Brown is the new yellow.

Last night was a big night. Parent Orientation at Preschool. Ohhhh. Actually, it all went well and my daughter’s teacher for next year seems absolutely delightful. Everything you’d imagine a preschool teacher to be, except I don’t peg her for a holiday sweater wearer (not a bad thing.) So, here’s my one concern (other than being kicked out for excessive potty accidents) as we approach the first day of school…

There is a color-coded system used for the 12 kids in her class. Each child is given a laminated picture of a puppy to pin to his/her bag. You hang your coat on the rack next to the puppy of your color, place your bag on the floor next to that color, etc. Classic sort of concept…I have no issues with the system.

Here’s my problem. I have a daughter who is OBSESSED with colors, particularly her favorite one: yellow. You might argue it’s an odd choice for a 3 year-old girl. I probably wouldn’t disagree with you there, but it is what it is. If I had to wager how many times a day she reiterates that yellow is her favorite color, I would say three. But, three times a day for the past six months means that yellow is a very important part of her life. She has yellow crocs, yellow clothes, yellow popsicles. Yesterday at the store she picked out a yellow bag for preschool and a yellow balloon from the same store.

When asked what color different items around the house are, my one year-old daughter says “yellow.” She of course is only accurate when she points to the bananas and then essentially everything else belonging to my older daughter. While I don’t believe it’s uncommon for a one year-old to incorrectly identify everything as being the same color, I have to think “yellow” isn’t the most common color guess. Is her consistent answer of “yellow” a coincidence, or is she a victim of her surroundings? We’ll never really know.

The thing is, even though yellow is my older daughter’s favorite color, we could work with just about any colored puppy we were issued. After all, she can tell you the favorite color of nearly everyone she has encountered for the past 6 months. About three or four times a week, she’ll say “let’s talk about my birthday party.” This involves, among other things, recalling together what color everyone wore to her birthday party back in May when guests were asked to arrive wearing their favorite colors. If we got a pink puppy, we’d celebrate the fact that it is the favorite color of Grammy, Aunt Jen, and Aunt Mol-Mol. We’d rejoice in blue knowing that it is mommy and daddy’s favorite color. The Intern even has us covered should we receive an orange puppy. We have most all our bases covered. Most, I said….

But brown. Her puppy is brown. What do you do with brown? How do I talk up brown? How do I get her excited about a color that not one person has listed as a favorite during her extensive polling? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking to be issued a new puppy. I am very aware that she will suffer greater disappointments in her life than this so she might as well start with the hard knocks now. Am I being dramatic? Well, yes. However, this situation is going to call for some creative parenting. “You got brown, just like daddy’s hair! You got brown, just like mommy’s Diet Coke! You got brown, just like that dirt that helps the flowers grow! You got brown, just like our grass! You got brown, just like chocolate chips!” Oh yeah, brown is going to be the new yellow before I’m done with it.