Playing House

When my sister and I were young (and even not-so-young), you could always find us doing one of three things 1) playing with Barbie (these are probably some of my fondest memories...I can't wait to have a girl so I can play with Barbie again), 2) playing school (I loved being in charge, imagine that!), and 3) playing house. My sister and I had very elaborate play houses and playing with dolls was high up on our list. We loved our dolls and our playhouses.

Today I saw a diaper bag and it got me thinking about how when Kara and I were little some of our most treasured toys were real baby things. I think we had a diaper bag that mom had actually used with one of us and we just thought playing with it was the coolest thing. I  know that when you're younger you just can't wait to get old. Anything that is "grown up" is cool. We spent so much of our time trying to imitate grown ups and, at the time, you can't ever imagine that you will ever be old enough to have a baby of your own. I realized when I saw that diaper bag today that I am going to finally have a real diaper bag of my own and a real baby to go with it and how excited 8 year old me would have been to play with a baby and real baby things!

Here's a shot of me in front of our first play house. It was an amazing playhouse and we were very lucky to have it. It was built to match our house (same paint colors, etc.). It had a front porch, curtains, and real glass windows. I just hope my baby-carrying skills are better than they are in this picture...I'm sure Rainbow Bright isn't thrilled about all the blood rushing to her head.

Here's one of our "Santa" gifts one Christmas. The boy doll was mine and the girl doll was Kara's. I named mine Andrew. I know that John Mark probably won't be into dolls or Barbies, but I can't wait to see what he is "into." I know that right now all he's interested in is keeping his foot wedged in my ribs, but hopefully one day he will develop other interests and talents, haha!