Meet The Johnson Family...

If you know me then you know I'm reading anywhere from 2-7 books right now.
Right now, I'm trying to keep it light so here's what I'm reading:


On this day, I only wish to talk about 6 Ways to Keep the Little in Your Girl by Dannah Gresh.

It's just the book I was looking for about raising little girls. She says that non-believers and believers can both appreciate the book and I would have to agree.

Only on chappy 6 though, but we've already talked about so many great things: how to talk to your daughter about her period (oh my stars!), points on prevention of self-image issues, modest clothing choices, and the ever present fact that happening to our little sweethearts- oversexualization.

 And I don't know why I didn't see it, but it's all about money. Makes so much sense.

So let's talk about Barbies y'all, because this book totally does and I'm thankful for that. Well, it talks about Bratz being the main offender (doy), but it also lists Barbies too.

I pray I'm not being legalistic about this, I really do. I'm not Carrie's Mom okay.

 Barbies. While the idea of them is somewhat up my alley i.e. clothing and style fun, however Barbies and I are not friends.
Maybe it's me. But something about them just bothers me a little. And I think this author finally unearthed the why of it for me:
Barbie is one of the first measures that our girls have to look up to and therefore imitate. And these are my horribly un-eloquent words- but how do you think a 4-6 yr old is going to mentally handle seeing and playing with that image? I know for me it was always- one of these things (me) is not like the other (Barbie) and NEVER will be.

Plus, have you played with Barbie recently? They are kind of awkward to play with in a dollhouse. Just my opinion, but you can't really get your play on.

Getting your play on as a little girl is one of the keys that Dannah Gresh shares. I totally agree.

After reading this though I felt vindicated. That's what always bugged me about Barbie. Barbie's just too sexy and I could never put my finger on it.

Leelah has received them as gifts, and we so so much appreciate that they were chosen out of love for our little girl to play with and have fun. We don't want to diminish and hurt people's feelings that bought them for us. We had our family friends (oh, heck let's just call them family at this point) purchase a Paleontologist Barbie for Leelah- PALEONTOLOGIST!? Does it get any more fitting for our child?

But the next day after reading this, I had made a decision.

I explained to Leelah that I was sorry I had not been really playing with her and her toys as much as I should. And then I said that Barbies might be a little too grown up for her. She understood and agreed. I kept it simple. I offered to have her and I go shopping to purchase a new family to play dollhouse with.

She suggested, "Maybe the Barbies could go to college in Pennsylvania. Where they make pencils?"

Yes, I love you kid.

Then she added, "Maybe they should go to New York instead."

Nothing against NY, I hope to travel there someday, but that is very fitting. Maybe they'll return someday. We will see.

So we went to several places, but swedish fish swordsticks- Walmart was the best?? ! What? Shock.

We purchased a mom and a dad. I love this brand- Loving Family. They have wedding rings y'all! And then, Leelah decided they should adopt 3 kids- Lalaloopsy figures.

So please to meet "The Johnson Family":

Yes, this is their family portrait session. Yes, I printed it out and glued it onto foam frames I made special to stick in Leelah's dollhouse.

Leelah and I played. For the first time with her dollhouse, we really played. And it was such good clean fun to play and pretend like family stuff- those laced with little learning moments.

I know this might not seem blog-worthy, but it's a big deal right now for us.

Hate me if you must, but this works for us.