We Almost Bought A Barbie

So our first week of menu planned meals is done and it went very well, thanks for asking! And yesterday was time for another grocery shopping trip for this weeks menu. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate grocery shopping. Well now that The Phi has hit that age grocery shopping trips can be worse than ever. So as I was putting The Phi in the car I talked to her. I told her where we were going. I told her that she needed to be good and sit in the cart until we were done. I told her that she could take Curious George in with here (cute story about her George later). I told her that I would have snacks in case she got hungry. And then I bribed her. I told her that if she was good the whole time I would buy her a new hotwheels car when we were done. So we get to the store and I pull her and George out of the car and started to put her in the cart and she immediately started to whine and resist me. I simply said, "remember what I told you before we left" and I repeated everything to her. She got into the cart with no whining. She was an angel (believe no one could be more shocked than I was!) the entire time we shopped. She sang, and talked to me, and played with George and before I knew it, I was done shopping and she had not whined or cried once the entire time. So we went to wander the toys aisles to find The Phi a nice toy before the halo around her head went away. We walked through the aisles and I noticed a Barbie. PR Dad and I were talking just the other day that she would really like a Barbie doll to play with. So I stuck with my no blond Barbie rule and found a brown haired and brown eyed Barbie doll and before I put it in the cart I walked around the toy section again. So as my ice cream melted I contemplated buying my little girl a Barbie. This seemed like such a big deal to me. Her first Barbie. Like some sort of strange coming-of-age American cultural ritual. But the semi-feminist part of me had me questioning this decision. What would the long term effects of a Barbie, with the unrealistic body type and make-up have on my little girl? I seriously reached for my phone to call someone for advice on the matter, then realized that anyone that I called would think I was crazy. So I thought, you know what, my kid is smart and knows what she wants so I will ask her. We made our way back to the Barbie aisle and I picked up the Barbie box, handed it to The Phi and asked if she wanted it. She looked it over, looked at me and said, "no Mommy, I want car". All that and she didn't even want to doll, my little girl wanted a new hotwheels car. And her halo doubled in size and shined brightly as we picked out a new red car.


So now the cute Curious George story. See The Phi has many George dolls, but there is one that she has had the longest. She loved it even before all the movie hoop-la. It is an old school doll from the 80's (I think). It was my ex-husbands and with the dividing of the assets I ended up with it and The Phi fell in love. Well currently she is potty training George. She carries around this small pink pillow (his potty). She will sometimes say "Oh George, you have to go potty?" and then she will sit him on his potty, hold his hand, pat his head and tell him, " It's okay George." And when he is done she tells him "Good Job George!" then gives him a high five.