Do you remember when American Girls first came out? There were only three of them, and tou could only buy them through the mail. Each one came from a different time period in history. There were also books about each doll. I was about 9 when some of my friends started getting American Girl dolls... but my mom said I couldn't have one because they were too expensive! I would get the books out of the library, though.
The company who made those cool dolls sure has changed, since then! I think because they were taken over by Mattel. Now you can buy hundreds of different dolls, complete with houses and accessories and anything you can imagine! Of course Mattel has to take a great thing and make it explode pink fluff all over the place!
I live near Chicago, home of the original American Girl store, but I have never been there. But this past Christmas, my cousin Little Bird, who is turning eight at the end of this month, got an American Girl doll! She got Kit Kettridge, who is one of the historical dolls. As an early birthday present for her, my mom made reservations for Little Bird, my aunt, my mom and I to go to the American Girl restaurant for tea!
I took a bunch of pictures, but I am at my mom's so I don't have my camera connector. You'll have to wait a few days to see for yourself all the fun we had! ;)
We went to a few other places, but the American Girl store was definitely the high point for Little Bird! At tea, her Kit doll got to sit in a little booster seat at the table, and had her own plate and cup. And afterwards, we spent about an hour browsing in the giant store, for the perfect new outfit for Kit!
Little Bear also got an American Girl doll for Christmas from her grandparents. She got the kind where you choose a doll that looks just like you. Those ones don't come with books or stories or anything. Little Bear likes it, but she's definitely not as into the whole American Girl theme as Little Bird is... which I guess, in a way, is good, because those dolls and all of their accessories are expensive! For us, going to the American Girl store, having tea there, and letting Little Bird get a new outfit for her doll, was a big deal. But, dude. There were people there who were just handing their kids giant shopping bags and letting the kids fill them up! There were little girls there with three or four dolls in their arms! And people were all decked out, with fur coats and big fur hats and jewels and everything.
On our way out, we saw a man with a little boy about 8 or 9 years old, asking passerbyers for money for a bus ride to a homeless shelter.
It seems so weird to me that, in the same city, there can be people who are able to pile a several hundreds of dollars worth of toys into their kids arms on a regular day... while other people are struggling to even put a roof over their kids' heads!
But I guess that is a whole 'nother topic!
Stay tuned, because I'll post some pics of our trip to the city, once I get my connector!
