I hate the color pink. No, really, I do. I have hated it for years. In fact, I have hated pink since that year I went to band camp and returned to discover that my Mom had painted my room Pepto Bismol pink while I was gone. You will not find a single article of pink clothing in my closet. It looks fine on other people, but I ain't havin' it. I won't even wear pink underwear I loathe it so much.

My hate affair with pink is pretty much public knowledge. We didn't know we were having a girl until after the fact, so I was fortunate to not have been bombarded at the baby shower with it (but good grief, if I ever see something with a yellow rubber ducky on it again, I'm going to chuck it out the window so fast it's going to break the sound barrier). Gifts that we received after Alexis' birth were decidedly devoid of pink. For that, I really love our families. Clearly, they listen and understand my little diversion.

However, as time passed by and Alexis got bigger, it became more and more difficult to restrict her wardrobe choices to everything but pink. I guess the fashion powers that be think if you have a little girl, she MUST wear pink. It's The Law. So one day, I finally gave in. We've sprinkled some pink into her life here and there and, fortunately, all survived.

What we haven't done is take the girliness to an exceedingly high level. There is no pink just for the sake of pink and frilly is banned from entering our home. Not only that, but there are some things that are just plain sacrilegious. For example, a pink Steelers jersey will not enter this house for as long as I have my trusty pink Steelers jersey detector set up at our front door. So every Sunday, Alexis wears her super-rockin' black and gold Ward jersey, just the way The Gods of Football intended. I guess only boys are supposed to wear such gear, because the kid gets mistaken for a boy EVERY SINGLE time. It doesn't much bother me, but Daddy gets outright annoyed. As evidenced by this little exchange that took place just this past Sunday--

McD's employee: "That little guy looks like he's going to be a linebacker some day."

Daddy: "Maybe. If she ever grows a penis."