A Living Doll

My husband told me I looked like a doll this morning.

I can just imagine everybody in blogland thinking, "Oh, what a kind, considerate, thoughtful husband Kim has!"

Yes, I do.

However, in this case, he meant I look like Stick 'Em Up Hair doll.

This is a doll Jill dearly loved as a child. She loved it so much she washed its hair. And ever after, it was known as the Stick 'Em Up Hair Doll.

So when Randy said I looked like a doll, for just a second I thought, "Awww. How sweet!" (I'm not always the quickest in the morning!)

And then I realized he was referring to our inside family joke, a signal for, "Wow! Your bed head is really LOVELY this morning!"

But I choose to think about it in a different way. Jill really loved that doll (even if it didn't have a beautiful name like Stephanie or Kara or Julia).

This doll was kind of like the story of The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. In the story, the wise Skin Horse (who has about as imaginative a name as Stick 'Em Up Hair Doll) tells The Velveteen Rabbit:

"Real isn't how you are made. It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, you become real."

I think it happens for wives. And husbands ... and daughters ... and sons ... and sisters ... and best friends ... and moms ... and dads: You fill in the blank.

I spent a little time looking for Stick 'Em Up Hair Doll this morning. I dug through boxes in the attic. I burrowed to the back of the closet in Jill's room.

I wanted to take a photo so you could see just how real she was. (Plus, I didn't want to subject you to a photo of just how real I am in the mornings!)

So far, I haven't found her.

But here's my prayer for you today: I hope you are real to the people in your life. And I hope they are real right back to you.

Full disclosure: This is not Stick 'Em Up Hair Doll.
But it does show how Jill made her dolls very real.
And I seem incapable of posting without a photo!