So, she had fought her case well. She had gotten me to open this new gift of hers that she received from her cousin, I. I didn’t get a chance to ask “Aren’t there enough of them scattered around already?”, that after 8 years of secretly removing them from my home, without the kids knowledge, I’m still struggling to get rid of those last few.
With 4 girls at home, 3 of who have thankfully, already passed through this stage of wanting Barbie/Princess, the aftermath of which has left enough of these annoying, omnipresent, limbless, hairless naked figurines scattered around. How can I forget those bazillion dress ups of these pesky dolls that have taken more than 1530 hours per year of my hard work to keep them organized, or just plain, out of sight! for the last 7 years.
Combine this with my ability at leaving NO stone unturned at expressing my frustration loudly, so the whole “Muhallah” got the pleasure of hearing, it wouldn’t surprise me if my kids grew up to realize , they indeed had a version of “Xanthippe” for their mom!. All those years of torment they had endured from me when I had forbidden them from their favorite play room. What was their fault if the toy had a 1000 pieces each. So what, if there had to be 3 of each, so each of them could have one to play with although, after a while it didn’t matter because all the pieces were never there.
Their tiny shoes, stilettos, those minute hand bags..those teeny tiny brushes and combs, those kitchens with the refrigerators, those vegetables and microwaves, those tiny utensils, cutlery and furniture, those tiny cribs and high chairs for their toy babies ..3 Halloween Barbies with their paraphernalia of Witch items, 3 Bikini Barbies, 3 smart (arse) Barbies, 3 working Barbies, 3 Barbies with bicycles, 3 Barbies at the beach, 3 Barbies in workout dress up, 3 Magnetic dress up of skirts or striped pants for these naked figures, scattered through the house. Then, we had all the “____iana” princesses from the Diamond Castle and other castles that made my home theirs, ( like their castle was not big enough for them! ) , with a loud musical instrument…These princesses were part of a band and had an instrument each. One of these tiny instrument had a tiny button, when pressed would produce this piece of soul hurtling music..It had removed the memory of all other sounds from my brain after we were subjected to it for a few times a day, everyday .., lets just put that figure at 2000 times a day, considering that the music ran for 20 secs each time.
(Permission to disregard my math skills or my exaggeration skills…So much for being a Math Graduate!)
(3 I Spy books)
(3 scrubs)
(3 Neonatologists!! I think they were whisking away triplet preemies to the NICU!)
My day job used to be set trying to put all these dress up in containers called dress ups, one of them for these dolls and the other for the kids itself with all their fake jewelry, and tiaras and necklaces etc. The naked Barbie's and Princesses stripped of any clothing would be lying in another container named Barbie's…And we had enough…to fill a huge trunk. Just to make this long boring story short. The Room was full. If we dare walk inside my home without looking down…one could be sure to be poked by those pointy feet or great pointy boobs of these Barbie dolls, because, as you realize, we Indians (surely, in my home) don’t get our shoes, inside our homes.
The triplets, now 8, feel ashamed taking their lunch bags to school because they either have Princess figures or Barbie figures on them. They were trying to convince me to buy them new ones, unable to give me anymore reason than the existence of these pictures on the bags. R on the other hand is just entering the stage…All she wants to be is a Princess. Luckily, for her, she has no dearth of such dress ups. She doesn’t change her Princess dress for days, for if she does, I may put the dress to wash…and she may not find it again.
She wakes up in the morning to the thought of being dressed as a Princess ( ready to brave the November weather..without a sweater or a coat..considering its flurrying outside now) just like we grown ups feel so blessed to smell freshly brewed coffee, first thing in the morning. When convinced that she can wear it after she returns from school, I manage to get her dressed for school so she is warm for the weather. When she comes back, she explains to me why she needs to change up.
“Mama, look I was in the wood chips today..”
“This dress is dirty, this pant is dirty too. I got to change up!” she says.
“What are you going to change up into, R?”, I ask innocently like I don’t know what she is going to answer.
“My Halloween dress!”, she says, thinking she has smartly and intelligently avoided the “Princess” word…
“Don’t remove your shirt, R, its cold!!”, I shout as she is running upstairs. She returns back with her princess dress..no shirt under it, no pant.
A few days ago, her cousin gave her the best gift she could ever ask....A jewelry set…fit for a Princess. Ear rings, bangles and a necklace with the biggest diamond and a tiara with a diamond that glowed, when the button was pressed.
She showed this box to me everyday for 2 weeks explaining me what each stuff was..What we need to do with it. After she would explain me the importance of each piece, she would ask me if I would open it for her. Sometimes, she folded her hands together to say “PLease”. And I would let her know that I would surely do that as soon as she comes back from school hoping she would either forget about it or I would remember to hide the pack. Today, none of those things happened and after achieving success for 2 weeks, I forget to hide it and she for her part, didn’t forget about asking me to open the gift set. And her persistence was commendable too.
“Ok, R. I will open this for you right away..”, I said
“Really Mama, You’re going to open it?!!!!!!!!” she exclaimed..
She came to me right away and planted a loud wet kiss on my cheek and told me
“You are the best-test in the whole wide world!”
Awww,..I could open a hundred of them for all this!!
(To be continued)
With 4 girls at home, 3 of who have thankfully, already passed through this stage of wanting Barbie/Princess, the aftermath of which has left enough of these annoying, omnipresent, limbless, hairless naked figurines scattered around. How can I forget those bazillion dress ups of these pesky dolls that have taken more than 1530 hours per year of my hard work to keep them organized, or just plain, out of sight! for the last 7 years.
Combine this with my ability at leaving NO stone unturned at expressing my frustration loudly, so the whole “Muhallah” got the pleasure of hearing, it wouldn’t surprise me if my kids grew up to realize , they indeed had a version of “Xanthippe” for their mom!. All those years of torment they had endured from me when I had forbidden them from their favorite play room. What was their fault if the toy had a 1000 pieces each. So what, if there had to be 3 of each, so each of them could have one to play with although, after a while it didn’t matter because all the pieces were never there.
Their tiny shoes, stilettos, those minute hand bags..those teeny tiny brushes and combs, those kitchens with the refrigerators, those vegetables and microwaves, those tiny utensils, cutlery and furniture, those tiny cribs and high chairs for their toy babies ..3 Halloween Barbies with their paraphernalia of Witch items, 3 Bikini Barbies, 3 smart (arse) Barbies, 3 working Barbies, 3 Barbies with bicycles, 3 Barbies at the beach, 3 Barbies in workout dress up, 3 Magnetic dress up of skirts or striped pants for these naked figures, scattered through the house. Then, we had all the “____iana” princesses from the Diamond Castle and other castles that made my home theirs, ( like their castle was not big enough for them! ) , with a loud musical instrument…These princesses were part of a band and had an instrument each. One of these tiny instrument had a tiny button, when pressed would produce this piece of soul hurtling music..It had removed the memory of all other sounds from my brain after we were subjected to it for a few times a day, everyday .., lets just put that figure at 2000 times a day, considering that the music ran for 20 secs each time.
(Permission to disregard my math skills or my exaggeration skills…So much for being a Math Graduate!)
(3 I Spy books)
(3 scrubs)
(3 Neonatologists!! I think they were whisking away triplet preemies to the NICU!)My day job used to be set trying to put all these dress up in containers called dress ups, one of them for these dolls and the other for the kids itself with all their fake jewelry, and tiaras and necklaces etc. The naked Barbie's and Princesses stripped of any clothing would be lying in another container named Barbie's…And we had enough…to fill a huge trunk. Just to make this long boring story short. The Room was full. If we dare walk inside my home without looking down…one could be sure to be poked by those pointy feet or great pointy boobs of these Barbie dolls, because, as you realize, we Indians (surely, in my home) don’t get our shoes, inside our homes.
The triplets, now 8, feel ashamed taking their lunch bags to school because they either have Princess figures or Barbie figures on them. They were trying to convince me to buy them new ones, unable to give me anymore reason than the existence of these pictures on the bags. R on the other hand is just entering the stage…All she wants to be is a Princess. Luckily, for her, she has no dearth of such dress ups. She doesn’t change her Princess dress for days, for if she does, I may put the dress to wash…and she may not find it again.
She wakes up in the morning to the thought of being dressed as a Princess ( ready to brave the November weather..without a sweater or a coat..considering its flurrying outside now) just like we grown ups feel so blessed to smell freshly brewed coffee, first thing in the morning. When convinced that she can wear it after she returns from school, I manage to get her dressed for school so she is warm for the weather. When she comes back, she explains to me why she needs to change up.
“Mama, look I was in the wood chips today..”
“This dress is dirty, this pant is dirty too. I got to change up!” she says.
“What are you going to change up into, R?”, I ask innocently like I don’t know what she is going to answer.
“My Halloween dress!”, she says, thinking she has smartly and intelligently avoided the “Princess” word…
“Don’t remove your shirt, R, its cold!!”, I shout as she is running upstairs. She returns back with her princess dress..no shirt under it, no pant.
A few days ago, her cousin gave her the best gift she could ever ask....A jewelry set…fit for a Princess. Ear rings, bangles and a necklace with the biggest diamond and a tiara with a diamond that glowed, when the button was pressed.
She showed this box to me everyday for 2 weeks explaining me what each stuff was..What we need to do with it. After she would explain me the importance of each piece, she would ask me if I would open it for her. Sometimes, she folded her hands together to say “PLease”. And I would let her know that I would surely do that as soon as she comes back from school hoping she would either forget about it or I would remember to hide the pack. Today, none of those things happened and after achieving success for 2 weeks, I forget to hide it and she for her part, didn’t forget about asking me to open the gift set. And her persistence was commendable too.
“Ok, R. I will open this for you right away..”, I said
“Really Mama, You’re going to open it?!!!!!!!!” she exclaimed..
She came to me right away and planted a loud wet kiss on my cheek and told me
“You are the best-test in the whole wide world!”
Awww,..I could open a hundred of them for all this!!
(To be continued)
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