It all started last Christmas with "Big Baby". If you were part of my life when "Big Baby" was around you know its this doll my mom got for E at Christmas that pretty much looks like a real live 3 month old. And when God forbid it fell out of the grocery cart or I set it down on the ground in a store to be able to reach something - the 3 or 4 elderly people around me would have mini-strokes and run over to me to help and then feel stupid when I just look at them and say "Thank you, It's just a doll. I do have brains enough not to balance a real infant on the handle of the grocery cart or lay it down on a concrete floor. But bless your heart for being so concerned anyway." (I really wasn't out loud snarky to the kind old people. I just thought it.)
Big Baby enjoying the St. Patty's Party before she fell out of the chair and 13 people rushed over to grab her and 911 was called.
Big Baby took on a life of it's own and gave me many Facebook funnies to post about. Probably the most vivid memory of "Big Baby" was when we were in the McDonald's drive-thru and E insisted I order Big Baby a sausage biscuit. The conversation with the McDonald's lady went like this:
ME: I need three sausage biscuits please. The ones off the dollar menu. The $1 ones. (Yes. We are the "you each get to pick 3 things each off the value menu" family.)
E: Big Baby needs a sausage biscuit!!!!
ME: I am NOT buying Big Baby her own sausage biscuit!!!
McDonald's Lady: So that is 4 sausage biscuits? (I am not even kidding)
ME: NO!!, just 3 biscuits.
E: (Crying loudly) Big Baby wants a sausage biscuit. PEEEEEAAAAASSSSSEEEEE.....
(The McDonald's lady is hearing all of this)
McDonald's lady: Mam, is that still 3 sausage biscuits? (I am holding up the line at rush hour breakfast.)
Me: YES!!!! (Oh my worrrrddddd...., I cannot cave and buy a fake kid a $1 biscuit!)
So we get our bag of biscuits and I pass them out. We drive down the road and I turn around and ask Elisabeth "So, did you eat your biscuit" and she says in this small, pathetic voice "Big baby ate it..."
OHMIGOSH!!!! She was not going to back down from this. And let me just tell you this whole "feed my baby real food" role playing just kept up. Big Baby got her own plate of food each meal. And then the other dolls followed. Whoever was the lucky one she decided to love on that day was the winner of a hot plate of food. One time I apparently was not "mushing up the food" like I needed to and E let me know about it. She had to demonstrate to me how to mush up the macaroni and cheese. I'm like, "you are my fourth child I have raised and no one has choked yet!!! And that was even letting you eat Cheetos before your first birthday!"
Once Big Baby and the other dolls took on a life of their own (literally) - the other toys seemed to come to life and needed real food too. Like a stuffed cat. This cat came to life when my mom was putting her cat feeder, cat food and litter box in a garage sale and E was totally crying real tears saying we needed to take it home because we have a "real kitty" and it's hungry, blah, blah, blah. I gave in (because that is the easiest) and took all the stuff home and then found out she had been talking about her stuffed cat. My life has started to resemble some really bazaar kind of movie.
Real Kitty enjoying real cat food and then will go and poop in the litter box. I did put my foot down at putting cat litter in the box. Proud of me?
This baby apparently made it back from war alive so she's enjoying a plate of chicken.
I DID NOT order this doll her own fries. E somehow got lucky and got 2 sets of fries in her Happy Meal and she was sweet and gave this baby one.
I'm sure people wonder (ya know, the perfect parents) why I don't just tell her no. Because #1 I am flipping 44 years old raising a preschooler that is off the charts creative and unique and setting limits and engaging in battle with her takes every ounce of mental/physical strength that I barely have. It's called KEEPING THE PEACE. So there. #2 She is so darn cute who could ever crush that spirit? #3 This is how she plays and what she plays 80% of the time - take that away, and oh Lord, what will she find to replace it?
God is so lovingly awesome to create each of us with our own uniqueness, quirks, talents, and outrageous personalities. The world would be so boring if everyone was the same. You have the "strong-willed child" who is lucky to make it past age 10. You have those dream children who sleep through the night at 2 minutes old and pick up their own toys when they learn to crawl. Every kid is different and because of that, we can't all parent the same. To each his own. All our kids have their own set of challenges, and their own moments of being totally the most awesome thing ever. I know my role is to keep encouraging them to be everything God created them to be. He created them that way to be a part of his big plan for the world.
"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." - Ephesians 2:10
"The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life." Job 33:4
Yep. God breathed a double dose of life into this child.
Embrace their uniqueness. Don't push them to be something they are not. Nurture. Set Limits. Discipline...And since that is not my strong area I will wrap this blog up and say that is why God gave me Chris - a.k.a. super parent. He is why our kids are not in jail. He tells them no. (Although he has totally just bought real diapers for one of her babies at Walmart.)
And just when I thought things couldn't get any more extreme with the alternate reality doll playing, Elisabeth gets a pooping and peeing "Baby Alive" that talks. In two different languages.
To be continued.....
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