NYC, with a 7-year-old from Mechanicsburg

Ingrid's friend from home, Katie, visited with her 7-year-old daughter (8 in early December), Samantha, this past weekend. Have you been to the American Girl Doll store on 5th Avenue? It's a scene. Whomever thought of the idea of creating historical dolls, with a salon, a cafe, books, clothes, all the off-shoots, is rich now.

Sammie bought a new doll with the "Injury Outfit"--crutches, two casts, a finger splint, and other injury accessories. She didn't buy the wheelchair. She loved the store, and then, we wanted to go to Dylan's Candy Bar, this amazing candy store on the Upper East Side that Dylan Lauren, Ralph Lauren's daughter, owns.

"I'm booooooored," Sammie wailed. "Can we take a caaaaab? It's too faaaaaar!"

Once we got there, to the Willy Wonka-like caverns of Dylan's, she loved it. She bought three feet of bubble gum, $17 worth of multicolored M&Ms, and some chocolate coins.

Then we went down to Chinatown to look for fake purses for Katie, and yes, for 7-year-old Sammie. When we first exited the cab, Sammie said, "Chinatown is weird. No one here speaks English." Anything unfamiliar, she calls "weird."

Katie and Sam wanted Coach bags. We mentioned it to someone, and we were guided through blocks and blocks of Canal Street, no idea where we were going, through throngs of people, into a storefront with no name, way into the back, into a private door, into a tiny room with, indeed, some of the better-looking fake brands we had seen. Sammie and Katie each got a fake Coach bag, Ingrid a fake Chloe wallet, and Katie, some purses for friends back home.

At Pearl River Mart, Sammie bought Chinese pink slippers, and now she wants a Chinese outfit for her birthday. The next day, she said, "Chinatown was so cool! Can we go back there??"