good as new

....well, not quite, but I tried!



Since Christmas my little one has been playing with my old baby doll, Baby Heen. But it's been bugging me that she's so dirty and messy. I remember my mom used to wash her and I would be so thrilled to get her fresh, warm, and clean out of the dryer.

So today Baby Heen got a makeover of sorts. I soaked her and all of her clothes in a big bucket of Oxyclean and scalding hot water. Then I scrubbed her and her clothes with an old toothbrush. You should've seen the nasty stuff that came out! Her cloth skin looks so much cleaner. Her hair, however, is a different story. It came out of the bucket terribly matted and nasty. Of course, when she went into the bucket it was matted and nasty, too, so this wasn't a huge difference. But I got a wide toothed comb and actually combed her hair--I felt like I was six again, doing my doll's hair (I used to put curlers in Mandy and Becky's hair--do you remember Mandy, Becky, Jenny, or Joey dolls? I had Mandy and Becky, my next door neighbor had Jenny, and my brother had Joey, and we used to play with them all together). Anyway, I got a lot of the tangles out and thought maybe I had made a difference in her hair.

Then I put her in the dryer with a pillow (to help with the thumping noise she made every time her hard, plastic face hit the wall of the dryer!). After a few minutes I took her out to make sure she wasn't melting from the heat (even though I had it on low). She wasn't melting, but her hair was dry and still matted and nasty, just like it was before it got wet. Oh well. It was no worse for wear.

But she does look better....infinitely cleaner and ready for lots of playing! My daughter really could care less, but I feel better about it, anyway.