The Doll Saga

When you think about having a second child you envision them playing together, loving each other, generally all round happiness. It seems I failed to think about the fighting. Oh the fighting. So, on that note, Nicole has a doll named Allison that cries and giggles. Julia really likes this doll. Nicole is rather possessive of the doll. I got tired of the screaming and yelling over the doll. So, being the good mom that I am, I decided that Julia should have her own crying and giggling doll. This lead us to make the biggest mistake any parent can make. We took them both to the toy store. I'm not sure why we thought this was a good idea, but it sounded fun. Even as an adult, I love the toy store. I love looking at all the new stuff and reminiscing over the old. I forgot that there is never time for reminiscing with children around. Anyway, we had warned Nicole that we were getting a doll for Julia, not for her. We did tell her we would get some new markers for her. Of course, when we got to the doll section Nicole decided she also needed a new doll (all parents reading this knew this was coming). She asked very nicely and was being really good, so we decided she could have a doll (and they were on sale, which always helps). Julia got a doll that coos and cries and makes sucking noises when you put a soother in the mouth. Her doll came with batteries in it, so she got to play with it on the drive home. Nicole got a doll that cries real tears. You feed her a bottle of water, then she cries tears. Then she goes to sleep. Her doll did not have batteries in it, nor did we have water for the bottle, so we had to wait until we got home to try it out. But she still got to hold it for the drive home. That was the most peaceful drive I've had in a while.

We got home and immediately hunted down some batteries and a tiny screwdriver (who designs these things anyway that you have to use an abnormally small screwdriver to open the battery case). We then filled the little bottle with water and proceeded to feed the baby, excited to see her cry. You'd think we wouldn't be that excited about a crying baby, after all, we've been through 2 real ones. But this one has an off button. Anyway, the baby would not drink the water! It just dripped down her face. We tried everything to get water into that thing. We finally determined that she was broken. It is unbelievably hard to explain to a 4 year old that their toy is broken and you are going to have to take it back. Real tears were certainly cried. But not by the doll.

The next day Mark and I raced to the toy store over lunch to exchange the doll. Luckily that was a very easy process. I was a bit worried that they would have a problem with the fact that we didn't have the box anymore. The box had gotten destroyed when removing the doll. I got tired of the 200 ties holding her in and tore the box. You'd think these toys come to life and try to get out with all the constraints. But the toy store didn't even blink an eye and gave us a replacement.

We got home and Nicole was excited to get her new doll. Again we filled the bottle. And (you saw this coming) again the baby did not drink!! At this point Mark and I think we must be incompetent. We tried pushing the bottle all the way in, just a little way in, and barely in. We tried sitting her up, lying her down, and somewhere in between. This doll just did not want to drink. I don't know what the deal is with this doll, but if 2 adults can't get this doll to drink, a 4 year old has no chance.

We still have the dud doll, but I guess we have to take her back. We won't be exchanging this for the same one, that's for sure. Maybe I'll get her a Barbie. They don't require batteries.