Amy's Favorite Things: Scrump

Perhaps it's my Hawaiian heritage that allowed me to really connect with this movie, but "Lilo & Stitch" is one of the Disney flicks I love and never seem to tire of watching.  It also provides my favorite thing for this post:  Scrump!

What I love most about Scrump is that she's not necessarily the most beautiful looking doll, but Lilo still loves her, whether she's as nice as the dolls the other little girls have or not; Lilo made her out of love.  She's not the world's most perfect doll, but she's the world's most perfect doll for Lilo!  She has crooked stitching for a mouth, two different-sized buttons for eyes, a lop-sided head and a few pieces of scraggly hair.  I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel that way (LOL)!  And I love the story that Lilo has for her.  "This is Scrump," Lilo says at one point in the movie when she's introducing her doll to the other girls.  "I made her.  But her head is too big, so I pretended that a bug laid eggs in her ear, and she's upset because she has only a few more days to...", and that's when the other girls disappear, disgusted by the doll.  Upset, Lilo throws the doll and starts to run off, but then comes back, grabs Scrump and squeezes her tightly.  Lilo loves Scrump no matter what.  It's a love we all can hope for.

Now the real reason behind why Scrump is my favorite lies with a story about another little girl.  The summer after my senior year of high school, some neighbors we had at the time who were very close friends of ours were foster parents.  They had fostered dozens of kids over the years and had adopted two, a little boy and girl.  One day in July, they received a call that a baby girl had been abandoned at the hospital and was going to need to be placed in foster care, and it appeared that it would be a pretty easy case for foster-adopt if they were interested.  They told the social worker that they were interested and made their way to the hospital to bring home the tiniest baby I've ever seen.  I remember seeing her when they got home from the hospital and being afraid of breaking her if I touched her, she looked so fragile.  But from that first moment I held her, there was some sort of special connection between us.  While going through the hoops required for the foster-adopting, I even went through the Live Scan process so that I could babysit. I became her "second mommy," as she called me.  I started taking her to The Park with me as a baby, and eventually decided to splurge and got her an annual pass for a few years.  It's amazing how quickly she became as fascinated by all things Disney as I am!

Just look at the way she is gazing at Mickey.  Love at first sight!

She was about four years old when the "Lilo & Stitch" movie came out.  Of course, we watched it together many times.  We had been playing at The Park one day when I discovered The Emporium was selling merchandise from "Lilo & Stitch".  We were both checking out the display of new toys when both of us reached out and  grabbed Scrump at the same time.  That was that!  We both left The Park that day the proud new owners of Scrump dolls of our very own.  When I thought about it, Paulie was like my own little Lilo, and those dolls became a special part of our relationship.

Even as Paulie grew up and got rid of old stuffed animals and dolls, I noticed that she always kept her Scrump doll.  Her family has moved away and I don't get to see her as often, but the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Paulie is Scrump, and all the fun times that we had together taking Scrump on our different adventures through The Park.

I'm not sure if she still has her Scrump doll, but I still have mine, and I have continued to love that funky little doll.  Every time I look at her I think of little Paulie and all the fun we had together, but most importantly I think of love.

And that is why Scrump, as unconventional as she might be, is one of my favorite things.

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