In which a doll is born

Our sweet little Claire turned 4 years old this weekend. During the last month of my pregnancy I began working on a special doll for her, a baby doll. I knew I wanted it to look a bit like her new baby sister that was on the way. So with that in mind I set to work. I created a doll with arms and legs that are jointed and can move, to make dressing easier. Plus her new baby would be able to sit up and hug and do all of those fun things you need movable arms and legs for. I embroidered her baby's eyes to match Claire's own eye color as closely as possible. We had a very clear ultrasound picture of Violet at 36 weeks and her face shape was just like Claire's was as a newborn, so I carefully sculpted the new doll's face to have a sweet pointy chin, chubby kissable cheeks and a darling little nose, just like my sweet girls. Her skin is organic cotton, and her hair is a mohair and wool blend. It was a natural white, and we gathered black walnuts from our woods and I dyed her hair with them after I crocheted the little cap to the correct size for her head. She is firmly stuffed with wool. 

Ever since Violet was born 3 weeks ago, Claire has been watching everything I do with the new baby very closely. Doll play in our house has become much more serious business now! Claire has spent the past couple of weeks playing "mommy with a newborn". She mentioned how she wished one of her babies had short soft fuzzy hair, like my newborn. She also told me several times that she would like to have diapers for her baby, so she could change it's diapers. (Lately a very frequent occurrence that she has witnessed about a million times around here!) So I made her new baby a couple of diapers that close with velcro. The diapers turned out to be a very big hit! Claire's baby has had her diapers changed even more frequently than her baby sister's in the past few days. During the time I worked on the doll, Claire had no idea that I was making something for her! She was so surprised to open up her gift on her birthday

With everything that has been happening over the past few weeks I gave myself a break and decided not to make her handmade clothing right now. So she is being dressed in "real preemie baby" sized clothing for the time being. The little pale blue pixie hat with velvet ribbons and the embroidered violets on it was borrowed from my own little Violet Penelope! I made it from the softest cashmere sweater. The pink hat with matching tiny Mary Jane shoes were actually Claire's when she was a newborn! They were made for her by her adoring Grandmother!

Claire and I decided to wrap our new born babies up in their blankets and take pictures of them together. Playing Mommy with my sweet little girl is so much fun. 

Joining in with Nicole at Frontier Dreams today and Linda at Natural Suburbia. 

Oh Lovely Mud!

Claire and Emmett decided to celebrate yesterday's beautifully warm spring like weather (It was 70 degrees outside, in December, in Tennessee!) by playing in the mud.