My American Girl

Caroline loves playing with her dolls. She loves setting her babies up in a row & playing 'mommy' and she will change their clothes numerous times during a day. I knew she would be excited when we took her to the American Girl Doll store but I was a bit nervous that she would ask for everything in sight (and well, it's not exactly all in our budget & I didn't want to have a major meltdown so I didn't really mention where we were going).

We went after a long morning and no nap which could lead to disaster, but once in the store there was not a meltdown to be found. The GREAT thing about our little visit to the store was that Caroline didn't realize the dolls were for sale. She didn't know you could actually 'buy' anything. I have often told her that 'sometimes stores don't like to share' or 'we can't get that because it belongs to Wal-Mart' (not exactly the entire truth on the entire subject, but often times it gets us out of whatever situation sans screaming & I do later explain that we don't get treats everywhere we go)...anyway, she had no clue that we weren't in a museum. That part I loved. She was just looking at everything, taking it all in, begging for nothing. She was just there to ENJOY the dolls. She got really excited when she saw her doll Felicity (but she has self named her Sally) and several older girls that are really into American Girl were terribly confused as to why Caroline would 're-name' Felicity. I just smiled and we kept touring.

At the end of our tour I did tell Caroline that she could pick out a Bity Baby Twin, but she could only have one baby and not both twins...you know, since she isn't a twin (and it's half price to just buy one!). She was delighted. She picked out 'Rosie' and Rosie looked just like her (so Caroline thought). I also let Caroline pick out a hair care kit because you really do have to use a special brush to do these gal's hair (and yes, I know you can buy them at Sally's, but she was being so good and so grateful, this was really fun for me & she was more than excited....so worth the $8 for the hair care kit).

This was really a most wonderful experience and I think she loved it as much as I did. Troy was so very patient as this was not really something he had on his 'NYC must do list'. He did love watching her face light up when discovering a new doll or seeing something she loved.

Worth every cent we paid for Rosie. And even if we had walked away empty handed, she would have been just as happy. She loved simply looking at everything and for that I am so thankful.