Big Sister in Training

I'm not sure if all girls are born with the mothering instinct, but I sure know that Addie has fully developed it just in the last several months. She has always enjoyed hugging and loving on her stuffed animals (as you saw in the video clip I put on here a while back) and she has a few baby dolls that she also enjoys taking care of. Obviously, we have been discussing babies a lot more recently to prepare her for the arrival of our new little one and she is really taking it all in.

We ended up "borrowing" one of the baby dolls from the church nursery to avoid an enormous fit the other day after prayer group and she has really become attached to "her." On the way home from church, she undressed the baby and as soon as we walked in the door she announced that the baby had to potty and she ran to get her little potty out of the bathroom cabinet. Later that night, she undressed the baby again, took her to potty, and then found some cloth wipes in her room to use as "cloth diapers." Chris and I are certainly encouraging of this behavior since we're trying to get in potty training and big sister mode at the same time. Chris was even showing her how to pretend powder the "boukies" (bottoms) of each of her stuffed animals in her room the other night! She also makes sure to wipe bottoms clean while saying "nakie bouky"...I'm not kidding.

She not only diapers the baby, but she also takes full responsibility for feeding her. This morning, I found her sitting on the couch giving her cloth diapered baby some milk from a bottle. It's just about the cutest thing watching her love and take care of this baby. Hopefully she will welcome a real baby the same way in a few months! (And hopefully this baby can make it safely back to the church nursery without any troubles...I am not looking forward to that day next week!)