the great dolly hunt

I had no idea how hard it is to find the perfect dolly. Or perhaps, I had no idea how important it is to find the perfect dolly. Chickadee has been weighing and discussing the relative merits of dollies for days now. She is craving a side-kick dolly, you know, the dolly that stands in for a playmate.


Thus far Chickadee has decided that :: dolly needs to be a girl, not a baby, because dolly needs to take care of the house when we are gone.
:: dolly needs to have dark hair like Mama.
:: dolly needs to have green eyes like Chickadee and Mama.
:: dolly needs to have cute clothes.
So, we have been surfing for dollies.

We found this one, which she loves, but does not meet her criteria. It is interesting to watch her try to resolve her immediate affection for this dolly with her pre-established requirements. One of them is going to have to give. This is, btw, American Girl's Emily dolly.

In the meantime, I found Scarlett dollies (12-14 inches) from Madame Alexander which are dark-haired and green-eyed. There are many of them on eBay, so I am watching a batch to get a feel for the pricing.

But we must consider Dorothy (also from Madame Alexander), who is also darling, and comes with a puppy and sparkley shoes. Very hard to resist both a puppy and sparkly shoes. Oh sad, we just realized that she is only 8 inches, which is too small. We'll leave her here though, as she is so cute.

And then of course there is Edith, The Lonely Doll, who is 12", has a bear, and a series of books, starting with Edith and Mr. Bear.

Prior to the great dolly hunt, I knew nothing about Madame Alexander (1895-1990: two world wars and all this technology!).

Beatrice Alexander lived with her parents above her fathers’ doll hospital.
She was deeply touched by the young girls being upset and crying as their mothers brought them with their broken porcelain dolls to have them repaired. She was determined to make a doll that would never break. ~ Florida Atlantic Universities Library

According to Dollsville, her Dad founded the first dolly hospital in America and Beatrice was one of the first woman entrepreneurs, opening her doll business and launching Cissy, the first full-figured, high-heeled fashion doll in 1955, four years prior to Barbie.

As best I can tell, Madame Alexander has 1,000s of dolly off-spring. Some very upscale and pricey and some affordable ones available from Amazon and Target. Quite a few are the 'just for looking at' sort, which wouldn't work around here.

So far, this is our leading candidate, featuring blond (I guess Chickadee changed her mind) hair that can be styled -- big big selling point: may I introduce Madame Alexander's My Little Girl Style-Me-Pretty Blonde. Standing 14 inches high, wearing pink, and sporting hair that can be played with. I think she may be the one.

Oh no! more choices. I just found this one, an American Girl that looks like Chickadee curly blondy/light brown hair, green to hazel eyes, happy little face. What to do? What to do?

parenting