Pea is turning three in early June. And she wants a dollhouse. It’s all she can talk about. Currently, she’s playing with a plastic Fisher-Price dollhouse. It’s nothing special, but it does the trick. The little people, a mama, a daddy and a baby, keep getting lost. The furniture, a table, two chairs and a bed, has been missing for months. And it is covered in crayon, as is most every other toy in our house.

We’ve been doing research. Because that’s what we do. Because there is nothing more important, at Pea’s stage in life right now, then getting her a dollhouse that is going to knock her socks off. We have taken the hint…

When I was little, my dad made me a dollhouse. It wasn’t fancy. Just three rooms, one on top of another. Eventually, he added on two more rooms. And then, one night, while I was asleep, my mother, the interior designer, went to work. Unbeknownst to me. And when I awoke? I was ready to pack my bags and move into the dollhouse. It was perfect. Every detail had been lovingly and painstakingly recreated in miniature. There were clocks, fireplace pokers and even a little pie in the tiny little oven.

I loved that dollhouse. Played with it endlessly. Hours and hours and hours I’d sit on my floor, creating life in that little house.

I don’t have the dollhouse any more. I held onto it forever, but I eventually had to let it go. But now and again, a tiny candlestick or a miniature bedside table will turn up in some odd place. It brings me back. And I can’t wait to watch the lives that Pea will create in her own little dollhouse.

The latest issue of “Cookie” magazine had a spread with what they deemed the best dollhouses. Among them was this dollhouse by Greenleaf. It’s their best-seller, and I’ve had my eye on it for ages. And Pea? When she saw it? She insisted that that was the dollhouse for her. And no other would do. And so she’s been toting around that issue for a week now, all dog-eared and stained with sticky juice.

I think she might be a very happy little girl, come one early June morning. Just so long as her dad can find the 40 hours it is estimated to take to piece it all together. And since Pea is a huge daddy’s girl, something tells me that those 40 hours will not be a problem for her daddy…