Sunday, December 9, 2007

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Posting about my awesomely rad fur coat the other day made me start reminiscing about my childhood. I was a little bit of a contradiction even back then. I was kind of tomboy but definitely loved my girly stuff.

My brother is 6 1/2 years older than I am, and of course I always wanted to be doing what he and his friends were doing, which meant that I had to be rough and tumble girl -- and I have the scars to prove it! In fact, the second time I had to have stitches after playing with my brother, my mom told him that if I had to have stitches again and it was his fault, he was going to have to get the same number in the same place whether he needed them or not. Brilliant threat = no more stitches for ME!!

BUT, I also had my box of dress up clothes. This was in the days before the Disney Princess marketing extravaganza started, so there were no princess dresses in my costume repertoire -- only castoff dresses of my mom's, some of my old tap/ballet costumes, my mother's belly dancing costume (this requires a post in and of itself -- remind me!), and a gorgeous pink, dotted Swiss dress that my mom made for me. I was ALWAYS in costume. One of my favorites was a navy blue polyester dress that had a full, pleated, circle skirt. When I twirled around in that thing, I could get full expansion of the pleats and have that thing spinning in a complete circle around me.

But oddly enough I was never really into dolls. I had some Barbies and I would play with them sporadically. When the Cabbage Patch Kids came along I HAD TO HAVE one (Angus Alfred, is in fact, featured on this page. Try not to stare, he seems to have picked up some kind of skin condition over the years.). But most of my dolls got short shrift. The family joke about me is that all of my dolls usually ended up naked, in a box, under my bed.

Except Audrey. Audrey was a favorite of mine. My family likes to joke it was because you couldn't get her completely undressed. But Audrey met with a little...um...accident.





















See, Audrey got left on top of a heater. And her hair, being the lovely auburn plastic strands that they were , melted so that it stands STRAIGHT UP on top of her head. As a child I did everything I could to get her hair to lay down. I wet it. I combed it. I cut it. I put barrettes in it only to have them fwwwwp stand straight up, still clasped firmly on her hair. I honestly can't even remember what Audrey looked like in her BEFORE state. I can only remember her after.

Anyway, she was one of the few dolls that didn't end up naked under my bed. Maybe it was because she was a challenge!

Over the past couple of days, I noticed something around our house. See if you notice anything. Take a look at this:

And this:

Notice a pattern?


And last but not least:


Nature vs. nurture? No contest. It's in her genes, baby!

14 comments:

1blueshi1 said...

oh so cute!!! I was completely obsessed with dolls and Barbies as a child (I did not tap into the shoe obsession until I began to wear heels every day in my early twenties). and so is Miss Bookey. except she got the shoe thing early. I still have some of my Barbies and dolls and of course that is all the Bookster wants for Christmas. the Belle teapot party doll and the Strawberry Shortcake doll. as I write this her Pinkie Pie baby MLP is wrapped in her baby blanket "asleep" on her pillow. say it with me, awwwww!

ImpostorMom said...

Is it just me or does Audrey seem to have very short arms and very large feet? Maybe it's the picture. :P

Most of my barbies ended up with hair cuts and "make up" in the form of markers. I was never a girly girl.

Karen said...

I would way rather see naked dolls than naked Barbies. Those things should have their underwires permanently wired on.

Karen said...

Oh, and Alexis's shirt is still available in the store if you want to check it out.

Angie McCullagh said...

Hee. The same thing happens to Kitty Cat's dolls.

Also, I had Audrey's sisters: Jenny and Julie. I so remember those Fisher Price girls.

Angie
(www.AllAdither.com)

Anonymous said...

Little Audrey looks like evil Chuckie's twin sis - no offense. But that is funny your daughter is following in your footsteps. My daughter can't walk and talk at the same time without walking into a wall. Guess who she takes after?!

Leandra said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Madame Queen said...

Impostor Mom -- I did the SAME thing with one of my Barbies. I gave her a punk haircut and put marker makeup all over her face. She was the "bad girl" in the `hood.

Karen -- I wouldn't post naked Barbie pictures on the net for fear of being labeled obscene!! :)

All Adither -- I didn't even know Audrey HAD sisters. Now I'm going to have to go to the internets and see if I can find them.

Burgh Baby said...

I was never into dolls as a kid (although I did insist on joing the Cabbage Patch rage). However, I did like to torture other people's dolls. I wish I had known how damaging a heater could be, I totally would've gone for it.

I love the photos of the naked dolls! It kind of makes me feel better about the fact that the first thing Alexis does to every doll she touches is strip it. I would have never anticipated the amount of naked bum that hangs out at our house these days.

Laurel said...

Audrey is the scariest doll I have possibly ever seen. No offense, but really, frightening.

Mir said...

Dude, Audrey is the Heat Miser!!

Esme said...

That's so funny!

I wasn't a doll girl, but loved my stuffed animals. I kept worrying that my dollies would come alive and walk around at night -- freaked me right out.

I did dye my one, lone Barbie Doll's hair using the hairdye I found in my mom's bathroom cabinet. It turned her hair green. So I snuck into the laundry room, poured some straight bleach into a cup, and soaked Barbie's head in it.

Her whole face came off. And her hair got all pale and fuzzy. I was horrified -- I abandoned her on the floor of my bedroom, shut the door, and went downstairs to pretend nothing had happened...

When I came back upstairs, her Clorox-ed head had burned a hole through my bedroom rug. The hole is still there to this day.

Tootsie Farklepants said...

I was all about the baby dolls as a little girl. I loved clothes too much to let them go nekkid, but I did change them OFTEN.

Wineplz said...

ha! we have a friend with a little girl who also has a nice collection of naked baby dolls. She even left one at our house a few weeks after Cooper was born...although we didn't know it for a few days (it rained...see link to picture):
http://www.justinrummel.com/News/article/sid=258.html

also, I'm convinced that I only gave birth to boys because my husband is terrified of dolls and wouldn't be able to handle us having a girl and baby dolls. I bought one for the Angel Tree at my sons' daycare and he couldn't stand that it was in the house for a few days before I brought it in.