Smurfette and Murfette are Home

By KEVIN DING

The momentum from Alice Tu getting us tickets to see "The Smurfs" movie screening hasn't been stopped in part because of McDonald's Smurfs figurines, watching "Smurfs" reruns on the obscure Boomerang channel, a birthday gift toy set from Whitney to Sedona and now two plush and much-coveted Smurfette dolls from Mike Trudell.

Smurfette has made it into the beds of both girls for night-time, the highest of bars. To my chagrin regarding my childhood stuffed animal Ngow-Ngow, he was recently replaced (along with Sedona's longtime lamb-headed blanket "Blankie) as Sedona's sleep mate by a 12-inch, very soft Clifford the Big Red Dog doll given to Sedona for her birthday by my mom. Sedona clutches that big red dog all night long -- and I will say Clifford smells really nice these days from Sedona's sweet natural scent rubbing off on him. Smurfette, however, has joined Clifford in Sedona's clutches now -- and both girls spend a lot of time creating fantasy experiences and voices for their new dolls.

Maven still sleeps with her soft white pillowcase P.W. (although there are now three versions of him for convenience), with a variety of other animals in bed with her around the perimeter, but Murfette is up there for snuggling. I named her doll "Murfette" (Maven) to differentiate from "Smurfette" (Sedona).

Sedona's comment shortly after being presented with Smurfette on Tuesday was classic -- showing some clever word play in keeping with how the Smurfs sub in the word "Smurf" for all sorts of phrases or words. It left me quite impressed ...

Me: What present did you think was wrapped inside Tru's shirt?

Sedona: I thought it was Smurfette.

Me: Then why didn't you say you thought it was?

Sedona: I wanted it to be a Smurfise.

(Maven chimed in also then with her own take: "I thought it was going to be Smurfette in there because I wanted it to be Smurfette.")