The Daphne Tree

Well, the ballerina trend continues... Crikey, I tried so hard to dress her in everything other than pink, I'm all about equality between boys and girls, I encourage her to play with dinosaurs and lego, and am secretly a bit pleased that she shuns her baby dolls. HOWEVER, she is getting girlier by the day. She may only be two, but she already loves trashy pop songs, twirling around like a ballerina, sparkley things and make up. Nooooooooo! I think parents have little hope really, these are little people with actual opinions! How very dare they?! So ballerinas are IN, and I admit the thought of Daph doing ballet is very cute indeed. But I might make her wear "alternative" tutus. In the name of making and sewing her things to ease my maternal unrelenting and possibly unecessary guilt, I thought I'd get her a tutu. Then I remembered we're on a strict budget at the moment, so what can I make one out of? I found a load of patterned chiffon material in the stash an...

It occurred to me last night, as I turned away to giggle silently, watching Daphne lick her DVDs, that my attitude as a mum has changed significantly. When she was a tiny newborn, my approach was mostly "I'm terrified, how do I keep this alive?". Every little thing was a threat to her little delicate life, and the world entirely revolved around her. Doctor on speed dial. Phrases to describe our life in the first year were: "Better to be safe than sorry" "You can't be too careful" "Why risk anything" "Fear the worst" Into the second year, we chilled out slightly, she could escape the cat (although actively chose to engage in combat) and didn't appear to be allergic to anything. She'd had a few falls, a few illnesses, and bounced back, sometimes literally. Attitudes changed to: "She has to learn for herself" "A bit of dirt won't hurt" " Let's see how she is in the morning...

Well. The husband returned from work today, and from my lank hair knew I hadn't showered. What a disgusting cowbag, right? That's the look I got anyway. In my brain I wanted to go schizophrenic psycho mentalballs on him. On waking I found cat sick all over the living room. Cleared it up, washed hands a lot. They are chapped from this. Daphne woke up and promptly threw a tantrum about dropping a dummy. One of her two. A proper tantrum. I held her at the window to watch the snow, then we had to stay there for ages while she pointed out every damn thing she could see. Breakfast. Milk all over the carpet. Tried the naughty step. Tantrum. Hit head during tantrum. Crying fit. Hug. Retching as crying fit got out of control. Tiny sick. Daphne demanded a banana which then mysteriously became smeared over every flipping thing in the universe. Notice my lack of swearing as she now copies every blinking thing. I wash up, actually for the second time this morning. Daphne comes an...

So, turns out I am a terrible mother. We went out for a walk yesterday and Daphne nearly froze. She refused to wear her gloves, and we stayed out too long, and she was like an ice block when we got home. This NEVER happens. Even when she was a tiny, delicate newborn she never got cold, she only ever OVER heats normally. It saves us a fortune on the heating bill, as I'm too scared to put it on in case she overheats and starts puking. It happens! ANYWAY, when I found myself chucking out a load of her too-small tights this morning, I decided they should go into my "corner". I have claimed a corner of our dining room as my own, and it is now an immaculate, efficient sewing workspace (junk-filled, ribbon-tripwired, needley-haystack Nic-haven). I decided to make Daphne a pair of special mittens. Ones which were long so they could go up her arm and keep out the draughts (and be super-hard to take off) AND they had to appeal to her in some way so I could be all high-drama enth...

My little girl is nuts about most animals, but at the moment she is quite keen on pandas. It's bound to change by tomorrow. But she had an old black jumper which just seemed to be just waiting for a funeral, so it made me sad, and I had to turn it into something else... Here it is before.... Funeral anyone? OK, so I cut up the front to make it into a cardigan... I love this part - snip! Then stitched on some white lace (sticking with the black and white theme see...) and attached a big black button and popper on the back. Can I just say I did this in about 10 minutes so it's not my finest work! You've got to make sure the stitching catches all of the fiddly jumper edge so that it doesn't fray. OK, so that was the front. And I decided because it was a v-neck, the panda would have to go on the back as there was more space. Sooooo, then I cut some panda face shapes out of t-shirt material and stuck them on the back with bonda/wunda webby stuff. You COU...