The Yearly Bath

When my daughters were younger, one of their favorite pastimes during the warm summer days, was to take their favorite dolls outside to give them a bath.  And most of those favorite dolls had a cloth body.  So after the dolls were thoroughly washed, they would be laid out on a towel in the hot sun to dry.  This also would include a soft Raggedy Ann.  It always took a couple of days to dry; but while waiting for the dolls to dry, the doll clothes would then be washed and hung on a line.  This entire process actually kept the kids occupied for quite some time; and it would always make me smile to see their busy little hands taking care of their little dolls.

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.