have you seen those muffins, man?

Check out these soft-focus muffins!  I think I inadvertently put my phone down on a greasy spot before I took this, or it could just be because the muffins are so amazing that they dazzle the camera.  I'm off work this morning, taking a few hours' annual leave to look after Dulcie while Graham goes to work.  Despite being out until all hours last night (I'm talking after 10pm, people!) drinking cocktails in a swanky hotel, I have gone all domestic today and whipped up these muffins.  I feel like a very well-rounded individual!  Yes, girls, we can do it all!  Ha, I jest, of course, but seeing as this is the first time (other than making Dulcie's birthday cake) that I've baked at all since she was born, so I'm thinking hitting the old cocktails more often might be the way to go!

 Dulcie helped me in the kitchen.  It all started so well.  She managed to put a muffin case in each of the holes in the cake tin.  Pretty impressive, no?

 I turned my back for a few seconds and...  Not so impressive.  Still, we redid the job and got the muffins, spicy apple and raisin, in the oven in a jiffy.  We even managed to do all the dishes while they baked.  Uncharacteristically organised for us!

Dulcie was on hand to help again when it came to tasting the muffins and did very well at this job.  It's safe to say that she liked them.  I know this because she even ate the paper wrapper once the muffin itself was finished.  Oh dear.

scatological success

Today has been a momentous and remarkable day, one that will go down in the family history books for all eternity.  Yes, today Dulcie did a poop in her potty!  Wowsers!  Way to go, Dulce!  After being a little freaked out initially (it took us both by surprise, to be honest) she was very proud of herself and enjoyed showing it off for the camera before we flushed it down the toilet.  For you, the general public, I have disguised the offending/proud article with an artistic flower.  Family members discovered the unedited photo in the inboxes earlier today and were naturally quite delighted with it, don't you know.  Dulcie has already received phone calls and emails of congratulations.

Since this does appear to be something of a baby blog (shudder) these days, I guess I should share our attitude to potty training.  Well, like all other aspects of parenting, we are winging it and taking a slapdash approach.  Basically, Dulcie got a potty in a present (grandparents, huh?) and found it quite interesting.  Around the same time, she also started taking an interest in other people's toilet habits and started telling us when she needed her nappy changed and also disappearing to do her business in private.  She likes accompanying me everywhere I go anyway, but I've been making a point of taking her to the bathroom with me over the last couple of months.  I do wonder if the neighbours can hear our conversations from the back garden!  We've had a couple of potty-related books from the library (this one got her really keen to use her potty and this one has kind of sustained her interest since then) and have let her sit on the potty now and again.  Quite often she actually sits on the potty mid nappy change when we know nothing is going to happen, but as I said, it's really been a slapdash and half-hearted approach, just letting her get familiar with the potty and what it's for in her own time.

To be totally honest, I think today's success was made possible by a slight touch of constipation.  Maybe I can take the credit for that (yesterday was a kind of eat-on-the-run day with probably not as much fruit and veg as usual) but not in a positive way!  And I should also add that, since her potty success, we have had a puddle on the floor and another poop in the nappy, so it's not as if she's a bona fide/nappy-free potty user all of a sudden.  But still, I think this is great progress and another fine example of make-it-up-as-you-go-along parenting success.  Hooray!

Apologies for blogging about poops.  I guess I really am one of THOSE mothers.  I have an even more tragic blog topic lined up, actually.  I've been thinking about it for the best part of a year, but the situation is getting close to crisis point now.  Watch this space...or, you know, don't!

my life in fashion

(Photo by Mimi and Will)

You probably never imagined a career in fashion for me, did you?  Well, you were wrong because, looky-look, it's my design on a T-shirt!

These T-shirts are being produced by a brand-new company called Mimi and Will.  Frustrated by the lack of ethically produced, eco-friendly, indie-designed T-shirts available for their own children, Katy and Jo decided to tackle the problem head on and Mimi and Will was born.  They have commissioned or licensed images from twelve independent designers, four of which have already been revealed.  Their first collection has just launched and you can pre-order shirts via Indiegogo here, the idea being that they will produce the designs and sizes needed in time for (worldwide) Christmas delivery.  I love the grey puddles T-shirt by Emma Henderson of Showpony, but then her work is always nothing short of lovely.  Go and check them all out, then make sure you order, oooh, ten of my design ;)

Dulcie has been promised the sample of my T-shirt once it has served its purpose (what a nice perk of working with such a lovely company!) and I am so excited to see her in it.  I have totally failed to sew those outfits for her (the ones I cut out in May...) but at least she will have something of mine to wear this way!

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...