Pink and Yellow

When the girls were babies, I tried to dress them slightly differently so that others could tell them apart. Usually I’d use pink or yellow. I assigned pink to Sarah and yellow to Sophie.

Some may think this doesn’t make sense…Sophie is the older one, so why doesn’t she get pink?

In my culture, the older sibling is favored. Sigh. My culture is a wonderful one, but like all others, it has its flaws. Beautiful calligraphy? Good. Yummy food? Good. Favoring the oldest? Not so good.

In addition, opinions are formed as soon as people know who is older and who is younger. “Ah I can tell this one is older” is what many have said to me. This is puzzling because they were born just one minute apart. And what does being older mean, anyways? Smarter? Wiser? More adept? So as an egg, was Sophie wiser so she knew to quickly attach herself closer to my cervix and therefore earned the honored label of Baby A? Was it because Sarah was slow and less wise, that she attached herself further away and is lowly Baby B?

It was amusing/annoying when they were babies, but I worry that soon they will understand what people are saying. People don’t mean to be mean, but that’s no excuse. Life is already not fair. Why perpetuate such an oppressive tradition, just because it’s tradition?

So this is the reason why I put Sarah in pink…I just wanted to give her a leg up as she started her life (or a non-leg down, if that makes sense). I don’t know what I was thinking…maybe I thought if once in a while someone assumed she was the older one, they’d give her the extra attention and praise. It was just one of many ways this Mama Bear wanted to defend her young. RRROOOOAAARRRR.

But don’t get me wrong…pink and yellow remind me of the sweetness of this time in their lives! This memory is absolutely not tainted by negative experiences.

Of course, pink and yellow were not always available so I didn’t always stick to my own rule. In general, Sarah got the darker color.

 

And sometimes it was just a different colored bib to distinguish the two!

These days, the rule is even more loosely applied, as bigger girls’ clothes come in so many different colors. I also use the color system to distinguish which sippy cup belongs to this piggy or that piggy. Sippies are often sold in pairs, so I have to work with what I’ve got:

Sarah gets the pink sippy, Sophie gets the yellow.

Or, Sarah gets the pink and Sophie gets the orange.

Between orange and green, Sarah gets the orange and Sophie gets the green.

Between pink and purple, Sarah gets the purple and Sophie gets the pink.

Are you confused? Don’t worry, my girls know which is theirs…because they’re BOTH wise!

Pictures are from their first year, except for the last one which is from today. You now know who is who. Matching sippies and shirts was not on purpose, neither was matching our lovely meme host’s logo!

 

Thanks Cheryl for hosting another Way Back When-esday!