I saw these ¡Mucha Lucha! plush dolls last week in downtown Laredo at a toy store called BB Toys -- written in the same font as Toys 'R Us. Yeah, so I was thinking ooh, **deal** if it's a rip off store. It was two days before Christmas, crazy crowded and a madhouse in there -- probably because a lot of shoppers just aren't crossing the border nowadays because of the ongoing narco war. I had to leave my mother waiting outside in the stroller while me and the husband plowed through in search of gifts for a niece and nephew. The store had shelves along the edges but all in the middle was just boxes filled with Made in China toys. I usually am up for a good hunt for a bargain, but this place was suffocating, not to mention full of mostly crap toys that break in a few weeks. For that, I'll hit up the Dollar Tree. I walked out empty-handed, and opted to buy old-school games like Candyland and Connect Four to give as gifts instead.

Anyway ... about the dolls ...

¡Mucha Lucha! the cartoon never hit my radar when it was out, in the early 2000's, but seems like it would pass muster. The characters have names like Rikochet and Buena Girl, The Flea and El Rey. You can build and name your own luchador on the Mucha Lucha website.

If I were a luchadora, I'd name myself La Mama Dama. Maybe. Hmmm, gotta think about this. I could also riff of Mujer Maravilla and be La Mama Maravilla. Wonder Mom! Me gusta.

We really like the Baby Abuelita doll series in our house -- and I've written about them here. The toddler has Baby Andrea and Abuelito Pancho. The traditional Spanish songs they sing are terrific, because lawd knows I can't carry a tune.

The Baby Abuelita company has just added a little boy to their series of singing plush dolls, which up to now included abuelo, abuela and three different baby girl dolls. Javier looks older than the girl dolls, with his jeans and polo shirt and tousled hair. But I dunno, I kind of prefer the more traditional look of the other dolls. The baby girls in their cute vestiditos and Abuelita Rosa's vata and Abuelito Pancho's guayabera are so spot on. I want to put the abuelos in chairs at the kitchen table and serve them some cafe con leche con unos pastelitos and platicar with them.

I actually did a double-take when I saw these dolls at a Target store here in the D.C. area recently. I was like heeeeeeeeeeey Abuelita! How'd you get up here from Miami? I had previously only seen them in Miami, and at that, in the grocery stores in Miami, although I knew they did sell them in other places, like Wal-mart and Toys "R" Us, and other cities, like Houston. But DC isn't exactly a Latino mecca. Glad to see them, though. It was like seeing familia -- isn't that sad?

Now if I could only get a decent taco around here. I know, that's like my daily ask in these blog posts. Dolls que cantan y tacos. It's not too much to ask for, right?

The toddler K is totally content to be with her dolls and stuffed animals, especially los feos, apparently. This pic totally reminded me of this E.T. moment. Aw, my little alien child.

I am a sucker for DIY. Once in a while, I'll dig out my crafting crap from the basement and give it a whirl. It's all those specialized tools I bought at Michael's -- that in the store I was totally convinced I needed -- but have no idea how to use mostly because I'm not patient enough to follow written directions. Oh yeah, I also have a pretty sweet Singer sewing machine that my husband bought me for Christmas around the time Project Runway made its debut. Yeah, me and how many other people thought that they'd somehow learn how to sew and become brilliant designers overnight, make it on the show the following season, and become Tim Gunn's darling. Ha! The clothing I attempted to make was hideous and unwearable. Carry on, carry on.

These days, I have no delusions about having time to learn how to sew or even cook a meal that takes longer than fifteen minutes to slap together. Good thing that now I feel a vicarious sense of accomplishment just by watching h HGTV or Food Channel -- or Biggest Loser :)

But if I really feel like actually accomplishing something, I can always go to a crafts show. I don't mean an old school crafts show, either. I'm talking about the Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair that happens every fall in DC. It's like the physical embodiment of Etsy -- with tons of indie artisans and young hipster crafters hand-making everything from felt or crocheted toys; recycled silver or clay jewelry; original prints to hang on your walls; screen-printed t-shirts or onesies; reusable coffee sleeves; headbands and tons of other stuff. Lots of recycled, lots of felt, lots of hand-sewn, lots of unique singular style.

And lots of overusing the words cool and cute. But it's pretty much true -- everything there is pretty much cool and/or cute.

Last year, I bought the most awesome stuffed and mounted unicorn head that hangs above the toddler's crib. Love it so much, I'll even overlook that Candycorn's story is that this unicorn is meth addict from the Plushkill Forest and could possibly scare the child as soon as she realizes its not like her other toys.

I also got a fabulous for-mom family birdie necklace for myself -- great gift, btw.

This year's show was this past weekend and the husband bought a cute bunny love t-shirt for the toddler.  And I totally regret leaving without buying this nameplate necklace that says Mala. I'm totally going to get it on the Etsy store. Makes me think of the song by DLG: Juliana que mala eres. Que mala eres Juliana.

THANK GOODNESS FOR ETSY. And the Etsy Addict iphone app :) It's like the Crafty Bastards that keeps giving all year long.

At some point, I ran across a super cute plush doll of El Chavo del Ocho at Target online, but it seems to have disappeared. Or else, it was just a limited-run type of deal. I got these Chavo and Chilindrina runner-up dolls in a tendajito in downtown Los Angeles, and yup, they're pretty fugly. I mean, they're kind of endearing, but they're those knock-off dolls that have that not-quite-right look to them. You know, remember the Cabbage Patch knock-offs that didn't have the Xavier Roberts signature on the butt? That was classy rip-off compared to these.

But my opinion doesn't really matter here, because the toddler K is head-over-heels for them. I mean, she's really digging these two, slobbering them with besitos.

I'm trying to imagine the conversation these two are having as they hang out. Que piensas?

WWCS (What Would Chavo Say?)??? Ya me imagino...

I had several of these Mexican dolls growing up. My mom would buy them for me when we'd trek across the Rio Grande into Nuevo Laredo for a day shopping trip. I never remember ever really playing with them, but I liked the ribbons in their hair. My husband says they look kinda scary with their crazy black dot eyes. These munecas are no Mexican Barbie, I guess, pero tampoco asi.

As I started to put together baby K's nursery last year I knew I wanted a few of these to put up in her room as a display on a wall shelf, which is exactly what I did. These dolls are hand-made by indigenas and, at least when I was younger, were sold by street vendors along the border. My mother bought two of these in Nuevo Laredo and the other two in Guadalajara, and then she shipped them to me.

You can order them online here. Cost for each is between $17 and $25. I've also seen these dolls in places like the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, and they ran about that much, too. Needless to say, if you buy them en la frontera they are much cheaper.

Okay ready for a close-up of the eyes my husband says are freaky:

Blabla makes such wonderful children's products, but its usually just the uber-soft and adorable dolls that I find in the posh baby boutiques here in DC. The blabla dolls are knitted by Pervuian artisans (based in fair-trade ethics) and the craftsmanship is really superb. Some of the larger dolls are pretty pricey--around $130 (yes, $130, close your mouth now) but thankfully for us working class folk, most run between $25 and $50.

I've been eyeing them for soooo long and I've visited their website a few times, even placed them in my Cart on Amazon. In our house, we like to mix up the naco with the nice and this is definitely niiiiice. I really do like the larger ones so I feel a splurge coming on.

They have a really wide selection of dolls which I imagine makes it hard to choose just one, and you end up with an armful of blabla monkeys in pink, blue and green eventually. The other products are really fabulous, too.

The mobiles, in particular, are fantastic. The bird ones would go well with baby K's nursery, although Dos Borreguitas likes this one the best.

I actually made baby K's mobile myself from a Chinese Zodiac hanging decoration. It was definitely just for show though--I took it out every time I put her in the crib, which is sort of self-defeating. Should've gone for a blabla.