It's Spring!

Billy and Charlotte each have a dog. Billy's dog is named Freckles. She is a girl. Can you guess why she is named Freckles?

Charlotte's dog is named Pierre. You say it "Pee-air." Can you guess why she named her dog Pierre?

Billy and Charlotte both know that dog owners have to be responsible for feeding and walking their dogs, making them behave and cleaning up after them. They often walk their dogs together, because it's more fun for the dolls and more fun for the dogs.

On Tuesday, they were walking the dogs around the neighborhood. The weather was sunny and almost warm. 

When they had been all around the block, they decided to sit on the front porch and enjoy the warm air for a while.

"It feels like spring is here," Charlotte said.

"What is spring?" Billy asked.
"Spring is when the weather starts to get warmer," Charlotte explained. "The birds who left to go south for the winter come back. Like hummingbirds. They should be back soon."

"The trees that lost their leaves in the fall start to grow new ones," Charlotte continued. "Flowers start to grow, like the bulbs we planted last fall."

"Then will it be warm forever?" Billy wanted to know.
"No," Charlotte replied. "Spring only lasts until summer starts. Then it gets hot sometimes. We can get on our bathing suits and play in the sprinkler or go swimming...or just sit out on the porch and pretend we have been doing those things, because our kind of dolls shouldn't go into the water."

"But dolls can play in the snow," Billy said. "Will we ever get to do that again?"
"Yes," Charlotte explained. "After we have summer for awhile it starts to get cooler again. We will have fall, which is also called autumn. The birds who can't live in the cold fly south and the leaves change color."

"Then does it snow?" Billy asked.
"After it has been fall for a while, and all the summer birds have left and the trees have lost all their leaves," Charlotte agreed, "then the snow comes back."
"Why does that happen?" Billy wanted to know.
Charlotte thought for a moment. "I think it has something to do with how the earth moves, but Mandy can tell us."

Billy and Charlotte went to find Mandy. She was sitting in the family room with Mariah. They were looking at some photos together on the iPad.

"Mandy," Charlotte began, "what makes the seasons?"
"Yes," Billy said, "why is it spring now?
"Do you have any ideas?" Mandy asked.
"Maybe God turns up the heat on the sun?" Billy suggested.

"That's an interesting idea, Billy," Mandy replied, "but the way it works is more clever than just turning up the heat."
"In school I learned that the earth goes around the sun," Charlotte said. "Maybe it gets closer to the sun, and that makes it warmer."

"You're right about the earth going around the sun, Charlotte," Mandy said, "but how close we are to the sun is not what causes the seasons to change."
Mariah had been thinking. "I think I read something about how the earth is tilted or something," she said.
"You're getting warmer," laughed Mandy. "just like spring! Let me show you what you read about." Mandy dug around in her knitting basket and came up with a ball of tan-colored yarn and a knitting needle. She pushed the knitting needle through the middle of the ball of yarn. She was very careful not to point the knitting needle at anyone.
"Pretend this is the earth," she said, "only you have to pretend it's blue, because that's what the earth looks like from far away."

"Maybe the earth will look like your ball of yarn if we don't take care of it," Charlotte suggested.
"I hope not," Mandy replied, "but you're right. We need to keep our earth clean, just the way we have to keep our room clean."
"What's the knitting needle for?" Mariah asked.

"The knitting needle is supposed to be the earth's axis," Mandy said, "only we can't really see the real one. It's just an imaginary post that goes through the middle of the earth. The earth turns on this imaginary post. Turning is what makes day and night, as the place where you are on the earth turns toward the sun and then away."

"Now," Mandy went on, "for this next part, I will need some volunteers. I need some dolls who are willing to help out."
All three dolls raised their hands.

"That's good," Mandy said, "because we need four dolls. If I volunteer, too, we will have what we need."
Mandy told the other dolls to wait a minute because she needed something else to help demonstrate. 

She came back with the old, broken tether ball from the backyard and left it on the floor.

"Now," Mandy said, "we can pretend this big ball is the sun, only the sun doesn't have that big loop on one side. We'll just pretend it isn't there."

Mandy gave each doll a role to play. Each doll would get to pretend to be a season of the year. Mariah would be summer, Mandy would play fall, Charlotte was to be winter, Billy would play the role of spring. Mandy reminded the other dolls to be very careful with the earth's axis, because it was sharp and could damage them if they got poked with it.
Billy picked up the earth and its axis and held it very carefully.

Mandy had the dolls sit around the ball that was supposed to be the sun. She had Mariah sit to her right, then Billy across from her and Charlotte to the left. That way, they would be in the order the seasons come.

Mandy asked Billy to pass the ball of yarn that was supposed to be the earth to Mariah. She told Mariah to point one end of the knitting needle toward the sun. Mariah held the earth with one end of the axis pointed toward the sun.

"This is how the earth is in summer," Mandy explained. Where we live is closer to the part of the knitting needle that's sticking out toward the sun. We call where the knitting needle comes out of the ball of yarn the North Pole."
"That's where Santa lives!" Billy exclaimed.
"Yes, that's where we believe Santa has his workshop," Mandy agreed. "The sun heats up that part of the earth more than the other end, the South Pole, so we have summer. It still stays very cold at the poles, even in summer, because the sun never shines directly on them. Even then, the sun is very low in the sky, and most of the year it's dark or almost dark."

"Now," Mandy went on, "the earth is going to go around the sun. The axis is always going to point in the same direction. Which season comes after summer?"
"I know," said Mariah. "Fall comes next. That's you, Mandy!"

Mariah handed the earth to Mandy.
"That's right, Mariah," Mandy agreed, "so it's my turn to hold the earth. I have to hold it like this, because the axis always points in very nearly the same direction."

"Mandy," Billy said, "we dolls must be very strong, if we can hold up the earth!"
"You're right, Billy!" Mandy agreed. "We dolls are very strong, but the real reason we can hold the earth is because we're good at pretending."
The dolls could see that both the North Pole and the South pole could get about the same amount of warmth from the sun.
Next it was Charlotte's turn. Mandy told Charlotte to hold the earth with the North Pole pointing away from the sun.
"Now it looks like the part of the earth where we live is getting less sun," Charlotte said.
"Yes," Mandy said, "and this is where the earth is closest to the sun, so you can see, it doesn't make us warmer after all. You were right, though, that how far we are from the sun changes as we go around the sun."

"My turn!" Billy cried.
Charlotte passed him the earth. "Now it's spring!" she said.

"So this is where the earth is now?" Billy asked.
"Yes," Mandy agreed. "It's a little closer to Charlotte, because spring is just starting, but we are on your side of the sun."
Mandy stood up, so the dolls knew the game was over. She put the earth and its axis back into the knitting basket.
"I was wondering," said Charlotte, "if the sun warms the part of the earth that's pointed toward it more than the part that's pointed away from the sun, do the people who live on the other side of the earth, closer to the South Pole, have winter when we have summer?"

"That's right," Mandy agreed. "Right now, while we're at the early part of spring, they are just starting fall."
"That means our friends in Australia and New Zealand are starting to have cooler days," Mariah said.

"Yes," Mandy agreed, "and the southern part of Africa, but also people who live in South America, especially Argentina and Chile."
"We have friends there, too," Billy said. "If I could visit them this summer, I could use my sled!
"Yes, Billy," Mandy agreed. "You could go sledding and Jolena could ski."
"Whoopie!" Billy exclaimed.
"But all we have to do is stay here and wait for winter," Mariah said. "We can do that. Dolls are good at being patient."



Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
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

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz or Classic Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to a charity that supports pediatric cancer, such as CURE Childhood Cancer or St. Baldrick's Foundation
"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 2:00 PM Pacific Time.

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Copyright © 2019 by Peggy Stuart