Colorful Socks

My 1 year old son L loves colors. He already has opinions about his clothes and tends to pick anything colorful and vibrant. If they have awesome patterns on it, it’s a winner also.

When he was a few months old, he had a favorite onesie that had fruit splattered all over it in front of a turquoise background. It was honestly an awesome onesie, but he would never let us take it off of him to change his diaper in the morning. It was a screaming match when he had that on. One day when we didn’t get to takeoff that onesie, he went to daycare with it. The teachers all said at the end of the day that it was a nightmare changing his diaper. That was one of the last days he got to wear that onesie.

Fast forward to the present day. L likes to wear socks at night right now, and I usually let him pick which ones if he doesn’t have them on after his shower. This particular night, he saw a pair of socks that he wanted. He kept telling me that he wanted the pink socks, but it was just a few stripes on the socks that were pink. There were so many other colored stripes on the socks that I told him it was colorful socks.

He gave me a funky look and repeated the word colorful. I tried to associate the word colorful with the words “many colors” since he knew what many meant and what color meant separately. Then L kept repeating the words colorful socks, even periodically when I was reading to him.

The next morning, I was getting L out of his crib. I changed his diaper and he saw his socks. He said they were colorful socks! I was surprised he remembered and even more surprised he applied it in context correctly the next morning! I assumed he would forget. This continues to reinforce that kids pick up more than anyone ever suspects, so we all need to be on our best behavior (especially me!).