Weekend Odds and Ends

So many things from this weekend.

My baby sister (8yrs old) was a pretty good camper. Even if she thought she was going to DIE on our light hike of just over an hour. She is not afraid of snakes. She is still unreasonably afraid of spiders and their webs. She did not think she was going to die without TV, but she still got bored easily (“what are we going to do now?”)

My dog seems to be rather rigid about where things are suppose to happen. Sitting and sleeping are done at home or, maybe and briefly, at Grandma’s house – not in a tent in the woods. Even if Mommy is there and ignoring my suggestions that it is time to leave. Besides, there were all kinds of critters out there. Thankfully she’s not much of a barker.

American Girl dolls. Read a horrible story here, One Of Those Horrible Moms, about what happened to a little girl at their beauty salon. For shame! I find some of the story almost unbelievable and then I remember some of the heartless and thoughtless things I have witnessed and think – I can see that happening. To the people who asked why didn’t the mother call and check that the daughter could bring another doll – she checked the website! She shouldn’t have to also call to answer that question, not in this day and age. Do I think all Amer. Girl dolls should be burned? No. Do I think one should never buy another Amer. Girl product? Maybe.

My baby sister owns two. I couldn’t believe Mom spent that much on a doll but she had her reasons. Sis (still debating name use in my blog, just as awkward for me to write as for you to read) had a baby doll (approx. right size and weight) from a local doll shop where one could build a doll. The baby has brown hair (imagine a BAD toupee on a baby) and brown eyes. Later Mom was looking for other brown hair/brown eyed dolls and Sis had learned about Amer. Girl dolls and how wonderful they are. She wanted one. As Mom continued to find little girl dolls she found it very difficult to find br/br. At least with Caucasoid skin tones, although most have Caucasoid features (but that’s a whole ‘nother entry). Then Mom learned that on Amer. Girl’s website you can pick the hair, eye color, and skin color for your doll. She got to buy a doll that looks similar to Sis. She later bought a friend for the first, as well as a matching outfit for Sis and a dog and cat for the dolls. My baby sister was never lead to think that she couldn’t get her doll dirty because it was too expensive or anything along those lines. She even gave the first a haircut, making it easy to tell the two apart, when she got the second, because Clara has shorter hair. Sis has never thought her dolls were more special or better than any others, but then we, as a family, wouldn’t teach her that.

IMHO, these dolls, along with many others, have an advantage over Barbie and her kind in that they are girls, not women. Barbie and other “fashion” dolls tend to have unreasonable proportions. I admit that I haven’t paid a whole lot attention to the new Barbie and yes Barbie has been everything from Malibu heiress (the mansion and convertible?) to teacher to astronaut but she’s done all that while having boobs that would give a woman back problems. (You should have heard Sis’s description of Barbie’s figure last night – classic.) Are girls going to figure out what society thinks is beautiful without Barbies? Yes. Do these kinds of fashion dolls make girls have body image problems? No, but why encourage them to think that being a kid isn’t the ideal (acting their age is good, acting grown up isn’t).

Just discovered something weird. The Blogger spell checker doesn't know some contractions.