“Addie’s a baby.” Adeline points to herself, smiling and nodding her head. Then she wrinkles her brow. “No baby!” She looks at me questioningly. “I baby.” Now she’s pretty sure.

“Are you mama’s baby?”

She smiles and nods her head so big that her whole body moves up and down. She gives me a big bear hug and then leans back.

“In mama’s shirt.” Lately, she’s into baby-wearing again. Since I put the slings in storage months ago, she tries to climb inside my shirt.

When that doesn’t work, she crawls into my arms. She wants me to hold her like a baby.

“Mama stand up.”

I stand up and rock her back and forth. She puts her finger to her lips and says, “Shhhhh. Shhhhh.”

This has been going on for a few weeks now. Maybe, come to think of it, since about the time we got her baby doll. I guess it’s a bit of “regression”, but that has such a negative connotation. In many ways she really is still a baby, so it feels cruel to say something like, “No, you’re a big girl now!” Yet, she is a big girl. I’m perplexed, if you want to know the truth. I’m just not sure what’s going on and what I’m supposed to do about it. If anything.

My guess is that it will go away soon. In the meantime, I’ll just keep snuggling her and giving her lots of kisses.

Has anyone else experienced this? How did you handle it?