I'm not a Doctor...
But I play one on my daughter's dolls.
I know, that sounds just plain WRONG, doesn't it?
I have two girls, and about 100 dolls. Really. It's like people think, "What should I get for ....-oh, I know, a DOLL". For Sari, that's a match made in heaven. She LOVES dolls. But Mimi, well, she's never really been into them. Except one type, and that I am sure is due to the peer pressure of all her friends being into this doll. That would be the American Girl dolls. Now for those of you who don't know, American Girl dolls are dolls based on specific time periods and each doll has a series of books about the girl they represent and what it was like to live then. And they are CRAZY expensive. Like $100 a doll. Made even more ridiculous by the fact that although the girls on the book covers all have a unique look, the dolls all have the SAME FACE. At least $100 My Twinn dolls actually have several different faces so your dolls can really look like what they are meant to look like. But I digress...
The maker of American Girl Dolls was smart. They have huge stores where you can go to tea with your doll and buy matching outfits, etc. They also recognize that well loved dolls don't last forever (although for $100 they ought to have parts made of titanium). So they have the American Girl Doll Hospital. Yes, you can send your ailing doll back to then, for a not-so-nominal fee, and have it repaired and returned to you good-as-new...at least for a few months until she becomes "well-loved" again.
Mimi has a Kirsten doll. She got it from her Nana and PopPop when she was THREE-because what 3 year old shouldn't have their own $100 doll? And although it sat fairly neglected for a LONG time, once her friends started getting into them and getting their own American Girl dolls, Kirsten saw a small amount of play (Mimi just really isn't that into dolls unless friends are around). Then one day about 2 years ago, Kirsten's leg FELL OFF. Really. Now I'm thinking that shouldn't be able to happen on a $100 doll, but alas it did. And since our local library had an American Girl Doll Club every month, Mimi had a constant reminder of her doll's injured status (for me, it was under a pile of dryer lint and assorted other goodies rescued from the washer and so it was out of mind) and she BEGGED me to send it to the AGD Hospital. But the cost on that is $24 for limb reattachment AND $6.95 for shipping you back the doll-not to mention the cost of shipping the doll to THEM.
NOT. Happening.
Even with the perks, as explained on the website:
Within two weeks, you can welcome her home:
So there she sat, getting more and more lint covered :-(. Until the other day Mimi again BEGGED me to send her in. I explained that the cost really didn't fit in with the 31 days of nothing, not to mention that it wasn't likely to happen while I was still drawing breath...But what do you do with a one legged $100 doll? You make a song about it! Marie's kids and mine made up a song about Mimi's one legged one hundred dollar doll...and maybe that was what chipped away at my resolve enough to look into more economically feasible solutions.
SO I did what I do for everything these days...I search the internet. And found THIS site. It laid everything out for us. I got all the parts that night (using a bungee cord in place of the elastic cord they suggested since I couldn't find anything else and the bungee cord was the exact same size).
For 30 minutes the next morning, we did "surgery" on Kirsten. We took off her head, took out all her fluff, fixed the broken limb, put her back together, and magic erased some of the dirt off her body, and voila! A brand new Kirsten for $5 instead of $50. Mimi could not be more thrilled and has actually set up a whole house for Kirsten in her room (read that as TOTALLY destroyed her room that I spent a day cleaning) and has actually been playing with her.
Who knew?
I know, that sounds just plain WRONG, doesn't it?
I have two girls, and about 100 dolls. Really. It's like people think, "What should I get for ....-oh, I know, a DOLL". For Sari, that's a match made in heaven. She LOVES dolls. But Mimi, well, she's never really been into them. Except one type, and that I am sure is due to the peer pressure of all her friends being into this doll. That would be the American Girl dolls. Now for those of you who don't know, American Girl dolls are dolls based on specific time periods and each doll has a series of books about the girl they represent and what it was like to live then. And they are CRAZY expensive. Like $100 a doll. Made even more ridiculous by the fact that although the girls on the book covers all have a unique look, the dolls all have the SAME FACE. At least $100 My Twinn dolls actually have several different faces so your dolls can really look like what they are meant to look like. But I digress...
The maker of American Girl Dolls was smart. They have huge stores where you can go to tea with your doll and buy matching outfits, etc. They also recognize that well loved dolls don't last forever (although for $100 they ought to have parts made of titanium). So they have the American Girl Doll Hospital. Yes, you can send your ailing doll back to then, for a not-so-nominal fee, and have it repaired and returned to you good-as-new...at least for a few months until she becomes "well-loved" again.
Mimi has a Kirsten doll. She got it from her Nana and PopPop when she was THREE-because what 3 year old shouldn't have their own $100 doll? And although it sat fairly neglected for a LONG time, once her friends started getting into them and getting their own American Girl dolls, Kirsten saw a small amount of play (Mimi just really isn't that into dolls unless friends are around). Then one day about 2 years ago, Kirsten's leg FELL OFF. Really. Now I'm thinking that shouldn't be able to happen on a $100 doll, but alas it did. And since our local library had an American Girl Doll Club every month, Mimi had a constant reminder of her doll's injured status (for me, it was under a pile of dryer lint and assorted other goodies rescued from the washer and so it was out of mind) and she BEGGED me to send it to the AGD Hospital. But the cost on that is $24 for limb reattachment AND $6.95 for shipping you back the doll-not to mention the cost of shipping the doll to THEM.
NOT. Happening.
Even with the perks, as explained on the website:
Within two weeks, you can welcome her home:
- 18” American Girl dolls return with a hospital gown, an ID bracelet, a Certificate of Good Health, a “get well” balloon, and a band-aid sticker
So there she sat, getting more and more lint covered :-(. Until the other day Mimi again BEGGED me to send her in. I explained that the cost really didn't fit in with the 31 days of nothing, not to mention that it wasn't likely to happen while I was still drawing breath...But what do you do with a one legged $100 doll? You make a song about it! Marie's kids and mine made up a song about Mimi's one legged one hundred dollar doll...and maybe that was what chipped away at my resolve enough to look into more economically feasible solutions.
SO I did what I do for everything these days...I search the internet. And found THIS site. It laid everything out for us. I got all the parts that night (using a bungee cord in place of the elastic cord they suggested since I couldn't find anything else and the bungee cord was the exact same size).
For 30 minutes the next morning, we did "surgery" on Kirsten. We took off her head, took out all her fluff, fixed the broken limb, put her back together, and magic erased some of the dirt off her body, and voila! A brand new Kirsten for $5 instead of $50. Mimi could not be more thrilled and has actually set up a whole house for Kirsten in her room (read that as TOTALLY destroyed her room that I spent a day cleaning) and has actually been playing with her.
Who knew?
Comments
My girls both have AGDs and have pretty much NEVER played with them. I make them keep the dolls hair braided so that they at least stay looking nice but it was disappointing that they never really got into them.
Way to go mom !!!