The trouble with orange

Orange is a great color - but when you dress a little girl in orange, there arise some minor issues.

Here was Cara's outfit today (see picture):

An olive sweatshirt (with orange, hot pink and yellow flowers on it), an orange polo shirt, olive khaki pants and pink sneakers.

Now, I admit that olive is a very neutral color, and apparently, so is orange - since everyone on the playground today thought she was a boy. No one seemed to notice the flowers or the sneakers - and I really think it threw me. I mean, I like pink and all, but it is nice to be able to dress kids in more than one color. Ok, I could get away with purple too.

There was another little girl in gender neutral colors at the park - but she had lots of cute curly hair - and just looked like a girl. Cara's still at that age (and hair stage) where you can't really tell. It didn't really bother me that people thought she was a boy (she was trying to play with the toy trucks and cars after all) - especially since I've spent most of my life being confused for a boy (because of my name, hopefully not because of how I look).

Other colors that are hard to distinguish if a baby is a boy or girl: green, red, tan, white, orange, brown and black. I think in the future I will also try to put a girly hair-clip in Cara's hair - maybe that will help. On a side-note, Cara has graduated from the itsy bitsy hair clips, to larger ones. If anyone has good suggestions for where to find good barrettes (the ones that flex open and closed) I'd love to hear suggestions. The best ones I've found so far have been in H&M - not a store I would have guessed, but one of Cara's friends gets her clips there.

In addition to our trip to the park, we also registered for fall swimming today. Cara loves the water, and has recently learned to hold onto the side all by herself. She saw a friend of hers do it, and was determined to try. I was actually really impressed, as I didn't think she would understand to hold on and not let go.

It will be interesting to see what she learns in her next swim class.