Blog: All Dolled Up

Sports have always been my thing.  At a young age, I loved playing, competing and beating someone.  If there was a game, I was there.  There was nothing better than scoring the winning goal,  being able to shoot a lay-up (with my left-hand) before everyone else, or striking out three batters in a row.  I was the girl that wanted to play football at recess with the rest of the boys or be the only girl on the basketball court.

There was another side of me though.  I wore dresses and had quite the collection of stuffed animals.  When I wasn’t running around playing soccer, basketball, softball, volleyball, golf and who knows what other games, I was in my room playing with my most important possessions – my American Girl dolls.

One doll was not ever enough, never.  I had to have them all.  One doll each from a different time period. That was all that I wanted.

In kindergarten, I received my first doll from the American Girl doll collection.  My grandmother gave me Bitty Baby, a baby doll.  Being the creative person that I am, I had the perfect name.  Bitty.   Yes, that was the best that I could do at six, but somehow that was the right name for her.

From then on my grandma gave me a doll for every birthday until fourth grade.  She would give me the large rectangular box and what was inside was never a surprise to me.  My grandma would smile and both of us knew which doll would be wrapped in the tissue paper in the box.  Before each birthday, my grandma and I opened the American Girl catalogue and chose the one that was the prettiest or had the best accessories.  The one that we had chosen would appear later in the red box months later.

I do not play with my dolls any longer, which is probably for the best.  My eight dolls from the original collection sit in my guest bedroom and every time I pass by, I wish that I was again at the age of seven or even younger so that I can play with them.  Life was so much simpler back then.  The only thing that I needed was a doll and a little imagination.  No homework, tests or worries came to my attention.  I played for hours at a time pretending that they were going to school or I would even teach them a few spelling lessons.

Recently, Oak Park Mall opened up a new American Girl Place and of course I had to drop by.  Don’t worry, I stopped myself from buying a new doll.  I really wanted to buy the last doll of the original collection, but I slowly backed away from the display case (good decision).  I realized that one of the dolls form the original collection had been terminated or as the employees say “retired”.  I own 11 dolls from American Girl (eight form the original collection, Bitty Baby Twins and Bitty Baby).  I know that having that many dolls is a little overboard, but I do not plan giving any of them away.

Dolls were a special part of my life and when I grow up to be a mother one day, I will want to share the gift of dolls with my daughter.  My dolls will never ever be “retired”. Who needs TV or video games when you have sports and of course, a doll?