Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Pete

I was born as #5 in a family of 7 kids. So by the time I came along, the toy boxes were well supplied with toys. I don't remember ever receiving my very first baby doll because we already had quite a few baby dolls that had belonged to my older siblings. All of the dolls had specific names, and didn't go by any other. They also all had a very unique quality in that each one had a very small blue ink cross drawn on their forehead. My older sister, Molly, had decided that they all needed to be baptized. :) I did receive one doll at a young age that I remember. She was a "Chatty Cathy". She had a string coming out of her back that when pulled, she would say various little phrases. She didn't last for long though because being a good little mother, I decided one day that she needed a bath. Thus ended her chattiness. But I do remember one doll in particular that I liked playing with probably the most of all. His name was Pete. I never questioned his name, or the fact that it was a boy's name. He wasn't really a boy, just a doll with the name Pete. He was one of my favorites. As the years passed, and I no longer played with dolls, my oldest sister, Miki, came home for a visit. At that time she had girls of her own, and before she left she took Pete to take home for her girls to play with. It was at that point in time that I found out that Pete was really Miki's doll. She was the one that had received him as a gift, named him, and undoubtedly spent many years playing with him. I had honestly never given it any thought. I had just assumed Pete was mine. Of course I was more than happy for my nieces to have Pete to play with; but it was always fun to tease my sister that she had taken Pete away from me. On my birthday many years later, when I had girls of my own, Miki sent me a gift. Yes, it was Pete. So here is a picture of Pete, modeling a reversible bib that I recently made for Miki's granddaughter. On one side of the bib is a cute cherry print:

And the other side was embroidered with a "Baby's First Valentine's Day" motif:

And if you would like to take a look at my great niece modeling it herself, you can find that here.

6 comments:

Jennie and Julie said...

What riches...all your siblings! I never had any sisters (one brother) and I'm sure you enjoyed those growing up years together. I enjoyed the story of Pete, and he/she looks so good, no obvious wear and tear at all!
Very cute bib...I can't sew right now so am busy with embroidering a pillowslip. But I can't wait to get back to my sewing machine. You seem to have done a lot for valentines day this year. Thanks for sharing this post.

Sheila said...

Pete is adorable:) I think all children like playing with babies, even boys. My youngest, who is almost two, likes to carry a baby around and "take care of her." I think he is trying to be a good daddy. But, his masculinity comes through when he throws the baby down to "wrestle."

Annie said...

PETE! Oh Monica, I have LOTS of memories of playing with Pete - dressed like a girl of course. :o) And while he/she (haha) does look cute modeling the ADORABLE bib you made for Darby... it looks a million times CUTER on Darby!

Thanks again... and the cute polka dot dress works PERFECTLY with a long sleeved shirt and red leggings, as I know you've already seen on my blog! I love those lady bugs!!!!!

Love you,
Annie xo

Anonymous said...

What a greast story! And I especially like the bib. Did you hand-embroider that? If so, can you tell me what kind of stitch you used? I'm just starting to do embroidery, thanks to your inspiration!

Monica said...

Alison, I embroidered this bib by machine. But if I was going to hand embroider it, I would have used a back stitch or a stem outline stitch. The back stitch (when made small) gives you more control going around corners. I would have embroidered the letters with a satin stitch. I love doing hand embroidery, but sometimes there just isn't enough time. I hope that you will enjoy embroidering as much as I do.

Anonymous said...

Thank-you! I've learned the back stitch, but not the satin stitch. I will look that up. I really like how creative embroidering can be, even with just hand stitching.