Kendall’s Baby Doll

I always ask Kendall, what did you play with at school today?  What are your favorite toys?  I mostly hear that she likes puzzles, table toys, painting, and playing outside.  I don’t hear about her playing with baby dolls at all, and since her current classroom has quite the collection of them, I wondered–is she just not that into them, or does she not know what to do with them?  I realized, Kendall didn’t have a baby doll of her own that she can dress and feed and take care of.  So, I thought, we should probably do something about that!  I thought about the Bitty Baby from American Girl, but it’s a real investment (and for ages 3+ anyway).  I’ll probably get her one of those for her birthday if she does get into dolls, but in the meantime, I found a good, affordable starter baby doll from Melissa and Doug (that company gets a serious chunk of our money, they make the best toys!!)  Her name is Baby Jenna, and since Kendall and I had some time to ourselves this afternoon, it was a good time to get to know her!

I think it’s safe to say, Kendall pretty much instantly loved Baby Jenna, and revels in taking her clothes off!  (Not so much in putting them back on–but I suppose that’s sort of tricky for small hands!)  Baby Jenna has some accessories, like diapers, wipes, bottles, and various other supplies, and Kendall made a huge production of pretend-changing her (complete with loud “eeeeewwwwwwww, dirty diaper!” and the funniest over-the-top facial expressions!)  Kendall enjoyed pushing Baby Jenna around in the shopping cart as well.  I tried not to laugh (or get too shocked and appalled) watching Kendall get into playing with her doll, she takes care of Baby Jenna in that bossy, rough way that two-year-olds do:  “Hey!  You drink that.”  (while using two hands and most of her body weight to shove the bottle into baby’s mouth while she’s pinned on the floor.)  I do model some kinder behaviors with the doll, though, and I hope she’ll pick up on that some!  Kendall isn’t an over-the-top girly girl, she’s just as comfortable with a lightsaber as a doll, and I think that’s awesome. 🙂