Toy review: Corolle's Calin dolls vs Corolle's Tidoo

Our Lucy just turned 3 yesterday, she's the 3rd of my 4 girls, and guess what, her big birthday request was - a baby doll!  I've written before about our journey in finding the the most cuddly, cutest and sweetest smelling dolls for my two, and about choosing between American Girl's Bitty Baby and Corolle's Bebe Do, and now apparently the journey continues!
At 3, Lucy's not quite big enough for a 14 inch baby doll, the 12 inch dolls seemed to suit her better when we went to 'try on dolls' at our favorite doll and toy store, The Doll Hospital and Toy Soldier Shop.  We looked everything over carefully and decided to choose between Corolle's Tidoo dolls and Corrole's Calin dolls, both styles are 12" dolls.

Here are the Tidoos...

Tidoo Graceful

Tidoo Lutin Bright

Tidoo Raspberry

Tidoo Turquoise

Tidoo Strawberry

Corolle's Tidoo is adorable, and comes in lot's of different outfits to choose from  - but - Tidoo is a doll that can go in the tub(!) and is meant to dry quickly, so: all the Tidoos are 'crunchy' feeling because their bodies are stuffed with what feels like styrofoam to me, (which we think is a total bummer!) so the Tidoo gets a thumbs down.  :(

So which to choose, Carming Pastel Calin (in pink) or Sky Calin (in blue)?

Wait, not so fast!  There's MORE than that! There were more than one pink Calins, one comes in a striped cotton jersey outfit and another comes in a pink velour.  And there's also an adorable (if pouty) Asian Calin, and almost all of the Calins had teeth!!! Teeth? Yup, two front teeth that are painted and part of the lip sculpt, which seemed to me to interfere with the charm and play opportunities of the doll - I mean, could the doll take a pacifier or bottle  into it's mouth with those teeth?  Not really.  And not all of the dolls' teeth were painted very well...Hmmm.

The Calins....

Laughing Flowers Calin

                                                         Calin Yang

                                                             Sky Calin

                                                  Charming Pastel Calin

                                                             Sorbet Calin

Ok, so here's what we decided: we choose the Sky Calin which is the 'boy' dressed in blue, because he was the only Calin that comes with a pacifier and a mouth sculpt of a slightly open mouth, sans teeth, and meant to take a pacifier.   So, super cute face sculpt, but dressed all in blue.  A boy doll, for sure.

"Do you want a baby boy baby doll, Lucy?"  

"No. "

"But you LIKE baby boys, Lucy, and he could be the baby brother!"

Um, OK, I want TWOOOOOOO babies!  A boy AND a girl Mama! TWOOOOO!"

Um, OK, No.

maybe Santa will bring a twin at Christmas, but 2 dolls right now? No.  Daddy would have a fit.

So, figuring the girl was the birthday girl's 1st choice and a boy would be second, we added on a 12" Corolle doll outfit in pink(!)  and also a feeding set,  and then I dressed the Sky Calin in pink, saving the blue outfit for some other day, and wrapped it all up prettily and we were done. (I mean done with the doll acquisition   There were a few other toys to get still - and I wanted to finish the Snow White playset I was making  (that'll make it's way into a blog soon...) But yikes, buying quality is not cheap.  At least the store has sales often and we saved 15%, so it wasn't tooooo bad.

Anyhow, the birthday girl was very Happy.  And see what good size the doll is for this newly 3 yr old girl?  I think it's a good fit.

 And named her new baby 'Lizzie' right away.  Welcome home, Lizzie!

Corolle's feeding set, love the 'magic' milk! Also comes with a spoon and pretend orange juice, not pictured.

:)

What are those toys up to today?

Found this going on in Big Sister's dollhouse this morning! :D

Mmmm! Donuts! Hope they remembered Daddy likes extra cream in his coffee!

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.