Blue is boring.

Ruby’s my daughter with a flair for color. The more colors and patterns, the better. I regularly have to remind her that striped leggings do not, merely because they are striped, match a striped shirt. Color has to weigh in there too.

Last week, when the kids had to model for the company my husband works for, I got her jeans out.

Poor, poor girl. No stripes. No flowers. No butterflies. No colors! Just a plan pink sweater and ordinary blue jeans. Her protestation went something like this:

“I don’t really like wearing jeans.”

“I know honey, but today, you have to wear jeans.”

“I like leggings and skirts a lot better. Or a dress! I could wear a dress. I could even wear my blue jean dress. Would that be okay?”

“No, honey. Jeans. Just wear your jeans.”

“I know! I have jeans with flowers on the leg on one side. I could wear those! They are pretty.”

“No. Plain jeans. Those jeans.”

“I don’t usually wear jeans. They are just blue. No other colors. Blue is BORING.”

“Duly noted. Tomorrow, you can wear a dress. Today, you wear boring blue jeans.”

She sighed, gave up and walked away. The next day, she got out jeans again. These had rhinestones, leopard print, stars, and butterflies.

She was happy.