If someone had told me that not only would my daughter's favorite playthings be her dolls, but that this 'phase' would last for years, I would have thought them nutso. I've mentioned before how curious her love of dolls is to me. So when The Girl told me that all she wanted for her birthday was to go to the American Girl Store in Dallas and have lunch with her dolls, I was perplexed. Was I really going to take her all the way to Dallas? To have lunch with her dolls? She wasn't going for my usual conversational tools of redirection and compromise. In other words, she wanted nothing to do with my idea to have a special dinner with her dolls at our house or at a restaurant here in the ATX. She wanted to go where EVERYone was having lunch with their favorite dolls...where it isn't odd...as a matter of fact it's expected. Working on the theory that she won't want to play with dolls forever, we decided to make a quick family trip of it. Using an online hotel booking site, I scored an unbelievably sweet rate at a fancy schmancy hotel across from the AG store and we were on our way.
Luckily, it was all she had imagined and more. She had perma-grin for a solid two three hours...even through the sub-par food at lunch and the comings and goings of tons of girls that were there for a book signing with the author of the Rebecca book series. There was no dampening her spirits. After lunch, I basically just followed her around the store as she told me stories and showed me all of her favorite things.
We headed home directly after we left the store. The drive home took us about 4 hours, which gave me plenty of time to ponder if it was all worth it. Once we arrived home, she carried her dolls upstairs, grabbed her others from her room and promptly set up a classroom on my bed, where she played with them for hours until she finally curled up and fell asleep. So, I'm going to say yes, it was worth it. Memories made, and all that...
* The Boy deserves special credit for coming along on this little adventure without any complaints or demands of his own. Score one for maturing teenagers.
** There's not much sweeter than looking over at your man as he has lunch his daughter and her dolls. Score one for the Papas too.
*** I realize doll pictures are a little creepy, but there's really no getting around it when the subject matter is about dolls.