Well...? Have you?
You must be thinking "Why on earth...?"
Well...?
Ok, I'll go. I have. You see, our youngest has a hobby, a really creative hobby. Our youngest makes custom dolls (#ooak I have been told is the hashtag). And, like most other hobbies, information on the best way to do things related to this hobby can be found online. She has studied and read and tried to practice some of these things. It makes for a very interesting home environment.
I poke my head in her room occasionally. She keeps it very nice and tidy, a far cry from her younger years where it looked like a tornado blew through. When she and our youngest son were smaller they shared a room. His side of the room would always be pretty tidy. Her side... Not so much. I once asked her if a tornado had blown through just her side of the room. She looked me dead in the face and said, "Yes, it left his side alone. It just picked on me." #kidssaythedarndestthings
So, back to her room in present day. She does keep it very nice and tidy. She also has naked dolls laying on what seems to be every flat surface with paint on them drying. Some have heads. Some do not. Some have heads and no hair. Most are in some state of painting or removing the hair from them. Oh, and my favorite is seeing heads without bodies. Those are especially creepy if they still have their makeup on. She will take the makeup off of the faces that comes from the factory and add her own flair, so sometimes they're barefaced (strange to see in it's own right) and sometimes not. I think I have finally gotten used to her room being this way.
One night I rounded the corner into the kitchen and stopped cold. There, standing at the stove, was our youngest. She had a dutch oven size large pot of water boiling on the stove. She was holding a doll in her hands, head in one hand, body in the other, over the pot which now looked like a cauldron. Just as I opened my mouth to ask what she was doing she jerked her hands apart gently and the doll's head popped off. It was then she realized I was there. She turned to me as if nothing was amiss and said, "Hi mom."
"...'Hi mom,'...? That's it? What on EARTH are you doing?" I asked her, so confused and a little concerned.
"You have to heat up the plastic pieces in the neck so you can remove the head to remove the hair inside, people online suggest using a pot and boiling water for the steam," she says with a shrug of her shoulders. I take a deep breath. It makes total sense. I am still a little unsettled. But, since it obviously worked, she had a doll's body in one hand and a doll's head in the other, I let it go.
She came up to me later and hugged me, then she said, "Am I your little psychopath?" with a giggle. Um... Maybe? But you're OUR little psychopath.
A friend and colleague of mine that has helped our youngest with advice and some supplies laughed her butt off when I told her this story. When she finally stopped laughing she said, "I just use hot water in a mug and set the doll in it upside down." Oh. That makes more sense and sounds much more energy efficient.
Our youngest now uses a mug and hot water, but I will never forget the image of her standing at her cauldron on our stove with doll in hand, in two pieces.
What sort of things have your loved ones done that made you step back and question it all? I want to know all about them... So I don't feel so alone. :D
Be well, y'all.