A Tale of Two Xiao Xiaos

Long before Madi came home, there was a special baby doll brought home by Grandma and Grandpa Murphy. We ended up naming the doll Xiao Xiao (pronounced 'Chow Chow' and nicknamed after Madi's given Chinese name, Xiao Yuan). Xiao Xiao sat in Madi's crib waiting for months, if not a year. Over time, Xiao Xiao has become Madi's 'everything'. She has taken this baby everywhere and many of her experiences have been in the presence of Xiao Xiao for the last two years. This condition of this doll's hair is indicative of how much she's experienced!

Over the Summer, Madi and Jimmy went to a birthday party in the neighborhood. Somehow, a container of kerosene spilled on Xiao Xiao and saturated her entire body and hair. While Madi was napping, we tried and tried to remove the traces of kerosene to no avail. We washed her with everything under the sun. We had no choice but to deem Xiao Xiao unsafe for Madi to play with. The mere thought was devastating to us, and to all of her Grandparents--to anyone who knew of Xiao Xiao for that matter.

Grandma Murphy and I plotted about how we would discuss it when she woke up and called a local merchant to line up a quick replacement. We were sitting on her bed, and I told her--point blank--the truth! I told her that something happened to Xiao Xiao and she was simply unsafe to play with. I explained that we would go on Monday to buy a new Xiao Xiao. Madi took the news remarkably. In fact, she took it much better than we did! We knew that the kerosene would wear off in time, and chances were that Xiao Xiao would be fine, but Grandpa Murphy would hear nothing of it. He was adamant about a replacement for safety reasons.

We picked up the new doll that Monday, and the original Xiao Xiao went in hiding in the spare room for a few weeks. We visited her daily. Once we determined she was safe again, Madi decided that the new doll would be Xiao Xiao, and she would be the older sister. Her original doll would be the baby and would be named Xiao Yuan--fitting that she chose to name her beloved original doll after her own given name.