Success!

For a while Genna has had her heart set on getting Mia from the American Girl collection for Christmas from the big man. Although the dolls are a bit spendy, we all know that we parents are happy to splurge every once in a while for that one in a million Christmas morning photo. The problem? Genna is not a doll girl. Never has been. She played with a baby doll with my encouragement when she was about 9 months to a year, but that was pretty much only because I was pregnant with Elijah and I wanted to try to help her understand what was to come. She's always been an animal girl. Stuffed animals, toys animals, magazines about animals, she loves animals! (my mom even calls her the dog whisperer because Genna can so easily calm my mom's very hyper, very big dog) Every so often she will play Barbies at my mom's house, but for her it's really only about the fashion and dressing them up. She never really "plays" Barbie. I've had this nagging suspicion that she had talked herself into wanting a Mia doll for three reasons: 1. Two of her friends recently got American Girl dolls 2. She had it in her head that she could get the whole Mia collection, including matching outfits for her (that's about $600 and not gonna happen!!) 3. She has asked for an American Girl doll for the past 2 or 3 Christmases, and then changes her mind at the last minute. (thankfully I had never given in before!) Genna has tried to be a doll girl in the past because her sister is, but she just can't get in to it, as much as she tries. I can't justify asking Santa to spend that kind of money on something I'm almost certain will be handed down to Bella within a few weeks of Christmas morning. Every year I really try hard to find that perfect gift that they will play with again and again all year long. (last year I had HUGE success with this because the kids really do still play with the stuff they got last year and can even name each item they received) Genna has also had her eye on some of the larger Littlest Pet Shop sets, but has continually insisted she wants Mia the most. She has a couple small pet shop sets, and we have a dozen or two of the animals, that she plays with often. I feel confident that if the big man left her that on Christmas morning, it would be a huge hit. I've been trying to plant the idea in her head that maybe she would enjoy that more than a doll by pulling up Littlest Pet Shop stuff on the computer and then just leaving it on the screen, leaving weekly flyers open to the pet shop stuff, letting her take a look when we go to the store, etc..... Last night I had to go to Walmart for a new Rx, and took the girls with me. I decided to let them wander around the toy section while we waited for my order to be filled. Genna spotted the Tail Waggin' Fitness Club so I pulled it off the shelf for her to look at while Bella and I walked to the end of the isle to look at babies and ponies. Every time I looked over at Genna I could see her carefully inspecting every inch of the toy and the box. You could just see the desire to play with it radiating from her face. Genna is a very stubborn girl and once she has her mind made up about something, it can be hard to convince her otherwise. It has to be HER decision to change her mind, so I knew I needed to be careful in how I encouraged her. Even though I had already decided about the doll, I wanted her to change her mind so that she wouldn't be disappointed on Christmas morning. (anyone that knows Genna well knows that she is thankful for EVERYTHING she has and would never be truly disappointed, but I don't want her to convince herself she is absolutely getting something that she isn't going to get) After about 15 minutes she comes to me and says "there are other red-haired dolls in the magazine, I could always get one of those later and get skates and dress her like Mia. I've changed my mind and I think I would like this the most for Christmas from Santa. I've made my final decision mom" YES!!! YES!!! YES!!! As soon as we got home, I sat her down with paper and crayons and had her write her letter to Santa. Santa only leaves 1 gift and some stocking stuffers at our house, so it's important that the kids are thoughtful in what they ask for. Plus, mom and dad only give one gift in each of the following categories: something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. Although this year I'm going to fudge and turn the something to read into a family game as we have TONS of books we have not read yet (but will!), but not many family games to play together. Doing it this way makes the kids really think about what they really really want, makes it so that we don't spend a fortune, don't have an overload of toys, and the kids have realistic expectations on Christmas morning. (if you have seen any commercial around Christmas time, you can understand how a child might get it in their head that they will get a mountain of very expensive items on Christmas morning!) Genna is a very mature, responsible little girl, so I really like it when she gets out toys and plays like the 7 year old that she is.

On a side note, there was another mom with her daughter last night also just looking through the toys (I suspect also getting Christmas ideas), and I heard her daughter say "hmm, it looked a lot cooler on TV" HAHAHAHA! Isn't that just always the case? (not just toys, everything looks cooler on TV) I hate when toy companies put out commercials with toys doing something they don't really do and then the little disclaimer on the bottom saying "toy does not actually fly" or "doll does not really sing" etc.......... If your toy isn't cool enough for kids to want to play with it just as it is, then save the plastic, the lead paint, and the slave labor in China and come up with something better!