generations

Many, many years ago, my mother's step-grandfather made this hutch (we called it a doll cupboard) for his daughter. When I was a child, she gave it to my mother for me to play with. It was originally a stained dark wood, which was covered over by my mom with the same pinkish-purple lead-based paint that she used on everything at that time (dressers, chairs, etc.).

After I had a daughter, my mom sent the doll cupboard to my house for my daughter to play with. Of course, the paint was slightly chipped, but I was unaware of the dangers of lead paint, so my daughter played with it while it was still the pinkish-purple color.

For Christmas last year, my daughter decided it was time for the doll cupboard to go to her home for her almost two-year-old daughter and her soon-to-be-arriving sister to play with. My daughter wanted to strip off the lead-based paint and repaint it. Obviously, she couldn't do that task while she was pregnant, so I volunteered to take care of it. And now, only two months and a week late, the cupboard is ready to go back to her house.

I took the almost two-year-old down to the shop while Jack was re-installing the last of the latches, and she was totally amazed at it, but she had to stand on a chair to play with it as it was still up on the work bench. When we brought it upstairs and set it down and she realized it was HER SIZE--well, all I can say is wow is she a girl.

I only wish I had used my video recorder instead of my still camera for these photos, because the cooing and ooh and ahh sounds coming out of this little girl--well, they were delightful...