Back in college, our campus ministry put on a little production based on Marlo Thomas' Free To be You and Me. I actually haven't ever played a recording of this for the kids, but I really need to.
Anyway, one of the songs we performed was "William's Doll" (If you have never seen this and you have little boys, PLEASE take a few minutes to watch. It may even make you weep.)
Anyway, while we were at the Public Museum this past Monday for Labor Day festivities, the boys wanted to go into the "doll" room. In previous visits, they have avoided this room, saying it was "girlie" stuff, but this day they wanted to go check it out.
Aaron especially was fascinate
d. He even wanted to return to the room later when Steve and Noah were looking at a new exhibit.Aaron settled himself right down at the little table in the center of the little room and started serving tea with the little wooden tea set on the table.
The room has four walls all with displays of antique to more modern dolls. Some of them were so neat, and underneath were more cupboards and drawers to open to display even more dolls.
Aaron started opening cupboards randomly, but stopped short when he arrived at his favorite one. He LOVES fairy tales in general and just stared at the dolls of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.
Then he crossed over to the other side of the little room where a doll house was built into the cabinets. I sat down to play with him and learned quite a lot from listening to his commentary. Not to be outdone, big brother actually sat down and started playing with us.Being the mother of only boys, I have always tried to provide the boys with dolls and other "girlie" opportunities, mostly because of the song above (that I hope you've taken a couple of minutes to watch). Noah refuses to "do girlie stuff" but LOVES his stuffed animals as if they're alive and Aaron has actually asked for a Barbie for Christmas.
Not sure about the Barbie, but I really enjoyed watching the boys engage in another kind of play during our Doll Adventure.
Poll Just For Fun: How many of you thirty somethings out there remember the name of your Cabbage Patch Doll? Please leave me a comment and tell me.
P.S. Mine were Lavinia Ruby and Karina Gayle, thanks to my parents who bought a van just so I could get a Cabbage Patch Doll that year in the 80's when they first came out and were completely unavailable.
8 comments:
I had and still have now for Kate 3 Cabbage Patch dolls. Can't remember what I named them! My boys have dolls. Brett won't touch them and can't figure out why Parker and Crew like them but I love the video you posted...I might just borrow it for my blog.
Fun post!
I am not 30, but mine was Neil Simon and my brothers was Rex something or other.
Mine was Leila Serena (otherwise known as lumpy legs by my grandpa). I still have it and some of the clothes that my grandma made that matched my clothes.
I have always made girl stuff available to my boys, but they were truck and ball boys from birth.
I LOVE Free to Be you and me...
I have blogged about it before~;)
It is the one thing that really sticks out in my mind that my mom wanted my brother and I to enjoy.
I didn't have a "real" cabbage patch, but I had a homemade one... she didn't have a name but she was sewn with love by a neighbor, blonde hair and green eyes... I still want to have blonde hair and green eyes... LOL!
And yes, I still have her ! somewhere around here... I think I'll look for her now! :)
I remember that production - Mike and I were the backstage support. :)
I think it depends on the kids - some boys like to play with 'girl' stuff and some don't. Matthew always played with our Little People dollhouse when he came to visit (and still does from time to time), and the little boy across the street loves to play Polly Pockets with the girls.
Never had a Cabbage Patch doll as a kid - I had that one in college, but don't remember the name. Heck, I don't even remember the name of the one that I got to review last year, and that one's sitting on the bookshelf in the computer room, lol. :)
Dollhouses are like a magnet for all kids - my little brother wouldn't leave mine alone and now my nephews love to play with their mom's old one right along with their girl cousins. I never liked dolls much, preferred the stuffed animals like your son. So I never had a Cabbage Patch doll - but I could tell you the names of every one of my hundreds of stuffed animals - starting with Cuddles who is still sitting upstairs in the office waiting to be hugged.
I didn't have a Cabbage Patch Doll!
Sylvia Trudy (1984) and Jeffrey Kit (1986) for this 34 yr old. They remained at my parents house for many years until my then-3 yr old boy discovered them and was intrigued. We brought them home: he lost interest after a couple weeks but his best friend, a girl who comes over quite often, played with them many times over the last few years.
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