Get her karate lessons. That will make her a more disciplined child and you friend Bob will thank you again when she starts dating.
OK, who else read creepy-smart and pictured Calvin and the snowmen???
If she does dolls go American Girl. Hop on the site, its great. (www.americangirl.com) There is even a nice coffee colored one (Josefina, the one I own actually) as well as all sorts of create your own mix from the American Girl of Today part. This also gives you a chance to buy more AG stuff for teh rest of time as it is addicting as heroin. (We won’t discuss how much of my summer paycheck went to AG. Lets just say that my own Josefina has a nice wardrobe and owns more furniture than I do.)
I would suggust getting a historical doll, to assuage the sterotype and get a little education in there, and a modern outfit. The kereoke outfit is a great night out/party/dress up outfit if she does the Barbie thing. (purple satin with glittery butterflies!) I’m pretty casual so I don’t have many fancy things for Josefina.
And on a semi related note, AG has come out with these Illuma Room things that have no people! You just put tiny furniture in your little blank room and it sits there. I can think of no better starter for a Stephen King novel than this toy. “Mommmy, I need the Beary Little things set…no, please mommy, you don’t understand, I need it, if I don’t have it…no, no, don’t leave me alone in here, no please…” I’m serious, these things scare me, just looking at them. I’ll stick to my doll.
And the AG dolls are so pretty, I’m sure she could never see them as evil. (I did stoires and politcial plots too. Stuffed animals have lives, just like the rest of us. That may be scarier than Illuma-Rooms)
Inky-
As a coffee colored child myself, if you look in the Barbie isle for “Teresa” (the hispanic, therefor darker brunette Barbie) you should be quite the kickin’ uncle.
I remember my first PC Barbie. I was in college.
Speaking as a former girly-boy… Damn, I just realized I used to have this dollhouse. Not just any old dollhouse: it was wood, and it looked home-made, but really well-decorated, which was infinitely cooler than any plastic thing from the store, all of which were pink anyway. It had little wooden furniture, too. And no dolls; the point was just to arrange the furniture. (Add another one to the “early signs of upcoming faggotry” list.) Where the hell did that thing go?
Doll houses are okay, they are complete. But one single room with no windows or doors? I’m telling you, scary, scary, scary…
I was thinking of Teresa, too. She’s very pretty.
Medea-you should see my room. Wall to wall dolls. Barbies, dolls from the movies Anastasia, Star Wars, the Little Mermaid, and two Titanic dolls-one from Galoob, and the special Portrait Doll from the Franklin Mint…and I’m getting all the outfits that go with her! I am SUCH a doll freak, it’s pathetic!
As I kid, I adored Barbie…I also think there’s a doll called My Twinn, which you can have made to order, to look just like you!
http://www.mytwinn.com/default.asp?epartner_id=
And then there are Smarties, which are Barbie like dolls with careers and college degrees. THey are very cute and VERy educational!
I had a big dollhouse I got as a kid, and it’s still up in our attic. Someday, I’ll pass it on to my little girl, but ONLY if she’s very careful with it.
Oh, and there’s a new American Girl doll…my sis still gets the catalogs occassionally (she read the books, but never had the dolls, except for the Molly paper dolls)…they’re neat! You can also have a custom one made here, too. And you can order the dresses that your doll wears for your child to wear! Neat…they’re sooooo pretty!
What I do is give them money for a shopping spree when they reach 5. They love doing that. Usually $5 for each year of age but you could do $50/year.
Sorry, I’m having a Dave Barry moment here, but “Rubber Snake and his Sock Monkey Clan” would be an excellent band name…
jr8
Medea-you have an AG? Do you have it at your dorm?
I HEART dolls…I can’t wait to get the next installment from the Franklin Mint for my Rose Doll. So far, I have the red and black beaded dress she came in, from the Suicide scene, and the purple striped boarding suit.
Next is the Flying Suit, the blue velvet and white lace one, and then the Pink and White and Purple sinking dress.
They’re also going to have:
The pink and black beaded dinner gown
the yellow and white embroidered deck dress, from the spitting scene
The corset
the white lace nightgown when Cal gives her the Heart of the Ocean, which I HAVE to get for my doll too.
The yellow lace dress she wears when she’s eating breakfast with Cal
the flowy kimono worn during the drawing scene
the greenish and cream lace dress from the lunch scene, when Jack first sees her.
The pink coat with the black embroidery that she wears during the sinking
even the black and white Elevator scene dress…that you only catch a brief glimpse of…I have a picture of it, if you’re lost
and hopefully, the white lace and beaded Heaven dress from the end…
I LOVE my dolls…
I’ve got one thing to say- ZanyBrainey
Everything in that catalog is way too cool. They’ve got a ton of stuff for the creative/bright child- it sounds like Mia would love their toys. If you see the “holiday gift guide 2000” check out the back cover…
Sky Magic AirMaze $199.99
“…magical and fantastic inflatable environment… includes three play pods, three tunnels and entryway… Sizes range from 3’ in diameter for a single module to 15’x 20’ at it’s largest.” (ages 5+)
check 'em out at http://www.zanybrainey.com
I don’t mean to sound like a commercial, but they are just too neat…
Guin. Of course Josefina is here. With all of her clothes, and about a quarter of her furniture. (Her bedroom set and two of her trunks and her patio chair. The full patio set had to stay home.) She’s currently in her ‘clubbing’ outfit (the keroke one I talked about earlier, it being just after a weekend and all…)
I go for the stuff I would wear, usually. (Sometimes I like putting her things I would never wear, just because I can. I need Addy’s chocolate plaid dress though.) So usually Josefina can be found chilling in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, or overalls and birkenstocks. I do have the karate outfit, and several of my more favorite of the historical outfits, because they are simply too pretty. (and so is she. Josefina is beautiful…)
The new AG doll is Kit, from the 20’s. Adorable with short blond hair!
I’m much more of a stuffed animal person than dolls. I have a doll. One. Josefina. I was unimpressed with dolls as a little girl and there was an instance where a teeny bopper babysitter paid my little sisters to find our Barbies so she could play with them. My family was never big on dolls. Then we found American Girl. We will never be the same. I bought Josephina for me when I was 17. I bought my mother Samantha this last summer. (My sisters have Molly and a blond AG of Today.) We throw overnights. We go camping. Josefina gets letters c/o me from the other dolls. The only things on my Christmas list are for her. Its bad.
This had me absolutely rolling under my desk laughing, thank god the boss is gone. And I conjured up images of a female Calvin too.
- Does anyone else feel like this thread is a direct retaliation for the Transformers thread? You girls had the lamest toys!
I didn’t have lame toys. I had real toys. Power tools, knives, and a chemistry set ‘augmented’ by things my father thought were absolutely needed. Toys are things like dry cell batteries where you take them apart with a screwdriver and use the innards to make volatile compunds. Or making a logic probe so you can test your binary logic. And reading Kipling to the assorted stuffed animals (Tigger gets real nervous about The Jungle Book, but oh well…)
I miss being a kid.
Why would anyone want some girl’s five-year-old butt plug?
Actually, you know what? Don’t answer that.
She sounds very creative, and I think she should be making movies of her little dramas with the stuffed animals.
Get her a video camera and tapes. I believe I’ve seen some that are meant for kids – they may not have super high quality resolution, but she won’t care.
If she’s too young to handle that, then get her a ‘stage’ setup: stands that hold a curtain rod, and a curtain, perhaps a small dias to act as the stage. I’m sure there are miniatures available.
The parent’s will be thrilled that you’re encouraging her to pursue the meaningful, well-paying, glamorous, and success-filled career of ‘Actress’. No, really, they will. They didn’t really want her to be a scientist, or engineer. Honest.
Razor scooter…you know one of those fold up things with the bright colored wheels. All the kids have one or want one now. We got my son’s at Toys R Us for about 50 bucks.
If she’s a little scary and smart why not a one of those V Tech computer things that teach. My son has one of those too. They come in different skill levels and price ranges. Most have number games, word and letter games as well as song games on them.
I also buy the kids art or craft kits. Much easier than just buying them supplies. Although now that they are older I do that too. At her age she should be coordinated enough to do bead art, or paint sun catchers, there is a lot of craft things out there in kit form.
You might also get her a set of books. I’ve done this often with the kids. Bought them boxed sets such as the “Anne of Green Gables” series. One year I gave my friends child a book on origami and some paper.
If she likes dolls you might start her a collection of porcelain dolls. You know fancy dolls not generally for playing with but for collecting.
You might also give her a minature vanity, something that appeals to her “grown up like mommy” side. Little girls like things like that too. Or a trunk of dress up costumes. One company used to make things like that, I bought my daughter a trunk one year that had 3 costumes that came with it.
Needs2know
*For example, Raggedy Ann is simply not speaking with Rainbow Brite this week due to some harsh words Miss Brite directed towards Fireman Dalmatian, who had once rescued Raggedy from Stuffed Alligator. In retaliation, Rainbow has started snuggling up to Rubber Snake in an attempt to form a strategic social alliance with Rubber Snake and his Sock Monkey Clan (despite SMC’s history of good relations with Fireman Dalmatian). *
Based on this may I point out that I, Claudius has recently been released on DVD. She sounds like she would love it.
Well, I’m sold. This year Mia is getting the American Girl Josephina doll and a fistful of the books. That is, if I can manage to navigate my way through AG’s buggy online order form (sheesh, what a mess. I’ll phone it in after work). It actually looks very much like her, the difference being that Mia has a slight wave to her hair and, in my opinion, is the prettiest doll of all.
I just want to thank you all for the ideas, especially Medea . Chances are if you hadn’t mentioned the right doll by name I wouldn’t have waded through the site looking.
I remember listening to a This American Life story about the lengths little girls go trying to emulate their AG dolls. Lord only knows what can of worms I’m opening, but there are worse things to emulate I suppose (a certain diabolical stuffed alligator springs to mind).
As for the revolver, I think it can wait until she starts dating.