Love at first sight

With a doll! And I'm not talking about Summy.

It was more than twenty years ago (Groan! An oldie's story!). I saw this doll in a store that I wanted for my eighth birthday. The night before my birthday, I was running a fever and it was raining, but my father took me to the store in a rickshaw and bought it for me. The condition: I wasn't to open it till my actual birthday.

That night I slept with the doll box next to me. I even remember staring at the ties around its legs and wanting so much to open up the box. When I opened it, it was named Neelima/Jane and turned into a "she" instead of "it". She was a chubby little girl with a gentle smily face.

Years later, when I was in college, my mother quietly discarded her from storage (I think rats had gotten to Neelima/Jane, and even before that, her hair and face were in a pretty bad state with all the love and baths and makeup I'd given her), I found I was still attached to her. I couldn't sleep for a week, with the image of the doll in the trash.

I never saw a doll like that again. The dolls in the stores these days (groan! "these days"? Another sign of an oldie) are so out of proportion and ghastly. The few toddler dolls that really look like little girls are a little pouty.

Yesterday I found the doll that was just right - with a happy face, the right proportions, and wearing shoes and socks that can be taken off (yes, that's a bombshell feature). Moreover, it has a couple of changes of dresses and shoes and little clippies for her hair. I just know Summy is going to love the doll when she sees it (on Christmas day, since it's so close).

I can't wait to play with her doll.

Er, I mean I can't wait for Summy to play with her doll.