Barbie

While we were in Texas this month we got to open gifts with my family and with Barbie. Barbie is a LeTourneau student who has been living with my family this semester. Ellie absolutely adores her. Even now that we are home Barbie is always included in the list of family members as Ellie rattles through them. She says, "Mommom! Poppy! Barbie! Robert!" and at some point we will have to tell her that Barbie is not really part of our family.

But family or not, Barbie had a Christmas gift and card for Ellie. I don't think anything we could ever get Eliana will compare to the card from Barbie. Ellie LOVES it. And it's perfect:

Ellie opened that card over and over just to hear it say "Hi! It's Barbie!" and she'd giggle and giggle and giggle and say "Barbie!!". It was just priceless, until it got annoying and we had to hide the card from her. Now it comes out on select occasions. Eventually, though, that card and these pictures will go in Ellie's scrapbook to be preserved forever. =D


Now, one thing I forgot to mention about Barbie (though perhaps you can tell from the pictures) is that she's 6 feet tall, with long blond hair, and (having grown up in Pensacola, FL) tan. She IS Barbie. So her gift to Ellie was particularly fitting and she's probably the only person on earth I would let get away with giving my 17 month old a.... Barbie doll!

The first thing Ellie did was pick up the Barbie hair brush and start brushing... her teeth! It was cute! (and proof, I guess, that we have indeed taught her how to brush her teeth...)

She did eventually learn that the brush is for Barbie's hair.


Now Ellie totes the Barbie doll around the house saying, "Barbie!". And for the record, I have taken all the small pieces and put them away for later. But she loves her Barbie and it reminds her how much she loves the "real" Barbie.


And really, how many little girls are able to say that they got their first Barbie doll from the REAL Barbie?

(As a side note, last year we got Ellie's picture taken with the Grinch. This year her picture was taken with Barbie. I guess we don't do Santa.)