Barbie Time Doesn't Always End Well.

I am extremely sentimental. This causes me to save things. A lot of my memories from childhood are tied up in the toys that I played with and it feels important and special to share those toys with my children.

I often think about how different Jellybean is from how I was at her age. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding her responses to things, but there is one thing for sure that we share: We are both doll people. I'm lucky to have a daughter that loves dolls and she is lucky that I have a lot of dolls to share with her.

I loved playing with Barbie dolls when I was a girl. I inherited some dolls and a lot of clothing from my older sister. Some of the clothes are vintage, some are hand made, most are awesome.

I have such a wonderful memory of going to a toy store with my mother, my aunt and my cousin. I remember picking out a Ken doll complete with lounge jacket. Oh, the good times Barbie and Ken had.
Looking through my old set of clothes and accessories, Jellybean ran across a couple of items that perplexed her:

One Christmas, my mother decided to have a lady in her neighborhood make me some new Barbie clothes. I love them, but am waiting until Jellybean is just a little older to break them out. Noticing that Ken was looking a little threadbare, I also went on Ebay and won a couple of bids for some vintage Ken clothes.

Now, here's where things didn't end well. We have had my collection of Barbies out twice now. The last time we had them out, I noticed that the legs on some of the dolls have become sticky. So, I decided to google said stickiness and see if there was a proper way to deal with it.  Guess what, apparently, those dolls were made with a type of plastic that degrades over time and releases toxic chemicals while it breaks down. Awesome right?  There is some variance in how much of a problem that is, but ultimately, I had to come to the conclusion that it isn't worth the risk. So, now I have to say goodbye to my classic Ken dolls and might have to say goodbye to most of my Barbie dolls as well. I can't express how disappointed I was by this conclusion.
Here's the upside. I now know what I'm giving to Jellybean for Christmas: a new Barbie (actually Midge who has her same color hair) and a new Ken as well (he'll look rockin' in the vintage clothes I have for him if they fit). We'll get to build new collection together and actually, after I got over the sadness of having to get rid of my old dolls, I realized that the new dolls are kind of cool. They all have articulated limbs which should make dressing and undressing the dolls a whole lot less aggravating. I can't wait for Jellybean to see her new dolls! I wonder if she'll be sentimental like me and save her new collection to play with a child of her own someday.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ