Balls and Dolls

I'm starting to see just how different my two girls are. Mary Clare is definitely a girly-girl. She loves all things girlish...dolls, purses, high heels, dresses, makeup, ballet, nail polish, lotions, princesses...she could spend hours gleaming at the pink girl isles at the stores! Ellie likes many of these things too...dolls, purses, and shoes. But her all-time favorite things in the world right now (maybe besides her mommy) are balls!

Maybe it's because she can actually say the word "ball," but I remember her liking them even before she could talk. I think she would rather play with a ball than any other toy in the house! Now when we go to our local mall playland, I can't keep her inside because she knows there is a ball machine (like a gum machine) just outside the playland. When she sees a ball-shaped item, even if it's the giant balls blocking the entrance of the parking lot of Target, she goes wild, pointing and yelling "BALL, BALL!"

Today I wanted to run into Old Navy and remembered that they have the bouncy ball machine for a quarter. So I scrounged around the car for two quarters, telling them both that they were going to get a ball. Well, mommy was wrong and the ball machine is not in the Old Navy in our town! What to do? Well, we went over to Target and got us each a little prize...Mommy a black shirt off the clearance rack (I think I need to start buying only black/brown/maroon shirts since I stain everything), Mary Clare a little "church dress" for her dolly, and Ellie a PINK SOCCER BALL. She wouldn't let it go. She was holding and patting it. She put it (as she does many of her balls) in her little stroller and pushed it around the house. I think she's destined to be a sports fanatic. I think Daddy needs one of those. She already has a pretty strong arm. That's my Ellie!