clothes to treasure...*

I made this treasury of clothes for babies and slightly bigger little people over on Etsy.  You can have a closer look here.  I'm gutted that Dulcie is already too big for some of these beauties :(

Apologies for the blog silence lately.  We've actually been away on holiday.  We had a great time, though there's not much blog-worthy news to report.  Every photo I took had Dulcie in it, so it will be yet another Dulcie-centric post by the time I do get round to sharing any pictures.  Well, would you expect anything else?

The weather today is a rainy grey gloom.  I am a rainy grey gloom too.  We'll be hitting the swimming pool later in a bid to wake up and cheer up, getting wet in an attempt to stay dry.  I miss summer!  Is it really over?  I hope there's a second wind of summer yet to come.

* ...until they are grown out of in the blink of an eye.  Slow down, children everywhere!

new favourite photos

 Yet more photos of Dulcie and I.  What a happy pair we make, huh?  Dulcie bursts into fits of giggles every time she sees this picture.

 The look of love... La la la la...

 And a couple of Dulcie on her own, just to dilute my presence.

The eagle-eyed amongst you (or those with a great memory) might remember Dulcie used to wear this top as a dress about a year ago.  I think a top is its intended purpose as it sits very nicely.  We're really getting our money's worth out of that 50p price tag!

p.s. She seems to have made a full recovery from her bee sting and just has a wee red dot to show off to anyone who asks her about it - "Bee, there, cry."

bee careful

Dulcie loves bees.  There seem to be lots of bees around this year (that's got to be good, right?) and Dulcie has taken to stroking them whenever she gets the chance.  I decided it was better to let her stroke them and run the risk of a sting than it was to make her scared of them (and myself run ragged) by holding her back/chasing her away from them.  Well, today that parenting decision came back to bite me as Dulcie got her first bee sting.  I think this bee was actually the blighter that did it.

Here we are returning to the scene of the crime about an hour later, complete with red, swollen finger.  Bless her.  She was actually very brave about the whole thing.  She ran up to me holding out her finger and saying, "Bee!" with a look of shocked heartbreak on her face and then cried for around a minute and accepted a comforting cuddle.  It happened on the way to the play park and once we got there she was fine, running around and seeming like her usual self (with me wondering what the first signs of anaphylactic shock might be).  It didn't seem to put her off bees either, as she was back to stroking them almost straight away.  She has spoken about it a lot today, though, so I guess it made some impact.

Here is a little video of her telling the story, bless her cotton socks.

It's been a week of grave danger for Dulcie and guilt over poor parenting for me, as Dulcie had a very dramatic fall down an absolutely enormous hill on Friday.  She escaped unscathed (despite somersaulting and landing on her head more than once) and only cried for about ten seconds.  I was able to see the funny side pretty much straight away, but the following day the horror struck me and I kept having flashbacks and wanting to keep her close.  None of this has been helped by the book I am currently reading - the trauma-filled Poisonwood Bible, which I am no longer recommending to anyone!  It's really good, but I have been having nightmares ever since THAT incident.  If you've read it, I'm sure you'll know the incident I mean.  Having a child makes life's dangers that bit more real and frightening.  Will I really never stop worrying again?  This is exhausting.

Anyway, in the Congo scheme of things, a bee sting is really nothing, but still, what a brave little soldier :)

stationary stationery

I sent five hand-written notes/packages on Friday, about as many hand-written items as I'd posted in the rest of 2013 combined.  Dulcie got in on the act of rummaging through my stationery box and dragged pretty much everything out.  It was at this point that I realised I have A LOT of stationery and these days it doesn't get used nearly as much as it used to, or nearly as much as it should.  Maybe that's why I don't get as much fun mail as I used to either.  Fun mail (even a postcard with little more than "hi" on it) always brings a little brightness to a day, I think, so I wondered if anyone fancied getting some?  If you'd like to help me make a dent in my stationery supplies and get a surpise note/postcard arrive in the mail, just let me know and I will get a-writing.  You can email me with your postal address, or just leave a comment below (making sure you fill in your email address in the box provided) and I'll get in touch with you.  If you want to write back, that would be very nice, but there's no obligation.  This offer is open to everyone (whether I know you/see you regularly in real life or have never heard so much as a peep from you before) and I'm happy to post items worldwide.

P.S. I can't offer any guarantees regarding the quality of the stationery.  Some of it is lovely, but some I've had since I was about eight years old and it probably hasn't been used for a reason.  It's like a stationery Russian roulette!

P.P.S. I am so proud of this blog post's title!  Sometimes I think I could be some kind of genius...