Dolls

Abby has three dolls: one my sister gave her sometime around Christmas last year, one I gave her that was my dolly when I was a little girl, and one that she just recently received from her Grandma Marks for her birthday (see here). Awhile back I thought that perhaps Abby just wasn't a fan of dolls, as she very rarely picked them up to play with. But then something changed. Ben was born. She watched her mommy hold Ben, change his diaper, feed him, etc, and soon she was playing with her dolls for hours at a time. Often, I'd find one "asleep" in Ben's bassinet when I went to put him down for a nap. She wraps her dolly up in a blanket and will rock her for 10 or even 20 minutes! She cuddles with them, she sings "Jesus Loves Me" to them, and she occasionally attempts to change their diapers, getting out a diaper, changing pad, and wipes on her own. One of the cutest things to me was when she started pulling her shirt up to "nurse" her dolly. Although this is rarer occurence now, she used to grab her dolly and climb up on the couch next to me when I was nursing Ben. Together we would nurse and burp our babies.

I'd uploaded these pictures below a couple months ago when Abby's favorite doll at that time was the one I passed along to her. So far, none of her dollies have names, but that is just as well because I never named my dolly either!

"Nursing"

I never knew how enjoyable it would be to watch my daughter play with dolls. What a sweet little mama she is with them!