"What are you looking at, Mandy?" Pippa asked, looking up at the older doll from the floor.
"I was just looking at this photo," Mandy said. "It's of a doll The Writer gave a young relative as a gift."
Pippa climbed up to look. "It's a baby!" she cried.
This is what she saw on the screen.
"Yes," Mandy agreed. "It's a baby doll. The young relative is very young, almost still a baby herself. She loves the baby doll. Her mother said it was her favorite present."
"Is the doll a girl or a boy?" Pippa asked.
"I don't know," Mandy said. "I guess the little girl the doll lives with will decide."
"What does it do?" Pippa wanted to know.
"Well," Mandy replied thoughtfully, "it doesn't really do anything. It's up to the little girl to do things with the doll. She can hold it, dress it and put it to bed."
"What's this thing in the box with it?" Pippa asked, pointing to the screen.
Mandy looked where Pippa was pointing. "That's a pacifier (PA-sih-fy-er). It something for the doll to suck on."
Pippa had to think about that. Pippa's mouth doesn't open, so it was hard to imagine sucking on something.
Pippa was quiet for a long time, thinking. "I don't think I would want to be a baby doll," she said finally. "I like doing things. I don't think I would like lying in bed or just being carried around and held. I mean, those things are nice, but I would get bored after a while if that was all I got to do. Even sucking on a pacifier wouldn't make up for that."
"That's because you are a child doll, Pippa," Mandy explained. "Child dolls were made to pretend to play and do the other things that real children do. A baby doll just wants to be held and carried. They're made just for that. They like to be pretend fed and changed, and to suck on a pacifier if they have one."
That was a lot to think about, so Pippa did just that. "So lying around makes baby dolls happy?" she asked.
Mandy realized that she hadn't really thought about it like that. "I guess they are like real babies in that way," Mandy decided. "Real babies like to be held, fed and changed."
Mandy laughed. "Only when they are still babies. Real babies grow up. They get bigger and become children. The children grow up to be grown-up people."
"Charlotte told me I wouldn't grow any bigger," Pippa said.
"That's right," Mandy agreed. "Real babies and children grow, but dolls don't. You won't get any bigger than you are, and I will always be this size."
"That means," Pippa mused, "that you and Veronika don't have to worry that I'll grow out of the clothes you made for me." That thought made Pippa happy. "I wouldn't mind being as big as you are, but I'm glad I can always wear my new clothes."
"Making clothes for you was a challenge at first," Mandy said, "because all of the patterns we had were for dolls our size, but you're shaped the same as the rest of us, just smaller all over. We figured out how much smaller you are, and Veronika reduced her sewing patterns on the computer so they would fit you. She made them smaller by setting the printer to print smaller. Then she checked to make sure they would be the right size."
"Is that what you did with the knitting patterns?" Pippa wanted to know.
"Knitting is a little different," Mandy said. "Changing the size isn't that hard, but you have to do some math. (Math is like arithmetic, only more complicated.) I had to rewrite the patterns so they had fewer stitches and fewer rows of stitches in each section. That's what I did with the dress you're wearing."
"What are you making now?" Pippa asked, leaning over to look at Mandy's work."
"This is a sweater for you," Mandy said, holding it up. "It won't fit me. It won't fit any of your other sisters and brothers. It will only fit you."
"I like it!" Pippa cried. "It's beautiful! Thank you!" Pippa took Mandy's knitting from her and hugged it.
"You're welcome, Pippa," Mandy replied. "Be careful of the needles, though! I'm glad you like it, but it isn't ready to wear yet."
"I promise never, ever to grow out of it." Pippa said.
Pippa is right. She will never grow out of her new sweater!
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
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