Mom and Me-First Trip to the American Girl Doll Store

As a kid I loved playing with my American Girl Doll's. Kirsten was my favorite and she was my first doll. I read her books over and over and even dressed up as St. Lucia one year for Christmas as she had done in one of her books. My second doll was Samantha and my third was one that looked like me. I have all the books up to Addie and can still remember my dad reading them to me every night before I went to bed. Some of my best childhood memories are of my playing with my two best friends and our dolls. All together we had Samantha, Molly, Felicity, Samantha and Kirsten. Some times we still comment on each other's facebook pages about playing with those dolls.

Of course when Gianna was born I couldn't wait till the day she was old enough to get one of her own. Of course I am not going to spend money on a expensive doll when she is too young to play with it but when I planned coming up to Wisconsin for the whole month of December we decided it would be fun to take Gianna to the American Girl Doll store in Chicago and depending on if she showed interest, she may get one of her own.

Now I'm not going to lie. I really wanted to go as much for myself as for her. My mom also wanted to go since it was someplace neither of us had ever been, which is surprising considering my American girl doll obsession. So we planned to go that first weekend I was in town

I looked forward to it for weeks. I couldn't wait. And it met all expectations. Gianna I think was on sensory overload the minute we walked into the store but my mom and I were in heaven. I loved seeing all the other grandmas, mom's and daughers as they walked around the store, all dressed up, hugging their dolls close as they picked out new accessories for their dolls or new dolls all together.

The store was two stories and the bottom floor consisted of the IttyBitty Baby collection, all the dolls and the area to make reservations for the restaurant. It was amazing. The doll exhibit's reminded me of something out of the museum. Each doll was housed in their own little section designed to look like a room in their home or something that fit their time period. I could have looked for hours. Gianna could not pick a doll, she wanted them all so we settled on Caroline because she is the daughter of a ship captain. Fitting since Gianna loves boats and the water. Hey whatever makes a two year old interested in something is ok with me!

So we left with my(Gianna's) new doll in tow and went to lunch at the cheesecake factory before heading back to Milw. It was an amazing day.

Side note-Gianna doesn't play with the doll as much as I'd like. Not too surprising. So I may just re gift it for her third birthday!

And wouldn't you know it, they just released the girl of the year on the 1st and she just so happens to be named Isablle(Gianna's middle name) and is a ballerina(Gianna's current obsession) And while I know there are a million ballerina dolls on the market and that this one has no historical significance whatsoever it is taking all my effort to not buy her this doll!

I don't know if I will be able to resist! What to do?