Pink Passion

I'm trying to decide how Mike would react to Emily's love of all things pink and princess at the sweet age of 2 1/2.

I was pushing Emily on Lucas' scooter, on the way to pick him up from school.  She was having the time of her life, balancing as I whizzed her along.
'You're tricky on the scooter, Emily.  You'll need your own scooter soon', I said.
'I want a pink one', she retorted.
'I don't know if they make pink ones', I said wistfully.
'They can use food colouring', she assured me.

Just today we were reading a book while watching Lucas' swimming lessons.  The book was called: 'If I Were An Animal'.  At the end of the book, it asks:  'What animal would you like to be?'.  Emily picked the mouse, which is one of the choices from the story.  The mouse happens to be white, which is a bit unusual (as opposed to grey), so I was curious if to know if she was wanted to look just like the mouse in the story.  'What colour mouse would you be?', I asked, innocently.  'Pink' she answered, matter-of-factly.   Oh dear, I thought.  I suppose it would be a Princess Mouse?  I didn't want to clarify.

I know Mike would have basked in the light of his little Emo growing up.  Would he have believed she had become 'princess-ized' at 2 1/2!  I remember being downtown with Mike on our own, when he was still steady enough to walk, slowly.  We were doing errands on a beautiful day in downtown Kingston.  I saw a little girl who looked about 3 years old with red, braided pig-tails.  She had a little dress and long socks with the fancy kind of shoes a little girl would love.  She was holding her Daddy's hand as they walked in front of the McDonald's.  Our Emily was just an infant then.  I tried to imagine Emily that age, holding Mike's hand.  I imagined how proud of her he would be.

Emily has recently developed a love of gymnastics, which is something she had only watched Lucas do this past year.  She jumps, runs, hops, skips, climbs, gallops, rolls, and swings with a huge, Mike-sized, super-sized, goofy grin.  She usually wants to wear pink pants and her 'sparkly' shirt.  Soon it will be pink leotards, I'm sure.  Mike would have delighted in Emily's smile, on par with his.  And I think he would have understood her love for pink.  After all, he would certainly respect that she has a passion and appreciate that not everyone can love the colour brown.