finding my inner american girl

For as long back as I can remember, my mom bought my sister and I one doll a piece for Christmas.  One special doll a year.  I suppose every mom wants her daughters to play "mommy" and love their "babies".  And my mom gave it the best try for YEARS.  My sister and I would roll our eyes but looking back on it, I love my mom for wanting us to have our own special babies. 

For what it is worth, my sister and I did become Mommies but both of us are the working parents in our families (by choice) and neither of us learned to cook (also, by choice).

Some gender tendencies stick and others simply wash away!

Anyhow, my mother's patience and trying has paid off for my sweet niece Lorelli loves dolls. 

American Girl dolls to be specific.

For her ninth birthday, we visited the American Girl store. 

All I can say is WOW. 

There are no words to describe this store.  A store filled with hundreds of dolls and thousands of little girls, running over one another to pick out doll outfits and accessories.  Ok, hundreds and thousands may be an exagerration but I do swear a mom or two knocked me over, in their haste to get to a specific outft.

Anyhow...

Lorelli used her Christmas money to buy a new doll.

Meet Cecilia!

Cecilia may be "Marie" now because her name was going to be changed but I haven't heard a final update.

Either way, the birthday girl was in love.

And Katelyn really likes her new friend, too.

Or so I'm told.

I wish I had pictures of my mom's face as she walked around. My sweet mom couldn't help herself and had to pick up about a half dozen outfits for the two dolls.  I swear, if these dolls had been around when my sister and I were little girls, my mom would have saved every last penny she could find so we could have one.

As for myself, I don't think I found my inner American Girl after all.

She was frightened off by all the freaky dolls!!