Stories of books and babydolls...

Cyan stated in July that she wanted an American Girl doll. I told her to 'save her money' with no thought at all that she would actually do it.

She started saving.

But the American Girl dolls are $100 a piece. Then my friend Jessica had the idea to buy one of the girls in our group a Our Generation doll for her Sept birthday, which are just as beautiful, the same size, and much more reasonably priced ($30) and I told Cyan about it. She redoubled her efforts to get this type of doll. Yesterday, when we were out getting Logan's hair cut, Alex wanted to stop at Game Crazy and trade in a bunch of his games so he could get a new one. (We don't buy them video games, but they are allowed to with their money.) Cyan had games to trade as well, but she didn't want game in return, she wanted money toward her doll. She sold $17 worth of games, making her savings total $31.25. So our next stop was to pick up her doll. She spent about a half an hour deciding which one to get, and finally picked Hally... a beautiful doll with blue eyes, a gym outfit and two blonde braids. She has taken her everywhere today, and changed her clothes (of which she has two outfits) three or four times.

But there is more to this story. We bought her this one already. It has been in the garage for weeks because we were thinking that she would not earn enough by Christmas and so we would get it for her as her 'big gift'. Don picked one out and packed it away for her gift and the next time we were in Target he asked her which one she wanted, and after much 'well this one has this' and 'that one has that' she said "I think I like anyone but that one..." and pointed directly at Jenny; the one he had bought her. lol! That night he ran over there and exchanged it for another one. Hally (in a different outfit). And now she just bought the one he got her. LOL!

I may have to throw in the towel for the surprise Christmas doll. Not sure, but I think she is getting what she wants without any help from Santa at all.

Here is Alex playing his new game he got with his game money.

Logan with his new haircut.

These books each have a little story, but since I have typed so much already, I will just share the most special ones. First is Owl Babies by Martin Waddell. On that link you can "look inside" the book and see why it is so darned charming. It is my favorite owl book ever, and I read it to our homeschoolers at the owl party just last Friday. I have gotten it from the library about 6 times, and every time I think "Why don't I own this book?" When I saw this at Goodwill today, I had to pick it up. It is a board book version, and perfect for Logan, who loved to listen to it already... now he can hold it too! (And all for $1.29. Lovely.)

This next book has a story that goes even further back. Too Much Noise was a book that Danny Kaye had in his vinyl record of classic stories when I was little. I LOVED listening to that record. When he did all the voices and the stories just came alive. I loved it so much, in fact, that when I was taking my oral storytelling class in college, I used it as my final project and did that story, start to finish from memory in front of my entire class and their friends (and Don, who was my fiance at the time). I have told it at campfires and at Harvest Moon parties but I have never owned a copy of the book, and although I have never searched for it, when I saw this copy for $.99 at Goodwill today, I started jumping up and down.

Literally. It was quite funny actually.

Don laughed.

Now, it's mine to read to my children. :)

I like to think it is just a whole other generation of stories being ready to be told. That start with these stories of books and babydolls.