To show the world is back to normal here you can see for yourself that Sleepy Samantha is back to taking care of blind Robin. Even from here his eyes look nicer - less gunky.

That was the morning on the shelves. By noon WR had been to Gualala post office and it was like Christmas around my chair. The first box I opened was the one from Tina in China because I felt fairly sure it contained a doll. It did. I have one of the same kind which I had ordered several months ago.

This doll, I never had the urge to take apart. I was totally happy with her and her looks and feel so she  happily sits today on the shelves as companion to Raspberry. I love her as she is.

The new baby, however, felt very different to me. Even though she came in a beautiful box, I had the feeling something was not quite right. I undressed her to find so many features either made more cheaply, poorly or not done at all that I knew I would have to completely redo her. Before I got started on her I took one more photograph with the lovely box she came in that was the one new thing about this order. The box was nicely improved. The doll would not be a good buy if one paid the $109. most sellers were asking for her. I paid $21, so the whole doll was the price of a kit.

Her body was made of some kind of fabric that was almost rubbery. She had big good dolly joints at her shoulders and hips, but the tackiness of the fabric would not permit the limbs to be turned into being positioned. So I started snipping the plastic ties, glad to get them off of her and eager to plan a new organic body for her. As I examined her nails I saw the paint job was unbelievably sloppy with the color far beyond the nail beds. I used acetone to take as much of it off as I could get. I must say, whatever the Chinese used as paint is very durable and tough. Late in the afternoon she was in a tray with her new manicure drying. Oh, also you can see in the photo what the Chinese now use to put plugs in the ends of limbs which are imitations of Bountiful Baby's plugs to reinforce the top of the limb that is tied to the body. The Chinese have a cheaper method. Someone cuts up chunks of pvc pipes  which are inserted without capping the limb stuffing. It works but looks rather junky.

While all of this was happening, I did open the box from Dolls by Sandie to find the smaller sized eyes I was waiting on for the Berenguer baby I could not finish last week. The eyes popped right in very easily. If I wanted to wait another week I could have ordered an even smaller size (16 mm) as these 18 mms were still very big.  But they work and this poor unnamed baby can edge closer to being a real therapy reborn.

Doesn't he look happy to be becoming? I just realized looking at the photo that in the flurry of the afternoon's new babies, I forgot to stuff his head. I am sure it will wait for me until tomorrow. I am very excited about seeing this guy come together. I love the expression on his face. He only needs a body to become a complete personality.

Among the several doll kits in the box from Sandie was a complete Berenguer baby. He was already dressed and together, but just giving him a brief cuddle I knew he was not properly weighted. I was almost glad to know I should take him apart and give him a new body. I was right. His limbs had no stuffing in them at all, and were not weighted. His Berenguer body was easy to dislike.

His last photo as a Berenguer baby. You can see that he even had not had his nails painted either.

I did save the "do not remove this tag" for inclusion with his new body. I will have to make a new pattern to make up for the fact that his limbs are only 1/4 the length they should be. Last week one of the AA babies had this same feature in her legs but I found that adding stuffed legs to the vinyl legs made her softer to cuddle. I am hoping that having arms and legs with stuffed extensions will add to his softness, too. He has very nicely painted hair and with that tiny opened mouth should make someone happy to give him a bottle or a paci.