It has been about 2months since I gave in and bought The Pea an American Girl doll for Christmas, and I must say that the whole experience has been better than I expected. First of all, the Pea absolutely loves her doll. She plays with her almost every day and takes good care of her. It doesn't look like she's going to tire of the doll anytime soon, especially since several of her friends also received AG dolls for Christmas.
Second, the "gateway purchase" -- namely, the doll -- hasn't turned into slippery slope of consumerism that I feared. I mean, once you have the doll, she needs clothes, right? Not to mention purses and shoes and a bed and a dresser and what about another doll so she has someone to play with. Yikes! $24 for a pair of doll pajamas? I don't even spend that much on clothes for my kids.
But The Pea continues to surprise me yet again. I have heard plenty of wistful sighing over the beautiful clothes and accessories and furniture in the American Girl catalog, but no sense of entitlement and no whining. She happily uses the box that her doll came in as a bed; we just covered it with a pink pillowcase and a little heart pillow. She's not brand-conscious at all -- she's just as excited about the doll clothes for sale at Target and Michael's as she is about the clothes in the AG catalog. Her resourcefulness and willingness to compromise leaves me pleasantly surprised and proud of my little girl.
Which brings me to another reason this American Girl thing is turning out to be a good thing. The Pea and I have been spending a lot of fun girly time together making all kinds of stuff for her doll -- bracelets, necklaces, and other accessories. We recently made the accessories set in the photo above -- I got a square of yellow felt, sewed the hat and bag together, cut out the scarf, and The Pea decorated it with fabric paint. She's so proud of it and all it took was the sewing skills of a 7-year-old.
I'm putting together a post with how-to directions for all 3 accessories. Watch out for it soon -- It's a fun, easy project for any girl.
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