After yesterday’s doll party extravaganza, it got me thinking about Foxie and the many iterations of dolls she has gone through. This afternoon I dug deep into the blog and found what I think is the first mention of Foxie and dolls on July 14th, 2008. Starting with the now famous, pink haired troll doll, eventually dubbed “Trixie.”
Looking back also leads me to believe that Foxie found her passion for Dora the Explorer Dolls sometime in 2011. The first blog that I could find from a quick search was her carrying Dora on Christmas Eve of that year. Please correct me if I’m wrong dear avid blog readers!
Foxie has also had an array of random dolls over the years. I found this old video of Baby John as an example.
Strawberry Shortcake Dolls made their first appearance in Foxie’s life, starting in 2017 with this purple haired girl:
Yesterday, volunteer Cate brought a new Gabby Doll to Foxie and we gave it to her as an early morning birthday present. It’s always fun to see where Foxie’s taste in dolls will lead. Which toy manufacturer will benefit from her passions next?
Hahahaha, Diana, I had seen the “Baby John” video, but didn’t realize it was “JB”!!:smile:
Now I get the laughing from the caregivers! (though not the little “that’s what I would do” from Diana at the end :wink:)
Whenever I see Foxie do this with her dolls, I think that she is trying to imitate the pop-up game that she plays with the troll dolls. She holds it in one hand, uses her other hand to slap the feet, and the doll goes flying up into the air, and she catches it behind her back. I think that those dolls who don’t pass muster are the ones that don’t allow her to do this.
Thank you Anna for doing your research and sharing the history of Foxie and her dolls. The Baby John doll was funny but super peculiar, like horror-movie-doll-coming-to-life peculiar!
It really is touching that, after all these years, Foxie still enjoys her dolls. And, she can slap them, stand on them and spin, rub them softly against her belly, carry them as if they were a real chimpanzee baby, kiss them, toss them, bash them, and find babysitters for them. It’s all her choice! I just love it. And I love Foxie all the more because of it.
Seeing Foxie with her dolls brings me so much joy. It’s so wonderful that she has an outlet to express her emotions and it amazes me that she trusts her caregivers enough to draft them into babysitting duty.
Have you noticed any tendency in Foxie’s choices? Besides the attraction for extreme hair colour…. :slight_smile: Do you think she would be happy with any doll-like object, or do facial features count when choosing “the one”? (I mean, I guess I’d choose more baby-chimp-like dolls if I were a chimp, and the facial features of those are more similar to real-life chimpanzee infants than the human dolls’ face.)
I think an old video said she doesn’t like chimp/monkey babies, IIRC.
one thing for sure I noticed is the hair. No plastic hair for Foxie, she likes the ‘real’ feeling hair.
I used to think maybe she started with trolls because they have those little pug noses. Only Foxie knows:slight_smile:
Oh, thank you for the info! I accidentally left out the words “troll dolls” from my previous comment, I wanted to say: (I mean, I guess I’d choose more baby-chimp-like dolls if I were a chimp, and the facial features of those troll dolls are more similar to real-life chimpanzee infants than the human dolls’ face.)
I thought it was bc they looked “chimpy”, too!
Yes, and it’s still a mystery why she rejects monkey-dolls!
I’m sure JB really loved being reminded about Baby John. Will that be his nickname for a while? It would be if I worked there, lol.
Took me a minute to find the pic but my granddaughter sent Foxie a special delivery package with Dora the Explorer back in 2013 when she was just 5. It was even featured on your blog back then. She’s now 16 and I love to pull out the pics of her preparing the package to show her how excited she was to send her special gift. I hope she will always have a love for animals and feel as connected to them as I do.
That’s so sweet!