Colour me pink

I'm not a tom boy. But I'm not a girlie girl. I'm somewhere in the middle. I adore dark blue, neutral colours, browns, greys. I like a splash of colour. Did I mention I love blue? The whole of the downstairs of my house is blue.

This week I found myself in Mothercare returning a dress that had been bought for E for her birthday. It was cute enough; white and yellow with a daisy pattern. Floral. Floaty. I consulted some of my closest mummy friends who all agreed it wasn't very E.

"Maybe if it had been navy with daisies?" Yes. That would have been better. But I can use my fingers alone to count the number of occasions my little girl has worn a dress in her 13 month existence. A tutu to her Godmother's wedding 9 days old. A dress with owls on at Christmas. A smock dress that I just really liked. A denim number with a HUGE bow on the front but more because I liked the stripy tights I found... Her scrummy little thights do look great in tights.

I also have an issue with nappies on show. Although we're long past crawling, E does love to lift her top up and show off her belly, and probably irrationally I can't bear her showing it off to strangers. Probably need to get over that. And, when she's in a dress and I'm in my jeans and a hoody, she makes me feel under dressed. Out dressed by my toddler. Sigh.

I explained to the girl at the till. She looked at me like I was mad. I must be projecting my own dress sense on to her.

In the early days, she wore a lot of pink. I bought a little (very bright) pink for her when I found out she was 'probably pink' at 22 weeks. We were lucky enough to have a huge wardrobe on loan from family and friends that was very pink. Her first shoes were pink because they only had pink in quite small but really wide sizes. They clashed with all her red Christmas attire beautifully. But now the new baby gifts have passed, there are very limited amounts  of pink in her wardrobe. I dont think it suits her, like it doesn't suit me. She looks great in reds, greens, dark blues, purples.

E shows no interest in dollies. She has two. She likes building and bashing and making noise. She's very caring and loving towards us and her friends, but she doesn't seem to show affection to "her babies" in the same way she does her plastic zoo animals. Smooch with the giraffe? Why not! Someone asked me if I wanted them to buy her a toy pushchair for her birthday and I had a small freak out inside.  I know that one day very soon she will want to be a girl and play with dollies and prams (although I never did, as I child, I understand) but I'm in no rush for her to do that just yet. I love the innocence of her not understanding gender stereotyping, that she'll play with cars while wearing fairy wings (which she does love wearing, but again, I didn't buy them for her). I know that one day she'll want to wear a Disney princess outfit to go to the supermarket. Some of E's pals are so very girlie. They look divine in dresses and dainty and pink and floral. So do their mums. I don't have the legs or finesse.

I'll never stop E being whatever she wants to be. Even if that is a pink princess with a pink pram. But this week I've mostly been pondering how much we really influence our children's tastes and styles.

I know that one day, whatever I do, I'll be cramping them.