It’s hard being the baby of the family.

I have five kids of my own. They range in ages – nicely spaced, if I do say so – as of right now, my son is 24, and my girls are 20, 18, 14, and 11.

I am so thankful they all get along pretty well and seem to have a close relationship with each other. We love to play games together, go hiking together, and camping together. In fact, we do most things together. Well, my two oldest are gone from home most of the time these days, but we still love doing things together.

Since we have homeschooled for most of their childhoods, we’ve spent a lot of time together. Like, we’re pretty much always together.

Laura, 11 years old now, is the “baby” of the family. She’s one of the kindest, most thoughtful people I know. She loves her family. She wishes she could freeze time – she gets all teary eyed when she thinks about how everyone is growing up, life is changing, and she’s so happy, she loves life the way it is. right. now.

Kind of like me. I do the same thing. 

So, something I’ve only recently realized is how hard it can be for the “baby” of the family. At least in Laura’s case. Her four older siblings always had someone who wanted to play with them. You know, with toys. She still loves her dolls and up until just in the last few months Hannah would still play with her.

Hannah’s 14 years old now and her interests are changing. 

And Laura misses the way things used to be. 

And it’s hard. 

And my heart aches for her sweet longing. 

One thing on my list of “to dos” to try and combat her feelings of loneliness is to build a dollhouse for her American Girl Dolls. It’s something we’ve talked about doing for a couple of years, but life has been/ was so hectic it kept getting pushed to the back burner.

My husband has been getting the needed supplies together and I’m hoping we can build it within the next couple of weeks.

I think the dollhouse is something I can work on with Laura, that we can do together; that will be fun; that she can enjoy with her dolls for a little bit longer. And maybe Hannah will enjoy crafting miniature furnishings and items for the dollhouse, too.

One thing I’ve always encouraged is for my children to not feel like they have to grow up too fast. Adulthood comes all too soon. Childhood should be a magical, special time that is looked back on with fond memories of good times and sweet moments.

I’m so thankful for these days – each moment I have with my girls still at home is precious, so very, very precious to me. We have so. much. fun. together. And I plan to have lots of fun with Laura in the coming weeks planning and crafting, and decorating her dollhouse!