"Mom, I'm 'Peach', Right?"

Lately, I have been working with Cade on things like his colors, expanding his vocabulary, counting, his letters, etc... For some reason this year a little fear gripped my heart that he would somehow grow up completely uneducated if I didn't start taking drastic measures --- right now. (as moms we tend to blow things a little out of proportion don't we?)

So, yesterday while I was cleaning the kitchen the boys wanted to "help". Well, you and I both know that their version of "helping" isn't really "help," but at least it was something to keep them occupied while I was getting the dishes done --- namely keeping Cammy from destroying another room simultaneously! We were working with colors and going around the kitchen finding things that were green, then yellow, etc... When we got to the color orange, Cade couldn't find anything orange, so he pointed to himself and asked if he was orange. I said that he was more of a "peachy" color --- remembering that I used the "Peach" crayon to color skin tones when I was but a budding artist. He pondered this revelation for a moment and I could see him almost mentally tucking it away somewhere to be mulled over for awhile.

Later we were outside, I was mowing the lawn and the kids were "helping." A neighbor boy was outside throwing the football with his friends. Cade watched as they were playing. I stopped mowing to empty the grass clippings and he came over with a quizzical look on his face. I asked him what was "the matter" and he said,

"Mom, that kid is 'brown', my C.J. cousin is 'brown', but I'm not 'brown'. What color am I, mom?"

Well, I didn't want to get into the whole racial discussion or intellectualize the conversation since my 4-year-old was making a simple 4-year-old observation, so I said, "Well, Cade, you are 'white'."

He immediately looked at me, rolled his eyes and said, "No-oooh --- I'm not 'white'! I'm 'peach' --- right momma?" And ran off to play.

So next time I am filling out one of those surveys that asks my "color", I'm going to check "other" and write in "Peach" --- and smile.

Here's a pic from last summer of the boys playing with C.J.



Cade absolutely LOVES his cousins ---He talks about them on a daily basis. Later on in the day Cade assigned colors to both Tate and Ryah as well. Tate is "peach" like Cade, and Ryah is "pink".