What Colour

We had a friend over the other morning and were (delightfully-may-I-add) colouring My Little Pony pictures. I love My Little Pony, if for no other reason than there are so many colours from which you can chose that there is no "wrong" one. Their names are as whacky as their coats and hair. And living in Unicornia? Well, that's a conversation all on it's own.

The hour we spent on this one activity was perfect. One little three year old girl, (ah hem, three and a half, she corrected me) would look over at one little four and a half year old and exclaim, "Great job Noah!". That little four and a half year old would look over at the three year old and exclaim, "Great work Mama"...to which I would reciprocate, "Great work L" to our friend. We passed around compliments such as "good job staying in the lines, nice use of the colour red, good idea with the markers" and so forth. It truly was one of those times that just make you smile. The moments you wish your children would constantly reflect upon as they're bickering. (Well, I do anyway.)

One of the boys would pick up a randomly named crayola and question what colour it was. If it was a tough, rare colour, instead of giving them a reply which would likely be accepted with a funny look, I would simplify it. Indigo would be described as green or blue. Mauve would be called purple.

The interesting moment came when Tait held up a marker and asked what colour it was. I looked up, (from my own My Little Pony colouring page) and smiled to myself. Reflecting, I knew that not because of ignorance or racism but rather simply trying to make the name of the colour easier to remember to my kids, I likely would have called it "skin colour" three or four years ago.

But it's not, is it?

"It's peach," I replied.

"Oh, yes peach" they each repeated one after the other.

And in that moment, a simple lesson was taught. And I know that "peach" will likely never be called "skin colour" again by those three children.