I put it off as long as I possibly could, but I was finally forced to relent today. For Sophie's birthday, she received a Build Your Own Mini Dollies Fairyland kit. Yes, it IS as utterly exciting as it sounds. Basically, it is a kit with a million pieces that allows a child to make her own fairy princess dolls out of yarn and pipe cleaners. Or rather, it allows the child's parent to make their own fairy princess doll. It also comes with a huge assortment of cardboard shapes that somehow are supposed to morph into a Fairyland tree house. I have yet to attempt that. If you are reading this and you are the person who purchased this particular item for Sophie's birthday, please know that it is an amazing gift that Sophie loves. I, however, am less enamored of it. As a matter of fact, I believe that it actually ranks fairly close on my list of hellish toys to the two-foot-tall T-Rex skeleton that I put together with Lucas...bone by bone by infinitesimal bone.
Tonight, I told Sophie that we would make ONE fairy princess doll after dinner. The kit includes everything needed to make at least five dolls, I believe. We sat down to start and Sophie excitedly emptied all of the contents of the box on the kitchen table. I pulled out the directions to discover, to my dismay, that these tiny four-inch-tall fairy princess dolls included detailed instructions with fifty...yes, FIFTY...steps. I cussed under by breath and went about the task of figuring this crazy thing out. The first step instructed me to cut two pieces of pipe cleaners in 15cm and 8cm lengths AND 12 lengths of yarn (in the color of Sophie's choice) measuring 12cm each. Ummmmm...yea....the metric system, huh? I vaguely remember the nuns attempting to teach me that elusive system way back when....I am pretty certain I failed metric. I could not for the life of me find a ruler anywhere in my house. All I had was a tape measurer that measured in inches only. So....who can convert inches to centimeters off the top of their head? Perhaps the average fourth grader, but not this momma! So there I was...googling inches to centimeter conversion on my computer, feeling like a moron for having to resort to my laptop to make a fairy princess doll. I finally figured it out and cut the appropriate lengths of yarn and pipe cleaners. I was doing pretty well and feeling fairly confident until I got to the step that said, and I quote, "Make the hair look wavy by pulling apart the strands of wool." I spent a solid 15 minutes UN-weaving the wool yarn so Sophie's fairy princess would have wavy hair. All my life, I wanted wavy hair. Did I get it? Um, no. When I got pregnant, I wanted a little girl with wavy hair. Did I get that? Um, no. So why in the hell does the fairy princess get to have wavy hair?! And by the way...this whole project was a spectator sport for Sophie. She did not participate at all in the fifty steps needed to make this fairy princess...unless you count dropping numerous tiny pieces on the floor over and over again. She chose the colors and bossed me around a bit, but she did not even touch the doll until it was done. In the end it took me a solid hour to make the fairy princess doll that looked nothing like the cute little dolls on the box. Somehow, the wings ended up crooked....the hair was a mess...the shoes wouldn't stay on. But you know....Sophie loved it. She absolutely loved it. I am not sure if it was the fairy princess doll itself, or the simple fact that I sat down and spent an hour with her at the kitchen table. For a solid hour, she had my undivided attention. The making of the doll itself was pure hell, but I certainly wouldn't mind spending an uninterrupted hour with my daughter again. I have to admit that I really enjoyed hanging out with her. For once, we were on common ground...no power struggles. No disputes. No sassy attitude. As I sit here typing this, she is snuggled up against my shoulder cuddling the little doll we made together as if it were the most fantastic creation in the world. My baby girl. Perhaps the Build Your Own Mini Dollies Fairyland kit isn't such a bad toy after all.
Tomorrow, we will attempt the impossible-looking Fairyland tree house....complete with a swing for our hideous little dolls. Ugh.
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