most wonderful gift and it took me back for a few minutes to my childhood love.  Take a look at this baby doll, Patsy, and all of her incredible hand-made clothes! 

Caroline is still too young to play with them, but I will put them away for a couple of years until she will really be able to cherish this gift.  I knew that my mother-in-law realized how captured I was with this doll when only a few hours after their visit she called and told me that she had a few other dolls with their own homemade clothes and offered to give me one for myself.  I wanted to jump back into 1989 and play dolls with my little girl, but I politely declined and told her that this one would be plenty for us.  For now, I will just live vicariously through my little girl and relish in the fact that I have the ultimate responsibility that I always pretended to have as a little girl... but now I no longer have to pretend.  I am a mommy and I am loving every minute of this ultimate gift!