A small wish - part 1

I saw a Sasha toddler for the first time at the 2012 Sasha Festival. Later, the antics of Lonely, Lucas and Connor on Ronnie, Dee and Jen's blogs kept my younger daughter laughing and drew her attention to toddlers.  More recently in 2014 there was a big gathering of toddlers at the 2014 festival in the US and then at the Chat 'n Snap in the UK.  My daughter kept asking if she could save up for one, so we started her toddler fund (mainly any sales I made at the Chat 'n Snap, kind donations and she has been doing helpful chores around the house which she keeps track of in an account book).  I wanted her to understand that you can't just have everything you want straight away - it often means saving up and working hard.

Earlier this year I posted a request on Sasha Mart for anyone who might be selling a toddler to contact me.  Lorraine had suggested that if a toddler was for sale in the USA she could bring it back after the 2015 festival as these days the additional cost of UK customs and international shipping can really make buying a doll from overseas expensive.  After a few days I was contacted by SusanLK in Massachusetts who had a Claudius for sale.  A lot of emails flew back and forth, arrangements were made and in due course the toddler was posted within the USA to Norvell who was going to the festival (Susan couldn't attend and we didn't want the doll to be sent direct to the hotel).

Norvell kindly took photos which she emailed to my daughter when he arrived at her home.  This certainly helped increase the excitement about him as the waiting for his arrival continued.

Gotz toddler Claudius (photo by Norvell)

Close up of the toddler Claudius (photo by Norvell)

My daughter reading the email from Norvell with the picture of the toddler doll

The next stage of his journey was with Norvell to the festival in Texas where she gave him to Lorraine.  He is in such lovely minty condition that Lorraine decided not to take him out at the festival to photograph him attending it (we had given her permission to do so if she wanted to).  Norvell added a gift from the festival to his tube and he travelled to the UK in Lorraine's hand luggage with Henry (his tube went in her suitcase).

Lorraine arrived back in the UK just as my daughter went off to the first of 2 summer camps, so it was only today that we were able to arrange to meet up (at Lorraine's house) for my girl to finally get her longed for toddler boy.

Laura and Florence help open the toddler's tube

He was carefully wrapped in a towel and in tissue paper

Oh he is beautiful

One very happy girl with Laura, toddler and Florence

My daughter asked me to photograph her toddler's introduction to his new big sisters.  As he is a sailor boy, to make him feel at home Florence had dressed in her original Marina outfit and Laura wore the union flag with sailor collar dress which I made a couple of years ago.

"Hello, welcome to England little brother, I'm Florence and this is Laura"

"We have a gift - our girl made these swimming shorts for you" said Laura

"We think he likes the yachts on his swimming shorts"

"Thank you big sister Laura"

it is good to have a welcome cuddle

"Look, my new swimming shorts fit"

My daughter decided to name her new toddler 'Edmund' (Ed for short) an old English name which means 'fortunate protector'.  She was also considering 'Kelvin', a Scottish name which means 'friend of ships'.

giving Edmund a cuddle

I would like to thank SusanLK, Norvell and Lorraine for enabling my daughter's wish to come true in such a lovely way and helping to nurture her doll hobby.

There is a part two of meeting Edmund which follows in the next post.