Pre-trip #20:
Hello, Dolly! (Part One)
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It was déjà vu all over again. -- Yogi Berra
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“Mo-om!” There was a definite note of determination in Tricia’s voice.
I turned to face my 11 yr-old daughter and there it was: the classic ’tween pose! Hands on the hips, weight shifted predominantly to one side. Head tilted, chin lifted slightly.
Uh oh, I thought, here it comes. She wants something. What’s it going to be this time? Ice cream before dinner? A new book? A mani and a pedi?
“Mom, I want to bring one of my
American Girl dolls to Walt Disney World….”, she announced. She ended her declaration with what she anticipated would be the deal-clincher: “….just like AG Princess!”
AG Princess
(American Girl Princess), AKA Emma, had recently become one of my daughter’s favorite writers and a role model of sorts. Back in June, I had introduced her to AG Princess’ last trip report, [thread=20270676]Confessions of a Disney Snob[/thread], because like Emma, Tricia is a big fan of American Girl dolls and plays with them regularly. Emma had brought one of her dolls,
Nicki, to WDW and had posted some very cute pictures of her doll “touring” the World.
I knew that Tricia would enjoy the pictures, but I also wanted her to read Emma’s wonderful report. It struck me while reading it that Emma, a high school senior with a deep love of WDW and a gift for writing, could easily have been her big sister. She is a bright AP student with a heavy course load like Tricia’s older brother, Eddie. Like Tricia, she is the only girl in the family. (Emma has four brothers and Tricia has two…..no sisters.) They share so many of the same interests: they are both avid readers, they both enjoy “girly” things like sewing and clothes and shopping. And, of course, there was the love of American Girl dolls.
My supposition had been correct; Tricia was immediately taken by
Confessions and eagerly looked forward to each new chapter.
“Mom, did you see the pictures of the stuff AG Princess is bringing to WDW?” (Mmm-hmm.) “I
love that bag!”
“Mom, did you see Nicki in her bathing suit?” (Mmm-hmm.) “I’ll
need to get my dolls bathing suits for the summer!"
“Mom, did you see how AG Princess did her hair? And that cute hair band? I really like her
style!”
Yes, I like her style, too. I like how she talks about both of her parents with respect. I like how she gets along with her brothers, and especially how she helps take care of the littlest one. And I like how, even though she jokingly calls herself a “snob”, she has never posted anything that was mean or sarcastic in any way. She was, I thought, a very good role model for my young daughter, and I was pleased to see that she was enjoying the report.
It even seemed to get her a little excited about our own trip, which in her mind, had been so very, very far off in the way distant future that it did not seem real to her yet. She began thinking about how wonderful it would be to add one of her dolls to our cast of characters
and I knew that it wouldn’t be long before she came right out and lobbied for it.
Last year Tricia had asked to bring one of her AG dolls with her to WDW, but Ed and I had nixed the idea immediately. We already had so much luggage, the doll and her trappings would just be one more thing to carry. And the little shoes, hair ties, and other doll accessories would just get lost. Perhaps even the doll itself might get lost.
No, we didn’t think it was a very good idea.
Now here she was, one year later, making the same request. It was déjà vu all over again.
And so, I got to reading. And I got to thinking. Emma wrote that she had been only eight years old the first time she took one of her AG dolls to WDW. Her mother, Betsy, had been justifiably concerned for the same reasons that I have mentioned. But, the AG Princess had been given a set of rules regarding her doll and all went well because she had been a good girl and followed her mother’s instructions:
*Other than in their hotel room, her doll had to stay inside a backpack at all times.
*She could choose one day and one day only to bring her doll to a park.
*She could not bring any little accessories that could get lost.
And, just in case, she placed an address sticker on the doll so it could (hopefully) be returned if it was accidentally misplaced.
“I promise to be careful,” Tricia pleaded. “
Please! I’ll follow all the rules!”
I gave her my patented neutral-mom-answer. “We’ll see.”
So that night, I discussed it with Ed. We weighed the pros and cons. He was still a bit apprehensive about letting her bring the doll, but I thought that it would be a good opportunity for her to learn a few lessons in responsibility. She was, after all, soon to enter the sixth grade, and not a “little” girl anymore. Learning how to take proper care of your things and how to follow rules is an important part of growing up.
We decided to allow her to bring
one of her two dolls as long as she promised to follow “Betsy’s rules.” (I was banking on the fact that, being a ’tween, she would find it easier to accept the rules of AG Princess’ mom than to accept the rules of her own!)
Tricia agreed, but now she had a big decision to make. She decided to seek the advice of her new DIS “big sis”….. and so, under my screen name, she made her first-ever post to a WDW trip report:
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(Quote) Hi Kathy's dd Tricia here again!!!! I'm having trouble deciding which one of my two dolls I should take to disney mom said I could only take one please help me choose which one!
My first doll is named Jess: my younger brother[Billy] cut her hair a while ago so now she has a bob-cut. I got her in 2003. I haven't taken here anywhere in a while so that's why I want to take her[ also cause she's lot's of fun
!!!]
My second doll is named Cathy: She has been untouched by Billy.
I got her in 2006 for christmas! I just took her to American Girl Place New York in April. But she has long hair so when I go to Disney I want to do some hairstyles on her and she's lots of fun too!!!
HELP ME!!!!!!!
Tricia
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To be continued...
Thanks!
) and you add it to your stuffing mixture! Yummmm 
. Has anyone PM'd Linnie with this information?
