It was way too cold to take children outside yesterday. We need to invent a new weather term for when the wind has nasty hard crystals of snow in it. Not snow that gathers, or drops prettily, just white driving snow that whips through on its way to somewhere else, like a transient doggard mean-spirited sand blaster. The builder and I were both wearing sunglasses as we worked outside to stop the snow blowing straight into our eyes, even though the clouds were low and grim.
Anyway earlier in the day during home-schooling break time, I decided not to take the children to the barn to play, we would play inside, so we dragged out the big, big box of toys that John’s daughter had left behind when she left home.
Oh Joy! They shrieked as they pounced.” Barbies!”
I groaned. Yes, I have to admit. I have never been in the Barbie camp. I was the Mean anti Barbie Mum.
“Can we play with the Barbies?” They said. There were so many.
(I checked with their Mother) “Well, ok.” I said, “Just as long as you know that Barbie is a freak and so anatomically incorrect that if she actually stood and walked on those legs she would fall flat on her … um.. face and probably break her hair. And those boobs are not real you know that. Normal people don’t actually have bodies like that. And where is her underwear? She is just pretend you know.” On and on I went.
‘We know, our Mum told us’. (Sweet how they say Mum in American accents.) “So can we play with them?”
“And no-one can actually walk for more than ten steps in shoes like that, you know that? They hurt your feet.”
(sigh) “Yeah, our Mom told us.” Little fingers wriggling with anticipation.
“And some of her clothes are not appropriate for winter you know, she is going to have to cover up if she is going to be dragged about my floor.”
Kids can sense capitulation. Their eyes held mine as they edged towards the play room.
“Ok then.” I said to an empty lounge, they were already tipping the boxes out and shrieking with delight.
“But only 15 minutes then we are making little sheep out of real wool!.” I called out
“OK, miss c”
.
On a more exciting note it has been discovered that if you put a block truck in just the right spot then tickle Thing One the cat will stretch his foot the necessary inch to knock the truck to the ground. Very entertaining. 
Second hand Barbie has a very tall horse evidently, that walks. Who knew.
My daughter is going to be demanding an apology when she sees this, me being that mother who would not let my daughter play with Barbies. 
And while his children played and worked inside the kiwi builder worked outside all day in the most terrible blowing as-yet-unnamed driving snow-wind.
Good morning my darlinks. Tomorrow I am probably not going to be posting a blog page, unless something very exciting happens. I need this wee writing window to finish my next assignment for my creative writing class. You all have a lovely day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
62 responses to “Second-hand Barbie made me do it!”
Yep, I also wasn’t allowed to play with Barbie … and I blame my lack of fashion sense on this to this day 🙂 Must also say Barbies are the last thing thing I thought I’d find on the farmy. Enjoy your weekend Celi, hope it is not too cold. Laura
I never even knew there were barbies when I was a girl, we had three chubby faced, blue eyed, short legged dolls, one for each of us girls, who sat largely ignored on their high shelf.. we were beach kids.. crabs and jelly fish held our attention for much longer. c
Oh this too funny!
What a lovely read C, thank you.
Have a splendid weekend and enjoy your writing tomorrow.
🙂 Mandy xo
Great shots there of the kids at play in that subtle kind of interesting way that does not reveal their entire faces.
Just so you are aware, wind chills in Minnesota this a.m. are like minus 35 and, in some places, even colder. Lots of two-hour late school starts.
that does not sound nice… milking this morning was very cold.. way too cold, I hope your cold does not reach down to us.. c
Barbies” How wonderful..makes a lovely change to hear that children want to play pretend games and not ipod,ipads iphones or i anything else…back to childhhood days
actually i had not thought of that, maybe barbies are not so bad after all.. c
I had Barbie dolls, circa 1950s, bubble hairdo, tits that crossed time zones if she faced east. My gran used to knit clothes for her – made her look like a mushroom. When we weren’t playing with Barbie, we were ducking under desks and hiding from nuclear bombs and the Russians. Or maybe it was Cubans. Life was quite exciting, although we didn’t realise it.
Happy writing tomorrow, and warm wishes to you and the farmy, c.
grannies and barbies seem to be a natural mix! and you are right you were certainly living in very interesting times.. c
I chuckled all the way through your post today. We’ll miss you tomorrow. Have a great day and stay warm!
My mother was an anti-Barbie mum, too, and I have been overcompensating with dress-up my entire life! Actually, my grandmother secretly bought me one; it was our little secret (I think it still is!) What a patient cat; both of mine run the minute a small child comes into the house. Happy February to everyone-
Grandmother’s have a way of getting around their daughters! i wonder if your mum did know! Secrets with gran are so special.. c
Very educational.
Enjoy your ‘day off”
I know, I felt so bad i had to confess!! morning viv.. c
I had one Barbie that my mother made me buy with my own money. I loved her, of course. I had to use my own money to buy her clothes, too. The “use your own money” tactic slowed down my adoration for Barbie quite a bit. Smart mother, mine.
yes.. using your own money does have an impact on spending.. If everyone had to use their own money instead of credit cards just imagine the lack of indiscriminate Barbie spending! morning ally.. c
I hated Barbie, too! But that horse is enviable.
It walks too, as you push it along the floor its feet step up and down! c
C, I’d say what you had was mangiggal (Inuit word for hard snow) or possibly nittaalaaqqat (hard grains of snow) then again it could have been qinuq (rotten snow) but it certainly wasn’t qanipalaat (feathery clumps of snow) 🙂
how brilliant.. thank you, I will write these words down and learn them. I am thinking that we had the nittaalaaqqat. what a fantastic word.. morning veronica..c
Oh how interesting! I’d read that the Inuit language has numerous words for snow and now I see some beautiful examples. You can tell a lot about a culture from the vocabulary. Hmmmm what, I wonder, does this say of Americans — starting with Barbie. Horrors. Anyway, tell us about the creative writing course you’re taking, Celi. I’m in a writing workshop in Evanston at the moment and did take several courses with the Writers Studio out of NewYork. Lots of fun.
There are a few words that come to mind when faced with that kind of ice-laden wind, Celi. Unfortunately, none of them should be printed here and if Zia ever heard me say them, she’d definitely have a few words of her own for me to hear. 🙂
Enjoy your day off, Celi. Stay warm!
I had to laugh too at this Barbie post as did everyone else…soo funny and guess what?? My Granny made clothes for my (only one Barbie) doll too!She made us matching flannel nightgowns! Aaacckkk!! You know what isn’t funny though…there is a real life Barbie aaaand Ken!! Google them! You won’t believe it! I think she’s from Russia…look how we’ve ruined other countries!! 🙂
You guys and your grannies!! matching nighties.. hilarious! c