Are You Zhazha?

She wakes up but keeps her door closed to the rest of the family. It’s her time. Her time to make-believe.

I wonder what Nia dreams about to make her want to stay in her room as soon as her eyes open and start building lives for her Barbies. I loved to play pretend with my Barbies too. I became lost in their made up lives. I wish I could remember the stories I thought up then. I’m sure they would be good enough for a dollar store book rack.

I asked Nia if I could capture some of her imagination and keep it forever in one of my blogs. She told me sure and then even invited me in to her Barbie world tell me more about what her dolls had been doing at the time she was called to breakfast. Her imagination took a much different turn than mine. I’ll share what I thought they’d been up to and then reveal Nia’s plans for them.

These dolls are enjoying a healthy brunch and then will follow-up with some serious hair makeovers. They must be having a girls get together during an emotional time in their lives – based on the food choices, the messy hair and the proximity of the toilet. (Upset stomach often calls during a roller coaster of emotions.)

Nia’s thoughts: “They are eating breakfast, lunch and dinner all at once. And I made their house out of the special Liv Doll room I had.”

She sets up a nice spread.

Clearly, these two just got hitched.

Not so, says Nia. “I just wanted her to sit in his lap.”

These are girls visiting the pediatrician for their newborns’ check ups. (There’s a baby in that pink stork thing.) The pediatrician is wearing the vinyl hot pants. She has a stethoscope so she must be legit, yo.

Nia sets me straight, “They just visited their neighbors – the girls eating all the food.”

This poor miss just injured her hand in a fire and now must wear a doll-shaped bandage for it to heal. The fire also frayed her hair.

Nia straightens my mind out, “She’s a teacher who just got fired because she wasn’t reading to the students enough. She was telling them a story with a puppet on her hand when she was fired.”

I like Nia’s version of that one much better. I am concerned about the firing though. Seems like a pretty cool teacher to be using a puppet to act out a story.

Me: Hot date to the drive-in movie theater.

Nia: They’re just driving home.

Oh, this one is good. It’s a witch trying to remove the mermaid spell cast upon this Barbie in need of a comb. (The spell will also fix that.) The witch must perform the incantation in a hot tub in order for the mermaid to be the right temperature to shed her scales and form legs. Plus, an adult fruity beverage will also magically appear in celebration after her tail transforms.

Nia had no thought of witches. “The mermaid has to stay in the tub and the girl standing just wanted to warm her feet because she just got back from Kansas City visiting daddy.”

I’m not jealous at all but I like my witch story way better.

All of the children under age 8 must sit on the only child seat in the house. As soon as one gets down they all must stop watching tv. The dogs, cat, rabbit and Cinderella mouse are attached to the children with an invisible leash. They must go wherever the children go.

Nia explains, “They are brothers and sisters watching tv. See the crown on the bike helmet?” (I love the close up picture below. Really shows the placement of each child – and that crown.)

I can’t wait to hear what the next morning of Barbie world holds for me. I wonder if that teacher will get her job back?

Tags: Barbies, imagination, pretend play