Country Girl Dolls for Christmas

As I mentioned in the post below, Gaëlle has consistently asked for an American Girl Doll for Christmas. It is always difficult to know what to buy her for special presents. People always think she will be so thankful for anything she gets, but it's just not so. She is not attached to very much. As we've discovered, that's not always a good trait. It means she is super rough with stuff. She doesn't take care of anything that most kids would regard as special. She quickly forgets about items that most kids would consider special. 

But we wanted to get her this doll because we hoped it would be special and we hoped it would be another thing that she and her sisters would have in common. We are constantly looking for ways for her to feel included in our family. Both girls have American Dolls and so this will be a shared memory.

She was thrilled. And it's not because she looks at the catalogs and drools (like Emily and Kaylin did). She has a few friends that have them and she knows the older girls have their dolls which are carefully stored away.

I bought a new outfit for her doll as well. This is the cute tiny sweater. At 6:00 pm as I was cleaning stuff up, I noticed this cute overpriced sweater already has 3 holes in it. It is just hard for Gaëlle to be gentle with "stuff". So it's tough to spend money on items for her. We can encourage her to be careful, but so far, the message doesn't seem to be sticking. I brought the holes to her attention in a casual voice and reminded her that it will last longer if she is careful.

As soon as Gaëlle could talk them into it, Emily and Kaylin brought out their tubs of dolls and clothes. It was doll heaven.

Can you see the look of concern on somebody's face?

It appears the nightie set got placed in the wrong girl's box. Oops. Back to it's rightful owner.

The dolls all got new outfits on and the hair was brushed.

So many choices. For this one day only, Emily and Kaylin gave Gaëlle full reign. She could play with their clothes to her hearts content. 

Oh, time for another change.

Bitty Baby even got a fresh outfit on.

Then the 3 girls posed for me with their dolls. Emily and Kaylin are making plans to go back to American Girl Place with their dolls in tow, so they can experience it again through the eyes of a little girl. We have about 3 years to try and make that happen before the little girl is too old.