Paper cuts, or why I'm swearing at Grace Lin

Grace Lin has some adorable Ling & Ting paper dolls up on her blog — the perfect activity to keep my daughters (ages 5 and 10) busy during these last few moments of school vacation week.

Grace recommends using cardstock, which we lacked, so our dolls were a little flimsy. I can’t blame that on Grace, but I did utter some quiet swears at her because Ling & Ting have really skinny arms and legs (feed those girls some more dump-Lings and dump-Tings, please). Parents, be careful when cutting out the dolls (and you will be doing the cutting, because your children are far too tired from all the coloring) — one wrong move (or sneeze) and you’ll lose an appendage, giving kids another way to tell Ling & Ting apart. (Ling: “And then the girls’ mommy cut your leg off by mistake.” Ting: “No, silly, that was your leg that got cut off!”)

Note to Grace: you are one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, but in the future, please remember that paper doll clothes should all be attached — hat, coat, boots, all in one piece, not four. Or in the case of twins, eight. Times my two children = sixteen. (I forgive you, sweet Grace, because my girls are now busy with your website’s coloring pages — no cutting, gotta love it!)

-- Jennifer M. Brabander