Ceddie Has a New Sister

I had been keeping an eye out for a sister for Ceddie, even though I knew I could never find anyone as adorable as Ced. Day before yesterday, though, I noticed a new doll sitting on the shelf in the Girls Toys section who was unusually pretty. She was all vinyl and on the back of her head was 2000 Unimax. I had never heard of Unimax. I thought about her all day. I told myself she was just a vinyl doll, nothing special. But she was awfully pretty. At one point she disappeared and I thought "Good, someone bought her," but a little later I found her dumped upside down into a rolling cart across the store. I took her back to the Toys section and put her underneath the stuffed animals where no one would find her.

She is wearing a dress that was obviously not made for her, but it looks very
nice on her. It has matching bloomers.

Now I had to decide if I should try to buy her that day or wait until Friday when the Good Supervisor was working. The supervisor that day was a new one who is trying very hard to follow all the rules, and one of the rules is that employees have to wait 2 days after a product is put out to buy it. I just knew someone would find and buy my dolly so I decided to give it a try. The NS (New Supervisor) balked at letting me buy anything, because we aren't supposed to buy things during our shift. But the Former Supervisor told her that evening shift people were allowed to buy on their breaks, because they couldn't very well buy things after the store closed. So she said okay and luckily never even thought to check the date, which is coded and requires some thought to decipher.

Ceddie seems to like his sister. She is obviously older than he is so he's still the baby.

"Look, we both fit in this basket with our teddies!"

I think I am going to name her Alexandra but it's not definite yet.

After much Googling, I have determined that she is an Anne Geddes Daffodil Baby or Bee Baby. I am glad she wasn't wearing either outfit or I might have dismissed her out of hand when I saw her. She has very nice glass eyes.

With her bent knees and arms, her body has Ceddie's "frog" look.

Meanwhile, I have not neglected (very much) Sunny. We found two raincoats for our girls at one of the thrift stores.

"Sunny, what are raincoats for?" "I don't know, Mendoza, but Auntie
gave me this wonderful apron."

It's not likely they will ever need them, but it never hurts to be prepared. We are going to set up a scene in Auntie Berman's shed where they can have their own furniture and toys.

You know how I wasn't going to get any more bears? Well, what would you do if you were in the Goodwill Bargain Bin and Auntie Berman spotted a Paddington? And the very next week at Salvation Army you found another Paddington? I think we know what you would do.

The first is an older Eden Paddington from 1975, still with his original tag (but missing his hat). The second is also Eden brand but from 1983. (Paddington put on a little weight between 1975 and 1983.) We have lots of felt and can make them new hats. The second Paddington's hat is torn and has autographs written on it.

The older one is unable to stand on his own.

And then I saw a couple of other bears that needed rescuing.

The right-hand bear was obviously much loved.

Now I must get ready for work, because who knows what (or who) is waiting for me there!

American Girl Fever

A while back I got Barbie Fever, after thinking it could never happen to me. Now I have American Girl Fever, again after never thinking it could happen to me. It just goes to show: Never say never!

It started a few weeks ago when I found a Josefina American Girl doll at work, complete with her clothing (except for her shoes). I knew Auntie Berman liked her and had the Mini American Girl version of her. So I called her and asked if I should get her and of course the upshot was that I should. I think I got her for $1.50. Auntie Berman named her Mendoza, after the heroine of books by Kage Baker. I keep accidentally calling her Mendez.

But I like going barefoot.

The next day we had to go out thrifting and at a small shop, sitting on the bottom shelf of a bookcase, was a Kirsten doll! Auntie Berman used to have a Kirsten and I quickly talked her into getting her (for $1.00). Her legs were a bit floppy and her hair had been cut. I kept looking at her and thinking how pretty she was and decided that I, too, wanted an American Girl. So then we had to go to several more stores but couldn't find any AG dolls. The next day Auntie Berman went on an expedition of her own to try and find one, but with no luck.

My birthday was approaching and Auntie Berman, after realizing the futility of finding an AG at such short notice (and possibly realizing how daunting it would be to adopt two girls at once), made the sacrifice and decided to give me the Kirsten doll. When she first got the Kirsten, she had immediately sent off to ebay for a lovely pink dress with pinafore for her. Then, under the pretext of going to see a neighbor who was moving, she took the doll and went to her hairdresser, who trimmed dolly's hair, put it up in rollers, and fastened a lovely flowered barrette in her hair where the hair-chopping could not be fixed. And the hairdresser didn't charge her a thing, since it was such a fun project.

Look at my hair!

While I was at work, Auntie Berman came over and put the dolly on the shelf with my other dolls (not easy, she said--there was hardly room). Then she waited. I came home and went into my room a couple of times but simply did not see her. Auntie Berman had to suffer all evening, waiting for me to find her. At last, when I went to bed around midnight, I saw her! I was overwhelmed with her cuteness but it was so late I didn't call Auntie Berman. When I woke up in the morning I was again delighted, but I didn't know for sure if she was mine. I thought maybe Auntie Berman had just set her there to remind me that we were going to restring her legs. Auntie Berman said indignantly that she would never be so mean.

Best friends

Now I had to think of a name. Of course it had to be Scandinavian, since AG Kirsten is Swedish. When we were in junior high, we had a Norwegian PE teacher named Miss Skaarstad. She was called Sonny by her peers. A little googling revealed that her first name is actually Søgnhild, so that is what I named my dolly and we are calling her Sunny (because I like that better than Sonny). However, we still don't know exactly how to pronounce Søgnhild and if I ever have to yell at her, I won't quite know what to say.

(In case you are wondering what ever happened to Sunshine, the relentlessly cheerful doll, well, she had a leg operation that was not a success and she has gone to that great Dollhouse in the Sky.)

Now for the operation. I found instructions here. We assembled the parts and began. First we untied her neck strings and removed her head.

Then I pulled out all her stuffing. There was a lot.

We did not want to totally remove all her parts and use new elastic, so we decided to put the brass inserts over the ferules that were already there and then crimp them. They were very hard to crimp. I had to wait until HLP came home and have him do it. I wanted to tighten up her arms, too, so I used zip ties (an idea we got from another website) as inserts on her arm elastic. Then I restuffed her and tied her neck back on.

In the Recovery Room

Unfortunately I didn't tie her neck tie tightly enough and as I was picking her up to show Auntie Berman, her head fell off, which was a bit unnerving. Auntie Berman retied it for me.

Able to sit up and take nourishment

Mendoza and I can have a tea party!

I forgot to mention Auntie Berman's doll Delilah. She is a Fancy Nancy doll I found several months ago at my store. She had her original outfit on too.

Delilah in her butterfly dress and polka dot pants

Now we are all exhausted, but happy.