Emily and her purple purse.
You probably didn’t know this, but
Getting this toy prompted Emily to dig out a little stuffed doll she had of Lilly, the mouse in the story Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. The problem with this is that she’d shown zero interest in this doll for quite some time, and the purse was gone. Of all the various tasks of parenting, number one on the hate parade is searching for small plastic pieces of junk toys. It causes my blood pressure to rise within seconds. Of course I don’t display this to my child, but you have to imagine cartoon steam coming out of my ears. We looked for a while, then I asked if I could just make her one.
I had some purple fabric which Emily approved, so I fired up the sewing machine and knocked one out. I couldn’t remember the trick for turning a tube of fabric inside out, and my clumsy attempts with a crochet hook to snag the end and pull it through didn’t work, so the seam on the strap shows. I gave it to Emily, who glanced at it, then without looking, set it at the edge of a table where it fell to the ground. She was busy doing something else. Le sigh. I asked if it was too big, and Emily said no, so I went off and took a shower.
When I got out, Emily had taken the time to look at the purse more closely. She said that yes, it was too big, as I suspected. I got her to show me where she wanted it to fall on Lilly, then remade it. I was glad I hadn’t expended any extra effort to make that strap look nice. (Illiane, I need to get you to show me the strap-turny trick.) Emily said this purse was good. Then she put the doll aside and hasn’t picked it up since.
So this is my day. Making little fabric purses for a stuffed mouse at the request of a cute little ingrate. (Note: when she didn’t offer, I did prompt her to thank me for each purse.)
Welcome to parenthood. Duration: LIFE.