A Visit to Babyland General & The Cabbage Patch Kids!

I’m a child of the 1980’s.  Okay, technically, I was born in the late 1970’s, but my most of my formative years were spent in the 1980’s.  And I was the ultimate 1980’s kid girl – My Little Pony, Rainbow Brite, and Jem were my favorites.  But at the very tippy-top of my list were Cabbage Patch Kids.  I was not only alive during their debut in 1983, but I remember watching the news and seeing stories of people getting trampled trying to get their hands on one.  To say they were a tough toy to find would be an understatement.  Lucky for me, my dad traveled a lot when I was a kid and they were easier to find overseas than here in the US, or I may never have gotten a Cabbage Patch Kid at all.

At the very beginning of December, Erajh casually mentioned that a friend of his took her niece to this place called Babyland General.  I totally freaked out.  “Babyland General?  Like, where the Cabbage Patch Kids are born?”, I replied.  I remembered it by name from all those birth certificates that had come with my Cabbage Patch Kids.  Instantly I was 6 years old again.  After doing a little bit of research, we found out that Babyland General is in Cleveland, Georgia about 60-90 minutes outside of Atlanta.  We decided that it would make the perfect stop on our Christmas vacation as we were driving from Erajh’s parent’s house in Atlanta and my mom’s house in South Carolina.

So a few weeks later, off to Babyland General we went…We were there just a few days before Christmas so it was all decorated for the holidays – they even had a Santa inside that you could take pictures with.  I’m sure the lawn looks a bit more impressive (and greener) during the spring and summer months, but it’s pretty cool how it’s set back and you have to zig-zag up the driveway.  As you get closer you can see that there really are Cabbage Patch Kids everywhere.  Like these slightly creepy Cabbage Patch heads camped out on the lawn.

Once inside, you can see all the celebrities who are fans of the Cabbage Patch Kids.  I’m not sure if these people have actually visited Babyland General or are just fans…it wasn’t quite clear, but there’s no doubt that Xavier Roberts (creator of the Cabbage Patch Kids) and his crew are insanely popular.

From there you go to the welcome desk where you’re greeted by employees in nurses outfits who tell you where everything is and let you know when the next birth will be.  But we’ll get to the births in a minute…To get to the main room where most of the Cabbage Patch Kids are located you need to walk through a series of smaller nurseries with some of the more exclusive dolls.  These hand stitched dolls will run you over $200.  Luckily, my girls didn’t fall in love with any of these exclusive dolls and ran right through to the main room where the Magic Crystal Tree is located.We strolled around the room for quite a while looking at all the different dolls available for adoption (most of which were in the $60 range), trying to decide which ones would be coming home with us.  There were literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of dolls to consider.

Each one smelled like baby powder and was wearing baby clothes…real baby clothes.  Like, from Carters.  There was actually a doll wearing a sleeper identical to the one Everett was in.

And then it was time for a birth…  Where to start?  Honestly, the birth was a bit creepy.  Okay, it was really creepy.  But my kids were totally into it.  From the first moment it was announced that there would be a birth:

To the ultrasound (which determined it was a girl, hence the pink):

And the actual arrival:

My kids were hooked.  Greenleigh even ran over the nursery in order to be one of the first to hold the “new baby”.  She was excited when Everett was born, but she might have been more excited over the Cabbage Patch birth.It was around this point that Hazeline became enamored with a doll that we found in the cabbage patch.  So we got the adoption paperwork from a nurse and headed for the adoption rooms –

where paperwork was reviewed

and, with a little help, signed. And just like that, Anna Ballerina (not a typo, she insisted on Anna not Angelina) joined our family…and her pacifier was almost instantaneously lost.  Go figure.

If you can’t tell, this trip wasn’t entirely for my kids.  I mean, it was fun to see my kids enjoy Babyland and show them all the Cabbage Patch Kids, but more than anything else, was living out my childhood dream.  And it was awesome.  I totally didn’t care that it took us out of our way by at least an hour.  If you’re a child of the 1980s and loved the Cabbage Patch Kids, it’s a must visit…maybe just skip the birth part.