Childhood Nostalgia

Paige spent the night at my mom's on Tuesday, all by herself. I think it was actually her first sleepover alone without he brother there. It was a spontaneous thing and she was thrilled to have grandma all to herself to cuddle and play with. When I went to pick her up on Wednesday afternoon, she had her Pinkie bear in a baby carrier. But this wasn't some Wal-mart baby carrier, it was MINE. This was one of those handcrafted items that mom lovingly gave me for Christmas when I was four years old. I love how Mom has kept some of these toys that meant so much to us. Most people would throw them away. Paige loved the carrier. She begged Grandma to let her take it home. I looked at it and thought " I wonder if I could make one..." Ironically, Paige is exactly the same age that I was when I got this toy.


Christmas 1981 with my baby carrier. I was just shy of 5 years old.



How it looks today. A little stained and completely limp, but fully functional for my little girl.


As soon as Paige heard me say something about making one, she was all over it and asked when we could go to the store to pick out fabric. We hustled over there this morning between dropping Preston off at school and getting her to preschool. We found the perfect gingham fabric that was even quilted just like my baby carrier.

I spent ALL day sewing. I realized early in that I completely messed up the bottom and didn't understand how it was put together. So I had to start that part over. It was tricky and I didn't get it exactly right. But Paige doesn't notice those little things. What she sees is a new toy for her babies. She was absolutely in love with it. We made one for her cousin Karli too so they can play with their babies while they get babysat on Fridays.



Paige and her new doll carrier.




Karli's doll carrier.


It's funny how I felt such a desire to reconstruct this piece of my childhood. Everything comes from the store these days, but I wanted to MAKE it. It means more. I hope one day my little girl finds this carrier in the hands of her own child and remembers the special memories she made with it.