the ugly baby

I played with this poor little Madam Alexander doll as a child. She wasn't originally mine, and I did not give her this interesting hairstyle. But I played with her. And I loved her. Several years ago my now eight-year-old daughter Suzy, who was at that time three-years-old, rescued the doll from her future home in a landfill while we were at Grandma's house one day. Of course you can't really blame Grandma. What is she going to do with a tattered baby doll at this point in life? What child at a thrift store would want to buy her? Or more, what parent? Probably none. I know I wouldn't.

But because of my fond memories and Suzy's total rapture with her, I consented to letting the doll come to live with us. I performed minor surgery on her back and washed her up as best as I could. Suzy named her affectionately, "My Ugly Baby" and she was loved, perhaps more than she had previously experienced in life. As Suzy's companion,

The Ugly Baby (as she came to be known) went for rides in the wagon and the car. She took trips to California and the grocery store. And she slept on Suzy's pillow at night. But The Ugly Baby was often, if not always, naked.

At age eight, Suzy now prefers to ride her bike with the kids on the street, listen to Hannah Montana or High School Musical CDs or shoot hoops out back with her dad. The Ugly Baby is a love of the past.

While I was sorting toys from the little girls' room a month or so ago I found her. Precious Ugly Baby. I adopted her. She now sleeps on my pillow during the day. And one day, I made her a dress and a bonnet so she doesn't have to be naked anymore. There is no real pattern. I just crocheted them.

I think she's pretty.