I’ve mentioned here before that my daughter often wears kitty ears and a tail for most of the day. Her ears are a simple construction paper project she and I did together. We actually made the ears a couple years ago, and though she is incredibly careful with them, they are made from construction paper…so they’ve certainly seen better days.

It became time to make new ears…but how to convince her to give up her beloved pink and black paper pair?

The tail she wears is basically a strip of knit pink yarn (think tiny scarf) that she tucks into the back of her pants and skirts. I decided that some knit ears would be a perfect match for her tail…and much more durable than construction paper! So, as phase one of Project Kitty Ear Replacement, I innocently took her along on a trip to the yarn store. As we walked through the store, feeling the soft yarns and exclaiming over the beautiful colors, I started a conversation about which yarn she thought would make the best kitty fur. She immediately latched onto a soft, fuzzy burnt orange yarn, gushing “Oh! A ginger kitty! That’s the best kind!”

Luckily for me, she’s (practically) four, and completely ok with the idea of buying a skein of yarn just because it reminds you of a cuddly ginger kitty. (Oh, who am I kidding? I’m in my thirties, and I’m completely ok with the idea as well.) Anyway, I got the yarn home, and began experimenting on the sly with some ear shapes and styles that would allow her to slip them on a headband just like her trusty paper ears. 

Once I had perfected the design, it didn’t take long to whip up a pair of fuzzy ginger kitty ears one night while she was sleeping. I decided the best way to (hopefully) replace her paper ears would be to just leave the new ears for her to discover on her own when she got up in the morning. I left them at her place on our kitchen table, where she would see them at breakfast, and I crossed my fingers she wouldn’t toss them straight into the bottom of her dress up trunk.

Really, I had no reason to worry.

When she got up the next day, she walked directly to them like she had kitty radar…and froze. Her eyes got huge, and she wordlessly looked up to see whether they were really for her or not. Her daddy gave her the go-ahead, and she pretty much wore them for the next four days straight (taking them carefully off to sleep, of course.)

A few days later, she and I were chatting over lunch, and she said “You know what’s funny, Mama? …I wear my new ginger ears, and I still wear my old tail. Even though it’s pink.”

(pause, pause)

“…would you like me to make you a ginger tail, Baby?”

“YES! YES! YES!”

And back to the knitting needles I go!

Posted in : Mom Talk, Shannon's Blogs