Hailey

I can not believe my little girl is going to be 11 in a couple of weeks.  In some ways, she acts like she is way older than that.  But in other ways, she is still my little girl.  For instance, she still has this one baby doll named Hailey that she loves.  She doesn't necessarily play with her all that often, but occasionally I will find her holding her, or dressing her, or even pretending to give her a bottle.  I sometimes catch her playing doll games online, too. She has such a natural mother's instinct.  I believe she will be an excellent mother someday.

One of her favorite things to do is scour thrift stores for close for Hailey.  Her baby doll probably has more clothes than I do.  I try every few months to clean out her old toys from her room, and while she has gotten rid of things like Barbie dolls and building blocks, she refuses to get rid of anything related to Hailey.  This doll has a crib, and a playpen, and a stroller, and a car seat.  When she was a little bit younger, she used to take Hailey with her everywhere.  She would push a buggy in the grocery store with Hailey strapped into it.  These days she doesn't like to take Hailey in public, but she will occasionally ride in the car with us.

I know that someday she will be ready to get rid of Hailey.  But for now, I will let her continue to mother her.  I mean, why force her to grow up? It will happen on it's own whether I like it or not, just like it did with Ryan and Kasi.