When my daughter was five months old, my ex-colleague had visited us to meet her. She gifted a cute little doll wearing a pink and purple polka dots frock with a matching pyjama. Unlike high cheek bones and the lady like figure of a barbie, this doll has an appearance of an adorable baby girl. She perpetually sits on the foam buttock and the battery inside her body keeps her spine straight. The doll wears pink colored starry shoes which do not come out of her invisible feet. Her hair is curly, blond and tied neatly above her studded ears. Her eyes are light grey marbles perpetually wide open and match an incessant grin on her face. To add to her exhibition, there's a green colored mobile phone with a flap fixed in her hand.
My daughter's first contact with dolly (that's what we've named this doll) came when she was eight months old. She had started crawling and used to stand up taking the support of nearby objects. The doll was lying on the mattress when she attracted my daughter. She crawled near her and cautiously felt her. There was no response from the doll. So, she touched her again and played with its eye lid. Then she sought for her hands and played with the cell-phone. She opened the flap and dolly said in a petulant voice "Good morning, hello, how are you? I am fine, thank you." and immediately started jiggling to this unpredictably unpleasant song whose lyrics I could never make out till date. First time my daughter got scared of what she saw and heard. Later, she also jiggled to dolly's cacophony.
Dolly had gradually become a regular play toy for my daughter. Eventually dolly's battery started finishing. Her unmelodious song used to abruptly end in the middle. She had to be jerked and shaken up to complete her recitation. Battery still diminishing, dolly started her dialogue and song without even opening the flap of her mobile-phone. A slight jerk to her and off she went with her irritating voice and incomplete song. Because of her weird behavior, we kept her in the cupboard. To my mother-in-law's horror she started off inside also. After that day, I took out the batteries from her spine to end 'the dolly horror show', as my mother-in-law rightly named.
My daughter was surprised by dolly's silence but eventually she accepted. Her issues had changed and thus uses of dolly too had changed.
Dolly is now like a sibling to my daughter. She is fed dal-rice, chapati, milk and fruits. And my dutiful daughter insists I feed her first and then she opens her mouth to eat. She often puts dolly to sleep. And did I forget her potty training? Oh, at an exotic location of our kitchen trolley. She often bathes with my daughter. I wipe my daughter dry with a towel in five minutes and the dolly keeps hanging on the window for two days to be dried by the wind.
Now, my daughter is two years old. Dolly is still an integral part of her play. Yesterday, me and my daughter made ornaments for dolly using the playing dough. We decorated her with a necklace, ear-rings, bangles and anklets. Then, I took snap of decorated dolly with her proud owner.
The dolly has now become old. After the removal of battery, she doesn't sit upright. Because of my daughter's constant experiments with her the wire of her hands has come out. Thanks to her well tailored dress and fixed shoes that her old age is not visible in her body! Her hair have retained their color but have got multiple unrepairable knots. She has also lost some hair making her scalp visible at more than one place. What remains is the marble eyes, a perpetual smile and the fact that it is still my daughter's favorite since it was taken out from the box. So, the dolly show goes on!
My daughter's first contact with dolly (that's what we've named this doll) came when she was eight months old. She had started crawling and used to stand up taking the support of nearby objects. The doll was lying on the mattress when she attracted my daughter. She crawled near her and cautiously felt her. There was no response from the doll. So, she touched her again and played with its eye lid. Then she sought for her hands and played with the cell-phone. She opened the flap and dolly said in a petulant voice "Good morning, hello, how are you? I am fine, thank you." and immediately started jiggling to this unpredictably unpleasant song whose lyrics I could never make out till date. First time my daughter got scared of what she saw and heard. Later, she also jiggled to dolly's cacophony.
Dolly had gradually become a regular play toy for my daughter. Eventually dolly's battery started finishing. Her unmelodious song used to abruptly end in the middle. She had to be jerked and shaken up to complete her recitation. Battery still diminishing, dolly started her dialogue and song without even opening the flap of her mobile-phone. A slight jerk to her and off she went with her irritating voice and incomplete song. Because of her weird behavior, we kept her in the cupboard. To my mother-in-law's horror she started off inside also. After that day, I took out the batteries from her spine to end 'the dolly horror show', as my mother-in-law rightly named.
My daughter was surprised by dolly's silence but eventually she accepted. Her issues had changed and thus uses of dolly too had changed.
Dolly is now like a sibling to my daughter. She is fed dal-rice, chapati, milk and fruits. And my dutiful daughter insists I feed her first and then she opens her mouth to eat. She often puts dolly to sleep. And did I forget her potty training? Oh, at an exotic location of our kitchen trolley. She often bathes with my daughter. I wipe my daughter dry with a towel in five minutes and the dolly keeps hanging on the window for two days to be dried by the wind.
Now, my daughter is two years old. Dolly is still an integral part of her play. Yesterday, me and my daughter made ornaments for dolly using the playing dough. We decorated her with a necklace, ear-rings, bangles and anklets. Then, I took snap of decorated dolly with her proud owner.
The dolly has now become old. After the removal of battery, she doesn't sit upright. Because of my daughter's constant experiments with her the wire of her hands has come out. Thanks to her well tailored dress and fixed shoes that her old age is not visible in her body! Her hair have retained their color but have got multiple unrepairable knots. She has also lost some hair making her scalp visible at more than one place. What remains is the marble eyes, a perpetual smile and the fact that it is still my daughter's favorite since it was taken out from the box. So, the dolly show goes on!
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