People who know me well know that I am not a big fan of dolls. As a child I really did not know what to do with a doll except for cutting her hair, which was usually a once in a doll’s-life experience.
Nowadays, my daily conversations consist of at least 20 percent doll-talk. And this percentage will probably increase by 60 percent in the upcoming years.
Julie has a doll, her name is ‘Dot’ and she treats her as if she is her own daughter. I sometimes feel as if she is doing a better job as a mom than myself. She can stay in her playroom for hours talking to her doll, feeding her, changing her nappies (every five minutes) and changing and ironing her clothes. Every set of clothes has its own story. A bathing-suit can be worn to swimming class, a dress with marine-stripes is for a glamorous boat trip and of course she has pyjamas for bedtime.
The pyjamas for bedtime are extremely important to Julie. Every day before we take the children upstairs for a bath, Julie goes into the playroom to undress her doll and put on her pyjamas.
A few days ago, she was busy with this whole changing ritual when Jorn called her and told her to come upstairs immediately (she had been ignoring him for about ten minutes already, so his voice sounded a bit annoyed). Julie started crying and went completely nuts. I asked her what was wrong and she told me while sobbing: “Dot is not ready for bed, I didn’t have enough time to put her pyjamas on”. So, in order to avoid a big drama I immediately said: “No worries, I will take care of her when you are in bed”. Julie went upstairs and pointed her finger at me when she was halfway up the stairs: “Make sure Dot is dressed for bed properly, she can’t stand the cold”. And up she went.
Now, you might think: “Ah, well, she’ll probably forget about it”. No! Trust me, Julie doesn’t forget important things like these!
When she was sitting in the bathtub, Julie asked me: “How’s Dot? Is she in bed wearing her pyjamas?”
My answer was: “No, I’ll do it later when you are in bed”
The moment she went to bed she asked me again: “Did you put on Dot’s pyjamas?”
I replied: “No, as you know, I was with you the whole time, but trust me, I will put her pyjamas on later”
So, after bathing all the children, putting them in bed, reading them a story, singing them a song, folding all the laundry, I finally went downstairs.
And there I was, tired and hungry (we usually have dinner when the children are in bed) standing next to our changing table with Dot in one hand and a diaper, a romper and her pyjamas in the other. One might think I should by now have enough experience to finish the job in a blink of an eye. However, it took me at least 15 minutes to get Dot dressed and to put her in her tiny doll bed! Trust me, it really takes a professional to put on these diapers, rompers and pyjama’s: nothing really fits and the doll doesn’t exactly cooperate.
Jorn started laughing when he saw me struggling with the fake diaper. He mumbled: “I knew you had a secret love for dolls after all!”.
It was the first time that I was actually ‘playing’ with a doll. I can’t say that I was really enjoying it, but the smile on Julie’s face the next morning when she came downstairs was priceless and almost worth the effort 😉
Outfit Julie: Levi’s Shirt Dress and Tiny Cottons Leggings.
Find it on the Melijoe website by clicking here.