Babyland General

We took a quick road trip this weekend during a whirlwind two days in Athens and drove up to Cleveland, GA - home to Babyland General and the Cabbage Patch Kids. What a fun place! I have such fond memories of this place as a little girl when I adopted my Cabbage Patch Kid fresh from the patch. Claire had a great time too. Very little, if anything, has changed in all of these years since I was last there.

Meet Cate Elizabeth - the newest member of our family (and yet another thing to pack for Africa ;) She is just adorable and Claire is a wonderful little Mommy to her. She chose one with brown eyes since all of ours have blue and Daddy feels left out being the only one with brown eyes in our family (although I'm starting to think Gus might be switching over to the brown team - we will see). Claire feels bad that I don't have a brother or a sister so she said that Cate could be my sister. So sweet. We saw several "Cabbage Births" during our visit. I laughed out loud when the "doctor" said he was giving Mother Cabbage and "easy-otomy" during the birth. I guess you can find humor is such things after you have birthed three babies!

For those of you unfamiliar with the whole Babyland General concept this all might sound kind of strange. Picture a hospital with a nursery, NICU (yes, real isolettes), a bathing/weighing area behind a big glass window and various other arragements of Cabbage Patch Kids (as school, playground etc.) Every so often they announce over the intercom that Mother Cabbage is in labor and everyone runs to this big tree where a doctor comes and assists in the "birth" of a Cabbage Patch Kid. They do an ultrasound during the birth process and if the TV screen is pink- girl and blue, well you know. I remember after the kid was born being able to yell out names to name them but today the ones born were already claimed so the little girls got to watch their very own CPK being born then name it themselves. We chose to adopt one from the nursery with a hard head and a slightly lower pricetag. We still got a great birth certificate and Claire got to name her. She chose "Cate" - I asked if she wanted to spell it with a "K" or a "C" and she chose "C". I've always liked it spelled that way so I was glad. I think Elizabeth is in honor of "Emily Elizabeth" of Clifford fame.

Ford stayed behind with Pa Pa to play ball and swing outside. He wouldn't have appreciated it but Gus was a fun compainon for our day and can check it off of his places to visit. Overall a very fun day with lots of memories for Mommy too!