“Pam,” Pippa told her friend, “you are going to love it when the weather warms up and the snow is gone!” Today was a pretty day. The sun was shining, and most of the snow was gone, but it was cold and windy, so the dolls were staying indoors. (They only pretend to feel the cold, but when it’s windy, it’s hard for them to stay on their feet outdoors.)
Pam thought about what her new friend said. She had heard about warm weather, but she hadn’t experienced it yet. When she came out of her box at Maryanne’s home, it was cold.
Maryanne’s dad even had to get out the snow blower to clear the driveway and sidewalks. He also cleared the sidewalks in front of The Writer’s house, because they are neighbors.
All Pam had to wear back then was what she had on in her box.
“The snow is fun,” she said, thinking about how Maryanne’s dad had complained about having to clear the snow before they could drive to work. Pam couldn’t understand why he didn’t enjoy playing in the snow.
“It is fun,” Pippa agreed, thinking about all the fun she has with the other dolls in the snow.
“But there’s a lot we can do when the weather is warm,” she told her friend. “We can go out through the dog door. Do you have a dog door?”
“No,” Pam replied. “Maryanne’s family doesn’t have a dog, but I’ve seen the dog door here.”
“Well,” Pippa continued, “it’s real easy to go out and in through the dog door. Then we can play outdoors in the warm sunshine.”
“What do you do when the snow is gone?” Pam wanted to know.
“Lots of things,” Pippa replied. “For one thing, we can lie down in the grass and watch the clouds.” She thought for a moment. “We’re very lucky dolls,” she continued. “We can lie down and watch the clouds or look at the stars, because we don’t have sleeping eyes. That’s why we need sleep masks to sleep, but it’s a small price to pay for being able to watch the clouds.”
“Sometimes we climb trees,” Pippa continued. “If you go high enough, you can see for a long way.”
“One time Mandy set up a swing in the backyard,” Pippa said. “We took turns swinging on it. Mandy got the first turn, because she was the one who climbed up and tied the strings to the tree limb in two places.”
“Sometimes,” Pippa went on, “we make sandwiches for a picnic.”
“What’s a picnic?” Pam asked.
“A picnic is where you make a lunch, go somewhere interesting and sit outdoors to pretend to eat,” her friend answered. “It’s fun!” she added.
“Sometimes,” Pippa explained, “we take a picnic lunch and go on a hike. It’s fun when Mandy is along. She recognizes lots of different kinds of birds, and she tells us what their names are.”
Pam nodded. The way Pippa explained it, it sounded like a lot of fun.
“There are lots of games you can play outdoors,” Pippa explained, “like hopscotch (HOP-skotch). We can only play that outdoors, because we have to draw these boxes on a sidewalk or driveway with chalk. We can’t draw on the floors in the house. That isn’t allowed, and we have to set a good example for children!”
“The bigger dolls,” Pippa said, “can ride bicycles. That looks like a lot of fun, but the bicycles are too big for us, and you have to wear a helmet that fits. They don’t make them in our size yet.”
“Maybe,” Pam suggested, “if everyone reading this story would write their favorite doll manufacturer and ask for bicycles and helmets in our size, we could ride, too.”
“That’s a great idea!” Pippa agreed enthusiastically. “You sure are a smart doll! Actually,” she went on, “we could ride on the back or on the handlebars when one of the bigger dolls is working the pedals, but that would be very dangerous for real children, even with a helmet, and we’re supposed to set a good example for them, so we don’t ever do that!”
“Then,” Pippa went on with the list she had in her head of things the dolls liked to do outdoors when it’s warm, “there’s a slide in the backyard. We climb up to the top and slide down. Mandy says something called gravity (GRA-vih-tee) is what makes us go down the slide so fast.”
Pam’s eyes would have been big and round at that, but she can’t move her eyes, so she just looked at Pippa and wondered what gravity was.
“Sometimes Mariah and Charlotte set up some kind of a net in the backyard,” Pippa said, “and they play a game called tennis (TEN-is). They use special paddle things called rackets (RAK-ets) to hit a ball back and forth.”
“That must be fun,” Pam pointed out, “or they wouldn’t go to so much trouble.”
Pam wondered what it would be like to hit a ball with a racket and make it fly through the air.
“Then one time,” Pippa continued with her list, “Pauly and I found a snake in the backyard. We got Emil to come out and talk to it, and he told us it was a toy snake The Writer’s grandsons had played with and left out in the backyard. He couldn’t go back into the house by himself, so we helped him. That was a lot of fun. It’s nice when we can help someone.”
“When it gets hot in the summer,” Pippa continued, “Jolena sometimes makes cold, yummy ice cream for us to pretend to eat. She uses a machine that has a bowl that stays in the freezer until she needs it. The machine runs on electricity.”
Pam continued to listen intently.
“Sometimes we make popsicles, too,” Pippa recalled. “They’re easier to make.”
“In the Spring,” Pippa said, still with her list in mind, “we plant seeds in little cups.
“Then,” she explained, “when they get too big for the cup, and it's warmer, we plant them outdoors. Toward the end of the summer, we have vegetables for The Writer and her husband to eat, and we can pretend to eat some, too. Emil loves to work in the garden.”
Pam tried to imagine vegetables growing in the backyard.
“Another thing about the summer,” Pippa went on, “is we get to wear our bathing suits to lie in the sun on the deck…”
“…or play in the sprinkler (SPRING-kler). (That’s a thing they attach to the water hose outdoors to water the grass and other plants.)”
“I like to wear my bathing suit to play in the sandbox in the backyard,” Pippa said. “I pretend I’m at the beach.”
“One time,” Pippa told her friend, “Mandy and I were going to go to the beach, but it rained. The beach is dangerous if there is lightening and thunder, so we couldn’t go.”
“Mandy and I drew a picture of the beach with the sun shining and had a pretend beach trip in the workroom. We had to use our imaginations.”
“Lightning? Thunder?” Pam asked.
“Lightning is a sudden bright light and then a big boom. That’s the thunder. They go together. It comes from electricity in the air,” Pippa explained. “It’s very dangerous,” Pippa warned her.
“A pretend trip to the beach sounds safer,” Pam pointed out.
“It might not be quite as much fun, but it was more fun than not doing anything,” Pippa agreed. “Later on, though,” she remembered, “The Writer took Pauly and me to the real beach on a warm, sunny day. We played in the sand and watched the real human people.”
“It sure sounds like Spring and Summer are a lot of fun,” Pam said, “but what’s a ‘bathing suit?’”
Pippa tried to think of how to explain a bathing suit to her new friend. Pam must not have one, or she would know. “Well,” she began, “it’s sort of a sock you wear over your body so you aren’t naked, but your arms and legs stick out, so you can run and play.” Then she thought for a moment.
“The Writer,” she said, “made me one out of a little girl’s sock. Maybe we can get her to make you one, too. She said it’s pretty easy.”
“That would be wonderful!” Pam cried. Just think! A bathing suit all her own!
Then Pam looked out the window at the wind blowing the trees. She had a lot to look forward to when the rest of the snow was gone.
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.
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