Op-er-a-tion, op-er-a-tion…

op-er-aaaaa-tion just now….

come on, sing it with me.

k…..maybe not.

So like most moms, my mom saved (or made me save) a few things from my infancy so that she could one day pass them on to me for my children.  One of the things she saved was a doll from when I was very young. Now that I think about it, I don’t know exactly when or from whom I got it. If I remember correctly, though, there is a picture of me during my second Christmas (I was about 14 months old) holding this doll and sitting on a rocking horse in front of the tree. With that said, you can imagine the kind of condition this thing was in when I pulled it out a few weeks ago.

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Yep, that’s the doll. All 26-ish years of here.

Naturally, after looking at this thing, I was worried about exposing my daughter to it…drool stains and all. I wanted to just toss it in the washer but that wasn’t really an option because of the wind-up music box inside that calmly chinks “rock-a-by baby”….or it did. Well, it still does but somehow two of the notes are ear-piercingly out of tune.  How does a music box go out of tune? I mean, it’s just a rotating barrel with knobs that pluck a few metal bars.  I’m stumped. 

I really wanted to conserve the originality of this sentimental doll but then I got thinking.  I didn’t want my daughter to grow up singing that song out of tune. It would drive me crazy.

Which brings me to the operation. As careful as I could, I removed the music box and stitched the slit from the removal and the hole from the thingy that you turn to wind-up the box. It wasn’t the most perfect sewing job but I’d say it turned out pretty well for a doll that is close to disintegration.

Here is the back of her before I finished her stitches.

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Now, without a music box, she could be tossed in the washer.

And this is the doll after.

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Yes, I’m sad about the music box but dang, look how much better it looks!  A success. But the whole out of tune music box is still gonna drive me crazy. Seriously, how does that happen?

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