Seeing Purple...

I bought Darby this cute little cotton purple sundress.  I love dresses in the summertime.  Easy...breezy...cool.  But, I don't like them every single day in the summertime.  I'm also not a huge fan of the color purple, the actual color, not the book.  I could take it or leave it (the color AND the book).  It's my husband's favorite color, which is the ONLY reason I have that color in my wardrobe.  I tend to stick more to hot pinks, oranges, teals, blues...enough about me!  This is supposed to be about Darby!

Darby must have some innate fashion sense to know that she looks FABULOUS in purple!  I mean, there's a REASON why red and purple are right next to each other on the color wheel!  They are SUPPOSED to be together!  The girl can work purple, and one day, she decided she would ONLY work purple.  Unfortunately for me, that purple dress is the only purple that adorned her entire wardrobe, excepting a hand-me-down purple shirt that had black sharpie mark on it...insufficient, according to my Little Red Pixie (and to myself, but we don't need to get into my own issues).  I could not wash the dress quickly enough.  She wanted to wear it every single day regardless of my vain attempts to clothe her in other, "lesser" colors.  She knew what color she wanted, and she was NOT backing down.  I actually found myself looking her little hazel eyes square in the face one morning (holding my anger and rants inside), and told her that I, too, know how to play this game.  If she thought she could win this "purple war," she...was...wrong.

The next day, I couldn't handle it anymore.  These "purple wars" were on-going.  What an exhausting way to begin your day every...single...day, and the stand-offs would take 20 minutes each morning, sometimes longer!  When I thought I had won a battle for the day, I would turn around, and she would have taken the clothes I put her in off.  One morning, the concept that her one and only purple dress was WET in the WASHING MACHINE was one that she could not grasp.  She wanted purple, and she wanted it...now.  I put a wet dress on her that day, but it was purple, so she was happy.  That day was the day we went purple shopping.  I actually drove 45 minutes to a mall with tons of children's clothing stores to make SURE that I came home with enough purple clothes to last a week.

The shopping trip went like this:

I walked in to children's store #1.
The store lady asked me, "Can I help you find anything?"
Me: "Do you have anything...purple?"
Lady (ineffectively trying to hold in her "you're a total weirdo" look): "Not this summer.  I'm sorry."
Me (to myself): "Seriously?  You don't have any purple?  Okay.  Good thing I have options at this mall."

Store #2:
Store lady: "Can I help you find anything?"
Me: "Do you have anything purple?  My daughter will ONLY wear purple."
Lady: "You know, we don't have anything purple this summer!  Another lady just asked me that question!"
Me (to myself): "WHAT?!  (Think minor freakout here...what if NO STORES had ANY PURPLE?!!!)"
Me (to lady): "Okay, thanks."

Store #3:
Store lady: "Can I help you find anything?"
Me: "Do you have purple?"
Lady: "Yes!  And, it's all on clearance."
Me (after jumping up and down and hugging the lady--joke): "SWEET!"

I bought shirts, shoes, dresses...

I took them home (remember, 45 minutes from those stores), and Darby decided that she would ONLY wear PURPLE...

...DRESSES.

Big...fat...sigh.

So, if you see Darby around town, and it looks like she hasn't changed since the last time you saw her, she has.  The dress is likely clean.  I've been washing it like crazy.
...and I'm starting to really NOT like purple.

July 2nd, 2012:
"Darby and I have been having serious confrontations every morning as I dress her. She ONLY wants to wear purple. Problem? I only had one purple shirt and one purple dress. So, we were arguing roughly five days a week. Saturday, I went 'purple shopping.' Imagine the conversation as I walked into each store: Employee: "May I help you?" Me: "Do you have anything...purple?" Employee: 'Not in our summer collection.' Me: 'Then....no.' You get the picture. So, I found four purple shirts and a purple dress, bringing us to an entire week's worth of purple! Victory, right?! Wrong. I showed all the new purple stuff to Darby this morning. She LOVED one dress. I asked her if she liked the rest. Her response? 'No. Take them back to the store.' (I actually just scratched my head)"

July 3rd, 2012:
"This morning, I took out all the purple clothes (the ones Darby told me to return yesterday) and tried to get her to choose something to wear. No gold. She ONLY wants to wear purple DRESSES...she's wearing only a diaper right now. I will not go down in flames!"

July 4th, 2012:
"HAPPY FOURTH! If you see Darby today in purple, don't judge. She still loves America, and Red and Blue make purple, so I'm going with it, and it's better than the tye-dyed number that was two sizes too big that she started in today."