Birthday Dolly Shopping with Evalynn

The only thing Evalynn wanted for her birthday was "the dolly from the doll store and a purple dress and shoes for her."  American Girl bitty babies are not an inexpensive venture, but we decided to make this wish come true.  Some of my blog readers may think that statement needs qualified.  Some of you will say I don't need to defend our decision.  I'm going with the latter and just going to say we are thankful that we were able to do this with Evalynn.  I hope, that deep inside her little girl heart, going to the dolly store with her mommy and choosing her baby becomes a core memory that warms her up forever.

Evalynn had a choice of all the different kinds of bitty babies at the store and wanted one wearing the pink outfit.  The owner of the store really wanted her to have the blonde baby with blue eyes that looked more similar to Evie, but Evalynn was pretty adamant that she wanted the brunette with brown eyes.  A little part of me wanted her to have the one that looked like her, but a greater part of me wanted her to not feel like the choice she made was wrong or needed to please me.  We came back to look at the dollies three times throughout our shopping trip and talked about all the different features of each dolly.  We took them down and looked at each and and each time she chose the little baby with the brunette hair and brown eyes wearing the pink outfit.  We walked all through the store and talked about all the dolls and accessories we saw.  This particular store sells American Girl branded dolls and accessories, but also sells locally handmade clothes and items that fit the dolls, which is a nice feature.  

Evie had extra spending money from Grandma & Papa and Miss Kathy that she took along.  She chose PJs, a purple dress, bottles, and a pair of red shoes for her dolly, and looked at the strollers (she liked the bassinet prams where you can see baby while you push her!), the high chairs, and the beds (she remembered the wooden beds from a previous visit and inspected them closely).  We talked about the items we already had at home that she could use for her baby (AKA she wasn't getting everything her big eyes saw).  She's genuinely such a fun little shopper.  She understands that she doesn't get everything and she's never yet thrown a fit about it.  She looked at that little dolly she wanted over a month ago and walked away from her so sweetly when I said, "not today." 

But on birthday shopping day she was absolutely delighted to get her sweet little baby.  She said, "I'm a mama!"

Introducing Honey Haddyn Beeler.  

All the way home Evie sang to her baby and at one point I heard her say, "don't be scared, I'm your new mama now."  😍

She's such an excellent mama, too.  We spent a large part of the rest of day changing her baby's clothes at least a dozen times.  They napped together and I got in BIG trouble for putting a cookie on Honey's high chair at lunch time without her mama's approval.

Evie folding dolly laundry is about too cute.

Go figure after all that shopping that the dress that's on Honey the most is one that we've had forever.  It's a bit big and I think Evalynn likes that she can get it on her herself.

Ev's older siblings were especially dear when we got home and swooped her into a world of playing house to help her welcome Honey home.  

What a privilege to get these memories with our Evalynn.  We are so thankful.