I love my nieces

I love Kaia (almost 7) and Audie (3 1/2) for many, many reasons, not the least of which right now is that they allow me to live vicariously through them, both as a former doll-obsessed little girl, and a mother of two boys. My nieces, God bless them, love American Girl Dolls. Today I just bought Kaia, whose 7th birthday is Sunday, the pet bunny that belongs to her newest doll, Julie. This is Kaia's 4th American Girl Doll -- she has Kaya, Kit, Ruthie & now Julie. This probably means nothing to most of you, but it takes me back to my Cabbage Patch Kid days, in all their glory.

This summer when Mike, Kerri & the kids were visiting, Kerri & I made the trek to Mall of America (something I am generally loathe to do), so we could give Kaia a special trip to the American Girl Doll store. Her doll Kaya, who is an American Indian, was having some hair issues, and the store has a beauty shop (oh yes). So Kaya was attended to by a professional AGD hair stylist. She was changed into a spa robe, placed in a salon chair, and given the works. She got beautiful new braids AND got her ears pierced (Kaia had also just gotten her ears pierced).

And anyway, while we were there, I got to look around. Oh, how I longed to be a little girl again. I fell in love with all of those dolls! They're so interesting! My favorite -- and the one I really want for my birthday this year -- is Rebecca. She's a Russian-Jewish girl in 1914 in New York City, and I love her. I tried to persuade Kaia to get her next, but she opted instead for Julie, the little sixties flower child. Hippie. I'll have to start working on Audie, -- maybe she'll cave to the pathetic requests of her Aunt Mary.

As I write this post, my two sons are selecting, over and over again on On-Demand, the Lego Indiana Jones show, while playing with there Indiana Jones legos. Noah is home sick today with a fever, a bad cough, and "little drops of throw-up." And Luke, who's lazing around in his pajamas, just announced, "Ok, I give up. I need to go pee-pee." [Pause] Ok, now I gotta go wipe Luke's butt.