Harper's Babies

When I was little, I probably had 153 stuffed animals and dolls. I LOVED them and was convinced that they were real and came to life when I went to sleep at night. Each night, I would pick the chosen few (and by few I mean 8 or 9) that would get to sleep in my bed with me that night. I even had a special night time ritual where I would have to say goodnight to them in groups based on their location - "Good night to all of my best buddies on the bed, favorite friends on the floor, delightful dollies on the desk and favorite, delightful buddies in the hammock." I don't know, I guess I ran out of "h" adjectives to describe the hammock dwelling creatures. And yes, I had a HAMMOCK full of stuffed animals in my room. Out. Of. Control.

But there was one that stood out above the rest - Blue Baby. Blue Baby had a place of honor in bed each night. She came with me on trips, to camp each summer and (I'm a little embarrassed to say) even came to Lubbock when I left for collage. I can say that Blue Baby has since been retired but I see a very familiar pattern emerging in my household.

Harper really likes her babies. She talks to them and plays with them. But two in particular seem to really get her excited. There's her Ugly Doll. My friend, Stephen, gave her the Ugly Doll and anytime she has a group of animals and dolls in her bed with her to play with, it's a go-to. It has a face on each side and looks alot like an alien. I don't get it - it doesn't even look like a person or animal since it has three eyes! And then there's the baby doll that was given to her by Susan Carvajal. I think this might be her "Blue Baby". Harper gets so excited when she sees her. The doll squeaks when you squeeze her and Harps starts kicking her legs frantically when she hears the squeak and starts looking for her. It's like she can't wait to get her hands on her. We're trying not to name these babies so that she can name them herself one day. We're working on kisses right now and Harper's kiss is that typical, open-mouth baby kiss. We can tell Harper to give the baby kisses and the baby goes straight to her mouth. Now, yes, I admit that sometimes she tries shoving the entire baby head in her mouth because she's looking for a chew toy but there are kisses in there too!

Let's just hope we can break her of her babies before she gets married. Its a little embarrassing when your husband has to finally look at you and say, "Really? Can't we get rid of that thing?"