About babies. Polya and I

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To my elder one,

and all who lead baby doll by it’s hand

Chapter 1. Dinner and Polya

Somewhen before I thought we live in a house, but mommy told me – almost. There are a lot of little houses in our house; their names are flats. Those flats are like honeycombs in a hive and the one that is mine called a flat.

I have a doll. She is a tiny one here, a baby doll, so do not think she is like any other doll. I call my baby doll Polya. Polya is quite big for a doll, she has soft hands and soft legs, knows how to drink and how to wee, and can open and close her eyes as the real baby. Polya is my daughter and she is my res-pon-si-bi-li-ty. Don’t know the look of it but I do have special bag for it.

My Polya has a lot of things and we are together all the time.

“Babie, it is meal time. Go wee, wash your hands and sit down at the table.” Mommy calls.

I like it when mommy calls me babie or kitty. I do have a name but it is a great secret and I won’t tell it anyone, except Polya.

I pick Polya up and run to the kitchen.

“You’ve been to the toilet, haven’t you?” Mommy asks.

“Nope.”

“You’ve washed your hands, haven’t you?”

“Nope.”

“And why is it that you are here?”

“Polya, have you been to the toilet? Have you washed your hands? Ay-yay-yay! Let’s go.”

And we are heading to practice he-gy-en (it is a very smart word, I’ve been memorized it for ages).

I take a lot of toilet paper (in the end all have to be clean!) and put it into the bin (mommy insists I use it every time I’m in here), then I wee, get dressed and run to the bathroom. I wash my hands and head to the kitchen. There is a lot of water on the bathroom floor, and it’s slippery somehow, but it can not stop me and Polya (it is a challenge to stop us at all).

I place Polya in a toy chair (green, with strawberry-pattern) and buckle her there (why, it’s so easy to fall out!). I put a toy plate full of toy meal in front of her. Mommy says it is from plastic, but it is t-o-y, she just doesn’t get it. I sit down at the table (yes, I do have my own table, for children, pink, and a pink matching chair). There is soup in my plate with star-shaped pasta in it. Also there are an egg and something green, but I’ll pull out everything odd: I am not a goat to eat green, no-no. And a piece of bread, a big one. I destroy this bread and rub it with both my hands. It is already a nice pottage in my plate. Now everything is as if under the snow. Pretty! I pull out all of the green. The soup is hot. I put a spoon in it and fish corns out. It’s a pepper, but like corn, and it tastes bitter so I don’t eat it. I make a pile near my plate. I blow loudly («Fu-u-u!») and drops fly in all directions possible. That’s it, I am full.

“No, this won’t work: you have to finish it.”

“Yes, Polya, finish it, mommy put a lot of effort into cooking!” I tell her and it is a meal-mess what we do the next half an hour. Now it’s definitely it.”

“Mommy, I’ve eaten everything! Thank you!”

And I turn to Polya:

“Remember to tell Thank you because well-mannered people tell politely words.”

I get up from the table. And what is under?.. I shake a finger at Polya:

“All the crumbs are on the floor. You did bad, Polya, ay-yay-yay!”

I put a chair near the sink, take a rag and clean it up. Some stains remain but it’s nothing: crumbs are finally in the sink, not on the floor.

“Remember to wash up, won’t you?” Mommy says. “The rag is under the sink… Just in case…”

Chapter 2. Bath and Polya

There is a shower noise in the bathroom. I shake a finger at Polya:

“Don’t peek: papa is naked, he is taking a shower. Right now we’ll bath you too.”

I grab my fish shaped watering can (granny presented) and go to the kitchen. I full the toy bath with water. Check it with my bare hands because it should be warm for not to burn my Polya’s skin. I pretend to add some foam from the bottle. All I have is a toy, but mommy has a real foam in the bathroom, in big pretty bottle, and it smells like roses, later we’ll sniff it too. I beat water with my hands to make my imagined foam fluffier. That’s it.

“Polya, help me: strip. Good girl. Let me rub your back, and tummy… Now you are super clean!”

I wrap my baby doll in a towel with a corner. I have one, for dolls specifically, and there is a duck face on its top. My Polya – is a good girl: she loves bathing.

“Kitty, it is time for your bath.” Mommy calls for me.

“Coming! But don’t look at my backside while I am nude!”

Chapter 3. Diseases and Polya

“Ay-yay-yay! You have to wear your socks: the floor is cold!” I say, grab a nappy (green, with a horse-pattern) and wipe Polya’s nose.

“I will treat you.”

I wrap my doll in a nappy and put her to bed. There are all I need in my toy aid kit. And pretty much more.

“We’ll need this, this too, and…” I take the bottles and lay them out on the table. All of them are the same, of course, only names are different, but I do know for sure that this one is full of sore throat syrup, and here is salt water for the nose.

“Now, lie still.” I say to tightly swaddled Polya. “I’ll get honey and chamomile.”

I give Polya tea and tell her:

“There is a special box in the kitchen – an aid kit. And there are me-di-ci-nes in it. One must not touch it! That’s why your syrups are in here, in doll’s aid kit.”

“Kitty, it is late, time to go to bed.”

I do my business and jump under the blanket.

In the morning I touch her forehead – no fever.

“You see, I’ve done it well.”

And Polya smiles.

Chapter 4. Half an hour without mommy and we

Mommy says she needs to work a bit. Polya and I exchange glances and head to the kitchen (mommy has just mopped the floor). And what is it we want to do?

“Let’s eat!” I tell Polya and get some bread. We break it into little pieces… And suddenly I spot the bucket. It is not a real bucket, of course, but a flowerpot, but it looks quite like bucket. And like potty too. And I don’t want to go for toy potty at all (we should not interrupt mommy: she is wor-king).

“Polya, sit on it, it is time for you to wee!”

I place her on the potty, but there is leakage somewhere…

“Ay-yay-yay, Polya!” I shake my head.

We’ll clean it later.

I hear a noise in the hall – mommy’s head pops from the room and quickly disappears (kids need to be supervised!).

I put the bucket on a clean and soft chair and see… Watercolors!

“Polya, let’s paint some flowers!” I take my cup (no, I don’t want to drink right now but it will do for drawing), trembling brushes (mommy has pink brushes, she usually paints with them on pastry) and watercolors… But there is no paper!

“Polya, look, the table is white!” And we spread it on the table with our brushes.

Tired.

“Let’s wash our hands.” I tell Polya, take her to the sink, turn the tap on full.

“Ooops, we’ve wet the sleeves…”

Polya has something else on her mind, but mommy steps into the kitchen, interrupting this…

“Oh, it has been half an hour…” Mommy says.

“See? We are such good girls, we’ve been coping so well and done so much! Mommy praises us!”

And we smile broadly.

Chapter 5. Porridge and I

Mommy’s cooked us mil-ty-gra-in milk porridge. Polya and I just love it.

This morning we’ve got vaccinated and Polya is out of spirits… I have to do something, and fast.

Papa holds me (I am allowed to sit in his lap sometimes). I hold the plate full of porridge. Polya sits beside me, in her chair, and watches me, full of anticipation.

While the spoon is flying to my mouth I swat on porridge with all my fingers (why, that’s all mine, eat the way I like it). Meal spreads on me, on papa, on the floor…

Silence. Polya is gawping, but I do have fun.

I slap papa’s cheek with my whole palm. And that is the moment he starts whistling, as teapot from cartoon.

“Take her ple-ase…” Papa shoves me to my mommy, then he shoves to her a spoon and only after that starts cleaning the mess.

But because of all this Polya smiles!

Chapter 6. Camera and I

I do have a space busy cube. Pretty thing it is. Rubber wires sticks out of it, and there are key with matching lock, and bunny spaceman rotates. And it is round-shaped! I spin, I twirl – and jump up! I have an idea!

“Polya, come here: I’ll take your picture!”

I place her in a toy chair. M-m-m, no, it won’t do, too dark. I turn on the light (doesn’t matter that it’s daytime) and drag a chair to the window.

“That’s it. Say cheese!” I insert the toy kea into the keyhole and it makes a click sound.

Chapter 7. Toilet paper and Polya

Polya and I walk down the hall. There is a light in the toilet, but door is locked. That’s interesting. I am knocking.

“Mommy, you there?”

Silence.

“Papa, you there?”

Silence.

Polya is already out of her temper and banging on the door.

The door opens slightly and a piece of toilet paper comes out of the crack.

Ransom it is.

Polya grabs the paper and we run. We tear it into tiny pieces and make a snowfall in the nursery. And where does it go after? Melts, I suppose…

Chapter 8. Potty and Polya

I play in the nursery – throw balls into dry pool. One bounces away. I go looking for it and what I see?..

“Ay-yay-yay, Polya, one should not play with potty.” I take the ball from toy potty. “It’s for wee. Let me help you. One should take pants off (I help her with an extra), sit on it straight (with quite an effort I bend Polya’s legs and sit her on the potty with all her backside, because she likes to sit on the very edge, I know it for sure) and wee…” Water streams from baby doll.

“Good girl!”

Chapter 9. Illuminator and Polya

It’s evening. I’ve brushed my teeth and already in my bed.

There are lots of toys in the nursery. I see them clearly in the daylight but at night they hide. In the dark. And I don’t like that I can’t see them any more.

“Don’t be afraid, Polya.” I say as I turn to face her (she is under her pink blanket in her rocking bed beside my bed). “Mommy told me there is going to live astronaut in the nursery, with us, from tomorrow evening and that he’ll show us all that’s in the sky and that it will be bright in the room.”

One hundred million years after (but mommy says it’s been only one day) it is evening and time to go to bed again. Mommy pulls out of the box an astronaut . It’s little, white, with big bubble on its head. Very odd. Mommy puts him in the nursery, on the cupboard. She plugs the plug into the socket and presses some buttons. And turns the light off…

Now it is bright and beautiful in here, and light flickers all over the ceiling.

“That is how star sky looks at night. Astronaut will be doing this some time every night and then go to sleep, too.”

“Now we can see all our toys!” I tell Polya while both of us are looking up.

Chapter 10. Tent and Polya

Polya and I are playing on the floor.

I want to build a house, but all the chairs are occupied. I open my closet (I can do that, yes) and get a sheet out of it. It is a big one, in animal-pattern, and it crunches.

I place Polya in the middle of the room and hug her.

“Now I’ll do this…” I say and cover myself with my head. Our new home is pretty much like zoo. There is a tiger, a cockatoo, even a crocodile in here! Polya has never seen such a thing and her lashes tremble.

“Koo-koo!” There is papa’s voice outside and he looks into the tent. “Wow, you are a magician, too!”

Chapter 11. Boots and Polya

There is a cupboard in the hall. All our shoes and sneakers are in there. Mommy says all of this is footwear, but I prefer shoes and sneakers.

Sometimes, while in a hall that leads to the kitchen, Polya and I stop to watch. There are a lot of shoes. And why is it that they are so different? What for? Why not wear the most beautiful?

Papa came from work. He washes his hands and rustles with his clothes inside the closet.

“Polya, look at these big-sized boots!” I place her left foot (and I already know where the left one is and where the right one, papa told me) into left boot and her right foot into right boot. Now she looks funny. “When the time is right and you are grown-up you can wear papa’s boots as well!”