An Afternoon with Harper and Julie

THANK YOU so much for your nice comments on my last post. I really appreciate all of them! I do love this blog and want to be here more. I have a few things planned, including a new series called What I'm Reading Wednesday as well as a home tour, which some of you have asked for. I appreciate those of you that are here regularly and can't say enough how grateful I am for the friends, old and new, that I've connected with through this blog!

Anyway, several months ago, Harper's Grandma Carrie gave her a My Generation doll from Target. Harper named her Julie, a totally random choice, and over the past few months, has really come to love her. Julie has become quite the little sidekick. Harper loves to choose new outfits for her and is dying to get this My Generation salon chair set up that she saw at Target.

I loved dolls when I was little. The Christmas that I received my first American Girl doll (Kirsten) was the best of my childhood. I had been looking at the catalogs for year, wanting an American Girl so badly, always anticipating the time when my mom would consider me old enough for one. As a little girl, I was rarely without a baby or dolly (I was even known to push my dolls around the mall in a doll stroller). Seeing Harper fall in love with a doll has been really fun for me and has let me relive my childhood a bit. Up until now, Harper has been rather uninterested in dolls (she goes for stuffed animals over anything) and so I was really excited when she took to Julie. It makes me look forward to giving Harper her own American Girl doll in a few years.

I think the reason that Harper is so fond of Julie is that Julie isn't a baby. Harper is not into baby dolls. She has never had any interest in them and truth be told, she's not all that into real babies, either, her cousin Pierce being the exception. Julie isn't a baby. She's four, like Harper, and can dress like Harper and enjoy all of the things that Harper enjoys.

Last week, I had my camera out so I snapped a few photos of Harper and Julie throughout the day. Some days, Julie doesn't leave Harper's bed and on other days, she doesn't leave Harper's side. This day was the latter.

Here is Harper reading to Julie. I love how focused she is in the first photo. It's because she was finding and reading all of the sight words on the page. The story that Julie heard went something like this: "and, said, said, she, he, the, the, said, play, as, it, is..."

Julie has a few scattered freckles on her nose, just like Harper. I think my mother-in-law chose Julie based on her freckles- we all have a soft spot for Harper's little freckles (or, as she calls them, "angel kisses").

Here Harper and Julie are enjoying a backyard bike ride while waiting for their muffins to cool. Julie has a little apron and set of oven mitts, which have Harper constantly begging to bake things.

 

Hanging out in her undies is a part of Harper's evening routine. Every night after dinner, Harper strips down and gets "comfy." Julie does the same. If Harper is hanging out, watching Ghostbusters in nothing but her unmentionables, so is Julie. I love it. And I love this pic.