American Girl Dolls

This evening, in the car, the girls decided to bicker over the worthwhile topic of whether or not Julia is younger or older than Madeleine's American Girl Dolls.

MADELEINE: Julia, can you believe that some of my American Girl dolls, except, like, not Willa and Baby Lily, are OLDER than you?
JULIA: Madeleine, in the books, American Girl dolls are, like, NINE or ten so they're NOT older than me.
MADELEINE: No, but Julia, the ones that aren't from the books.
JULIA: Wait, how old is Madeleine?*
MADELEINE: She's TEN.
JULIA: Well, if she's ten, then I'm older than her, because I'm ALMOST eleven.
MADELEINE: Wait, Julia, when's your birthday?
JULIA: November 23rd.
ME: Madeleine, you don't know when Julia's birthday is??
JULIA: She NEVER remembers my birthday.  She's always like, "Wait, Julia, when's your birthday again?"
ME: Really??
MADELEINE: Okay, so Madeleine's birthday is...November 5th.
JULIA: December 5th?
MADELEINE: November 5th.
JULIA: (scathingly) Madeleine, it's already PAST that.
MADELEINE: Oh!  Okay...uh...
ME: Wait, Madeleine, do you know my birthday?
MADELEINE: (proudly) August 31st!
ME: Do you know Daddy's birthday?
MADELEINE: Uh....uh....uh...
ME: You should really know the birthdays of the people in your family.
MADELEINE: (ignoring me) Madeleine's birthday is...TOMORROW!
JULIA: (in utter despair) No!  It CAN'T be tomorrow!
ME: Madeleine, I really think Julia wants Madeleine to be younger than her, so can you just make Madeleine's birthday after November 23rd?
MADELEINE: (sighing in annoyance) Fiiiiiiine-uh.

*To make things extra confusing, Madeleine the human named one of her American Girl dolls Madeleine.



I can understand why Julia was so frustrated.  I'd be pretty ticked off if I found out my sister's doll was older than me, too.  I mean, here I'd be, thinking I'm the oldest kid in the house, and then WHAM! I discover that non-human Madeleine is actually older than me, edging me out by just a few days.  Good thing human Madeleine was amenable to changing non-human Madeleine's birth date to keep Julia in her rightful place as oldest child, human or otherwise.