- I have a business trip this week. More on that sometime when I feel like writing it. (The whole office is touring Appalachian communities!) It’s an overnight so the kids and Brett are heading to the inlaws’.
- Abby said she’d give me the record player console that was left in their new house even though she at first wanted to keep it. I’m writing it here so she can’t go back on it without public fall out because I’ve been wanting a console record player for about eight years now. We missed one at this church sale — it was only thirty bucks but we didn’t have the van and had to go ask my father-in-law if he’d help transport it. When we came back it was gone. It was pickled green wood and I loved it and every time I look at the place here in our house that is just begging for a console record player, I feel like weeping. But soon all my grief will be abolished!!
- Madison and I made carrot muffins for breakfast this morning and so far she’s eaten about 79 (they are really good).
- I talked to Julia last week for the first time in AGES and she helped me think on some stuff around a project my agent’s Director of Development has been encouraging me to think on. I wish I didn’t need to meditate on things for forty years before I sit down to write about them. I wish I wrote this kind of thing as quickly as I can whip out a brochure.
- Yesterday I talked to two of the women from this group: Mother Artists at Work about blogging. This group does so much for its members and it’s really freaking impressive. It’s support in spades over there!!
- Did you know your morning coffee will taste better if you buy sugar cubes instead of regular sugar? Because it’s fancier. Try it — it’s true.
- I did end up ordering a Kit doll for Madison. American Girl dolls, in case you don’t have a child who is into them, are stupid expensive. Kit was $95. Even Noah was appalled. But thing is — she will play with it for way more than $95 worth. She loves her dolls more than any other toy she has and yes, they looked as loved as they are. (Noah said, ” But she’ll ruin it!” And I said, “Mint toys are unloved toys.”) Before Madison was born, I got a Rosa Magic Attic doll for the just in case baby we were hoping for and gave her to Madison when she was a bit too young for it after this incident (where she pulled her doll’s hair off and flipped out). The Rosa doll, which she named Diosius (it sounds Greek — I don’t know where she got it) is so beloved and ratty now but Madison feels that Diosius needs a friend. She said, “Because her other friends are poking at her a lot.” Kit will be Diosius’s friend. Anyway, whatever else we’d get would end up being a bigger waste of money play value wise. Kinda like when you figure out the cost of clothes by how many times you wear it? The play session value is lower than the play session value of some flash in the pan cheaper toy.
- Pennie is thinking of replacing her outgrown bike (the bike Pennie got her for her third birthday). Madison came to me the other day and said she wanted to name her bike the Mach 5 (after the Speed Racer cartoons she’s come to love on Hulu) but was worried that this wasn’t a good name for a girl’s bike. “Of course it is!” I told her. “Because the Mach 5 is fast and girls like to go fast!” She was relieved. So she decided that her bike’s name is the Mach 5 but its nickname is the Silver Seahorse.
- Pennie’s dad is a huge fan of Speed Racer. I was when I was five, too. I thought Speed Racer was handsome and I wanted to marry him but only when his helmet was on because his hair was too poofy. Madison agrees with me about the poofiness of his hair. Noah said, “It’s kind of Elvis-styled.” Then he asked me if I was alive in the days of Elvis. I said sorta. (I was born in 1970 so not his heyday.)
- Brett is working both days this weekend, which is good for the coffers but bad for our to-do list. Since Madison’s birthday celebration is next week, I figure the house will never be clean again but I’ve come to accept that. I haven’t quite made peace with it but I’m going to have to accept it.
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I love American Girl dolls. I got one for Clara, but she’s not a doll kid. Her doll is in good shape. I so wanted her to like it, so I could sew it clothes! And we could buy accessories! The baby loves dolls. It’s a little early to tell, but I might have gotten my doll-loving kid, which might have it’s own challenges socially, because he’s a boy.
I am so jealous! If American Girl dolls had been out when we were kids I would have LOVED them. Do you think Madison might let me play with hers some time?
Ooh, and there are a ton of patterns to sew or knit clothes for those dolls…
Totally agree on the cost thing. And Jealous – did I mention that??
When Mallory was 3 I said my daughter would never own an $82 doll (which is what AG dolls were then.) When she was 5 she fell in love with a friend’s Josephina. She got it for her 6th birthday. She played with it to death, and she is still in good shape. She got Kit with her own money. Then we visited the AG store in Chicago when she was 11, and she looked wistfully at Felicity and talked about how sad it was they didn’t showcase her anymore, and how they were her favorite books because they had a horse. Bert bought it for her right then, because as he said “This is likely the last time my little girl will long for a doll.”
They all three sit on her bookshelf. She still loves them. Even though she claims she will never have children, she wants to keep them.
My other daughters have similar stories, the dolls have been well loved and worth every penny. I expect my grandchildren will some day play with them. And the house that was never going to have even one, now holds nine.
WOW, nine AGs, Lisa! That makes me LONG for a girl a whole lot. I have all these AG catalogs saved. The first one (from my first trip to the U.S.) is from 1993! Funny thing is… I always thought of how I’d have loved to have a doll like that, but never really imagined how I’d give one to a daughter of mine.
I guess I was meant to have sons.
Anyway, I think it’s really cool that you’re getting her the doll, cost and all. When I read the previous post I wondered at the link to the film and whether she wanted the DVD (it felt kinda strange)…
But now I get it. I think it’s interesting that I’ve been reading you ever since 2004 and I never think that Madison is less than 2 months older than Linton. For some reason I always think of her as way older…
We have Kit at home, my daughter’s most strong Christmas wish. I balked at the cost for more than a year and then decided to give in. We have the Target knockoffs…and the AG really is much nicer. We had brunch at the Chicago store with her after she arrived with a good friend. AG is amazing for the detail.
We’ve only bought four of the dolls (for three girls) . Two were gifts from grandparents, and three were dolls the girls saved birthday, Christmas, toothfairy money to buy.
I always think it sounds weird, because, yeah, it’s a bunch of dolls. But I do have lots of kids.
I was “too old” for American Girl dolls when they came out. I wanted them. I still want them. I intend to buy them for Jack’s sister. :0)
You are a good mom for getting the doll your child asked for. My mom was of the school – why get one good doll when I could get three cheap ones? *Sigh*
My daughter was crazy for one of these too, but I, like Noah, thought she would ruin it. I told her if she earned her own money (she was 5!) she could have one because then she could treat (or mistreat as was her tendency with toys at the time) it the way she wanted. My sisters and mother conspired with her to pay outrageous sums for small tasks. She played consitantly with this one and the ones I subsequently bought her for the next 7 years. Less expensive outfits were abundant at craft fairs-and probably now on Etsy. Furniture was easy to find at unfinished furniture stores. I will say that as expensive as the AG merchandise was/is, it was of excellent quality.
She’s graduating from High school this year!
even better than sugar cubes — rock candy sugar cubes! they have them with the coffee at one of my favorite restaraunts, and a friend and i marvelled at how bringing out the varieties of sugar in these cute little bowls makes everying in the world seem fine. (light brown, white, and rock candy crystals – and sweetner – in small square bowls on a tray). so i bought them at the market and now have them with coffee and tea at home. small indulgences definitely help sometimes.
as for the dolls, my daughter has a lot of the american girl book sets and has read them repeatedly. she was talking with a friend of mine once about the books and when i pointed out that it was funny that she didnt even know about the stores/dolls/merchandising (we dont live in the US) – and my friend got all sheepish and said “she does now, i just told her about them.” my mom got her a small felicity doll, but otherwise, it has mostly meant her asking for more advanced historical fiction books.