Toy Review: American Girl dolls vs. Corolle dolls

Ok.  There are a lot of dolls in my house.  A LOT.  (and a lot of kids, too, a half dozen! - so hopefully that explains the abundance of toys and dolls.)  :)

I think, for as long as I've been a mother, I've been looking for the cutest, cuddliest, sweetest smelling, nicest dressed dolls I can find.  And I have found some very nice ones! Then at some point my husband declared enough was enough.  I agreed.  And yet, when a 4th birthday loomed on the horizon for Olivia, (who has been especially envious and covetous of big sister's American Girl doll Julie), I thought we should get her an American Girl Bitty Baby.  It made sense, in a way, to give her a baby doll, since we have a new (real) baby in the house, even though we already have baby dolls aplenty.  (See honey, I do know!) Really.
But an American Girl Bitty Baby baby doll would be extra super dooper special, right?
Known for their high quality and purportedly the 'perfect size' for 3 and 4 yr olds, Bitty Baby seemed the way to go. So I ordered the red head Bitty Baby with gray blue eyes. (We didn't have a red-headed doll yet was my reasoning, plus our real baby's downy fluff looks a bit gingery to me).

Well....when it arrived, I was surprised by the flatness of it's face sculpt, and the pallor of it's face and limbs.  Lifelike it wasn't.  Her clothes were lovely, though.  As was the fun, pretend baby monitor I'd ordered.  American Girl really does an outstanding job with their doll accessories and doll clothing.
But the doll.  Hmm.  15 inch Bitty Baby just simply was not as cute and cuddly as one of the dolls we already own; specifically 14 inch Corolle's Bebe Do.

Now, our Corolle Bebe Do doll has not been given the love she deserves in our house, nope.  I think I bought her 3 years ago and so, for 3 years she has mostly laid in a doll crib in the playroom, seemingly ignored.  Sometimes I'd find her one white plush outfit removed, but I never saw her in the dolly highchair being 'fed', never saw her at a 'tea party' with the other dolls, never helped her into a carrier on my girl's back - why?  Surely not for lack of cuteness!? Or cuddliness!?

I asked Big Sis (age 7.5) what she thought of the Bitty Baby doll vs. the Bebe Do doll - and shockingly (she's an American Girl doll lover), she agreed with me, that the Corolle Bebe Do was actually 'cuter', more life-like and cuddlier!  She gave both dolls many squeezes and hugs and finally sniffed both doll's heads - "this doll smells better too", she said.  Huh.  Our 3 yr old Corolle still smells faintly of the vanilla scent Corolle uses in their doll-making.  It never was an overpowering scent, and I am sensitive to such things...and she was right, the Bitty Baby did not smell quite as good.  And our birthday girl is all about things smelling good!

I think Bitty Baby has no really discernible smell, just a faint sort of new car kind of smell...but...Bebe Do did smell 'better', kind of like a freshly bathed real baby.
Hmmm.  Look at the difference in hand sculpts! I love Bebe Do's delicate fingers and oooh those babylicious lips! Overall, I find Bebe Do has a more delicate appearance, and a more finessed sculpt, whereas Bitty Baby's sculpt seems a bit clumsy and unrefined.  I keep thinking poor Bitty Baby is going to need braces for that underbite when she grows up.  ;) 
 
I firmly believe that "The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst beautiful things!" (supposedly Plato said that.)  Well, I say it, it helps me edit the house.    
                   
So here was my idea: return the American Girl Bitty Baby doll, clean up our Corolle Bebe Do doll, and use the return money to dress her up in cuter clothes, outfit her with some awesome accessories and see what happened....

Stay tuned, and I'll show you!
:)

Happy Valentine's Day!

What says Valentine's more than a cupcake paper garland? Uh, maybe actual cupcakes and some Valentines?  I better get crackin' while the kids who can read are at school!  By the time they get home I hope to have valentines and cupcakes AND cookies made! Yikes!  Happy Valentine's Day!  

 more pretty cupcake papers garlanding our kitchen window...

and some turtles in love... :D

Old toys made new - Vintage Fisher Price Pull-a-Long Lacing Shoe

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe...She had so many children she didn't know what to do!

See the old woman in the shoe? :)

So she gave them some broth and she gave them some bread, 

and she gave them all kisses and sent them to bed.*

Here is one of my favorite things to do - to make old toys new again, and fun again, for my kids. And for me I suppose! So here is a vintage Fisher Price Lacing Shoe.  I love the old graphics on the litho stickers -but- the peg people that originally came with the shoe were not my cup o' tea. And this is the old woman with soooo many children, right?! Yet originally this set came with only 5 'children', one of which was a dog?!
Ha.  Ok, so since I have 6 kids, my old woman has 10 kids.  Because 10 is 'so many', right?   And they are numbered underneath, for little learners, and also because that was fun and also because it helps me know who is missing after my kids are done with playtime and we are cleaning up.  "Kids, number 5 is missing! It's one of the middle kids, a boy - let's find him!" and somehow, we do find him - the 2 yr old running around saying "Boy, boooy, where AAHHHH yooooou???"  and then we  find him under a couch cushion. Fun.  Now, does this old woman yell or spank or become impatient with sooo many children and all their wily ways? Heck no. She's a real sweetie.  She does send them to bed, though.
Here's one way the original toy looked (notice the graphics feature block people ) :

and here's a different version: (I love these graphics, just not the block people)

and lastly above here's a modern version available today! And look, they kept the old graphics that I like!  Hmm - was nearly tempted to buy this but nah.  For $34 where's the old woman? And you only get 2 kids? Huh? how does that even make sense?  And goodness, ok, these are not choking hazards, so that's good, but good golly these 'little people' are HUGE!





 Well, I'm pleased with how mine turned out.  Glad  I put the time in instead of the money forked out.  Now if we could just find number 9?  "Ooooh Booooooooyy? Where ARE you?! Oh THERE you are boy! Time for bed!"
;D

* original nursery rhyme: There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn't know what to do.  So she gave them some broth, without any bread and she spanked them all soundly and sent them to bed.  

Oh dear.

snuffly snorty baby nose...

Baby was a fitful sleeper last night...she's usually my buddy, my little warm bean and we sleep so nicely together...but last night I needed to be up and about - trying to finish up a special birthday T-shirt  and breakfast muffins and hang the birthday banners for my 6 yr old Birthday boy (!) and I needed Baby to sleep in her basinet - which she did, but fitfully.  Was she missing me? No.  Turns out, she was just trying to breathe, is all.  Boogers blocking the blow-hole.  Yup.  Happily, we own one of these:

Not for the faint of heart, but then, neither is motherhood! You put the mouthpiece in your mouth and suck the boogers right out of baby's nose!  Never fear, no boogers get anywhere near your mouth - they hardly even make it inside the chamber where the tissue is waiting, mostly they cling to the sides of the 'soft comfort nose tip' and then you need to take it apart and rinse it out.  But it WORKS, and I think it's worth a few minutes of gross-out cleaning so Baby can breathe.  Goodbye old nasal bulb, hello BabyComfyNose!
Does she love having her nose sucked out? No, she does not. She cries.  (Kind of a wimp, this kid) But this thing, this BabyComfyNose is gentle, (I tried it on my own nose, it really is gentle, probably just startles her a bit) and it really works, really cleared her right up so she could go back to sleep, (and breathe!) and I could finish my projects.  Hallelujah! 

Baby talk...so far so good.

So, I had another baby.  Yup, I made a real baby, not another doll, though she is a doll!  That makes 6. (So far.)  I'm amazed.  Here she is sleeping. On her stomach.  (Oh my goodness.)

Do I need to explain here why I put her on her stomach? You want to hear my reasons and rationale? Well,  aside from the fact that over the last century doctors kept changing their mind about whether stomach, side, or back sleeping was/is 'best' and I doubt we've heard the last of that debate, suffice it to say that she's on flat, smooth bedding, I'm never far from her, and this is how she prefers to sleep. Unless it's night, and we're co-sleeping (oh dear) - then she prefers to sleep with her cheek on my breast after nursing (oh for goodness sake).
That's right, that's how we roll around here.  Co-sleeping, exclusively nursing, belly-lying babies -  every last one of 'em.  Well, really, so far, so good.
Would you like to meet her? Here she is: Veronica Autumn Pelagia Sousanis.  7 weeks old. With a bow on top.

She nurses, and BURPS, and nurses some more.  I've FINALLY learned the burping is super important.  Only took about 4 babies to figure that one out.  (They need to be burped? But not if you're breastfeeding, right? Wrong. Burp the baby!) Right from the very first feeding.  Don't bang them on their back, just put the baby upright so the burp can work it's way out.  Pat gently, maybe.

The best burper in our house (and by this I mean the person who can get Baby to burp the fastest and best) is big sister Aurora.  She's 7.  Big for her age, and clever, and very compassionate with the baby - she can't stand to hear the baby cry, and loves loves loves to carry her around.
Here's big sister A wearing baby sister V in a wrap.  (I Love it!)

So far, so good.  Probably Aurora won't be able to do this much longer, as the baby grows, but for now, it sure is nice to have another back to strap the baby to - mine's aching! :)