Mother Scarlett

Only one of my 5 children has been much into dolls and babies. However, Scarlett is SO into babies that she has made up for everyone and then some. At Christmas when she spotted the shelf brimming with dolls she was distressed and pointed to them saying, "My baby!" and then doing a couple of panicky breaths as if we might just move on. As soon as we handed her one baby she would repeat the chubby finger pointing at the remaining babies and be stressed until we placed another in her arms. Then the whole scene repeated until she had a solid dozen babies in her arms. 

We have entered a phase where I struggle getting her into the car without several babies tagging along. And then another struggle of how many babies are coming into the store. Me: none. 

Scarlett: Just these 8 that I brought!

She and Ander got the bitty twins for Christmas but Ander shares custody. Ooor Scarlett kidnapped the baby boy, whichever way ya want to see it. She calls the girl "baby Scarlett" and the boy "Diego"... there is a striking resemblance... 

She gets defensive sometimes when I try to take pictures of her and her babes, look at that mother lion glare! 

Last week Nathan and I were at Ikea. We stopped in the kid area to let the littles play with the toys they have out. It didn't take long before we noticed Scarlett was involved in a pattern, setting up the Ikea-Home-for-as-of-yet-Unpurchased-Babies. She had discovered the big bin of plush baby dolls. Gender or race matters not to her. She was very busy lovingly tucking babies into all of those empty beds. 

 She found a basket of food and set off to feed every baby.

 Then she discovered a ladle and was giving them all drinks before bed. Nathan and I just sat there in awe of her. It was one of those (rare) moments as a parent that seem to make it all worth while. For a bit anyway.
Here is a short video showing all of the baby dolls in the beds. When she ran out of beds you can see at the end of the video on the left side she has started putting babies to bed on the shelving. A friend had commented, No child left behind, and that is exactly right. Her little heart seems to have room enough for all.