On Pink...

I love pink. Really, I do.

Pink can be classy. Pink can be natural. Pink can be beautiful. I've owned many pink items over my lifetime, and not just when I was a little girl begging for the pinkiest-pink-pink Easter dress, either. (My pink Keds from 7th grade come to mind...I loved those shoes...)

What I don't like is the "plastic pink." The super-duper-Barbie gag-me-with-a-spoon pink. I know that there may be no way of avoiding this ultimate fate of parenting a daughter in today's world, but I'm going to hold out a little hope.

I think this must all stem from my constant desire to be contrary. (Sometimes good, sometimes irritating, I know.) My sister LOVES pink. She is the epitome of pink. If she could tan her skin to be pink, she would. All shades, all the time, there can never be too much pink.

To her credit though, she did save us from an awful fate of pea-green carpet in our bedroom when I was just a wee babe. The story goes that our parents were about to buy said green carpet when my 5-year-old sister suddenly said "STOP!" and begged for a hot-hot-hot shade of pink instead. (Since we had a very typical 70s floral print wallpaper, either green or pink would match.) So...I grew up surrounded by hot pink carpet, light pink bedspreads and a pink-pink-pink older sister (who also loved Michael Jackson in a major way and eventually wallpapered our room in him, but I digress...).

Will Amelia wear pink? Most certainly! We've already received some hand-me-down clothes from friends that are far too adorable in their pinkiness to hide in the basement. I'm just hoping for some balance...you know? I'm fully aware that it is this desire for balance that will throw my daughter over the edge and make her follow in her aunt's footsteps - just to be contrary, like her mother - but I'm hoping that won't be for awhile.

Until age 2, maybe. Like when Jackson started having his weirdo fashion opinions.

Oh, the photos of the soaps? Jackson's new love. Whenever we go to the Co-op now, he MUST buy a soap. The same kind every time: coconut. He carries them around, takes them through the check-out on his own, cherishes them at home, takes them on walks, sleeps with them... I just noticed that there were so many soaps around our house this morning and couldn't resist photographing them for you all (this is only a few, there are many more). We joke that we are going to save them all in a big box to be presented to him upon high school graduation: "Go forth into the world and be clean! You're the one who bought all this soap!" We also call it our "$2 Co-op Tax" since we can't get out of the store without purchasing another.

Open the soap? Use the soap, you say? What a great idea! Try talking our 2-year-old into taking the plastic off of one of these soaps and getting it wet...I dare you.