...that is the question! In case the photo doesn't make it obvious, I'm talking about Daph's hair. She's got quite crazy hair really - nothing like it was when she was born (when it was almost black and thick at the back with none on the top). Now, she has loads on the top, a kind of long side fringe going on, and just a few wispy curls at the back. It's so cute but the long bit gets in her eyes all the time. Which is why she usually has a hairclip in. The hairclips work quite well until she realises they are there and then gets pissed off and tries to yank them out, usually taking some hair with them and making herself cry in the process.

I really have no idea about cutting a baby's hair - what do most people do? I sort of imagined that I'd never cut it, actually, as it feels a bit sacriligeous. I imagined I'd just leave it to grow until she was about five, then I'd take her in for a bit of a trim and a tidy up. But as it's so uneven and so curly, I think it might be good to tidy it up a bit (not least so she can see where she's going when she's crawling), but how?!

I asked my hairdresser yesterday (finally got around to having my own hair cut after, gulp, eight months) and she told me to do it when she was in the bath, and just comb it upwards and take a bit off the end. But I'm not sure I can bring myself to do it. Am I the only one who feels stupidly sentimental about cutting her hair? I struggle enough with her damn fingernails, and curly strawberry blonde baby hair is SO much nicer than fingernails. Sniff. Would love to know what others have done - have you kept a lock of your baby's first hair in a locket around your neck?! Or did you just cut it without thinking twice (ie am I being stupidly sentimental about nothing - very possible!?)?

In other Daph news she is finally talking! Lots of attempts at words that are suddenly becoming recognisable - eg 'baby' for a person (whether they're a baby or not), tea for anything in a mug, Daddy for, er, her daddy, Dee Dee for the woman on the front of the Hush catalogue, who she seems to be obsessed with (perhaps she wishes she was her mother...) and just 'Dee' for the cat. She's also trying to copy everything we say, so if I say 'book' she'll say something like 'buk' and it's so cute. I can't wait till she can communicate properly with us!

PS hello to anyone who found me because a random baby sleep site posted a link to my rant about the Sleepyhead! I've had my entire month's usual hits in the last four hours, which is somewhat terrifying, as I thought I knew most of my readers personally. Anyway, sorry if you loved the Sleepyhead, didn't mean to offend anyone or criticise their parenting choices, it's just something I wish we had never bothered with! I'm always happy to hear that other mums lives have been made easier :)