2 years, 9 months.

Dear Jack,

It’s nearly amazing I take you as seriously as I do each time you come up with some random new toy request, yet I always do whatever it takes to find it for you.

Thanks to some help from Nana, you became the proud new owner ofThe I-Screamer from Mater’s Tall Tales, because she bought you the entire set of characters from that episode, in a boxed set.

Plus, there’s the black van you asked for, then obtained, this summer after Papa spraypainted one of my old toys from the Eighties.

What could it be now?

Your new mission: to find a “pink Hummer.”

Not a giant ride-on toy, just a small pink Hummer to play along with your other Hot Wheels cars in our living room: one small enough to easily carry around with you everywhere you go, too.

While the color pink is typically associated with girls, I know it’s just a rare (and therefore highly sought after) color for you.

You don’t see a lot of pink trucks, pink SUV’s, or pink Hummers out on the road when we drive to and from school each day; even with the sporatic Mary Kay vehicles.

Today, you saw a yellow Jeep driving in a lane right next to an orange Jeep, and you went hysterical in the back seat:

“A-a-a-a-a-a-a…. A-a-a-a-a yellow Jeep! N-n-n-n-n-next to the or-or-or-orange Jeep!”

Orange and yellow Jeeps aren’t as easy to find, so it was a big deal for you to see them together like that.

You appreciate the uncommon things in this world.

And I’d have to say, pink Hummers are definitely uncommon things in the world.

It was interesting to recently learn it wasn’tall that long ago that the color pink became “a girls’ color.” I figured it had just always been that way.

However, an article entitled “When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?” on Smithsonian.com sheds some light on the subject:

“Today’s color dictate wasn’t established until the 1940s, as a result of Americans’ preferences as interpreted by manufacturers and retailers.”

You just like pink because it’s a weird color for a car. That’s all it means.

In fact, I think it’s totally cool that you are proud of your appreciation of the color pink.

Whenever I ask you what your favorite color is, you always respond the same: “Um, pink… and black.”

There’s this little boys’ t-shirt I see every so often when we’re out in public. It’s hot pink and it reads, “Real boys wear pink.”

I disagree.

Real boys are so confident in the fact they like pink, that if they wear pink, they don’t need to talk about it. They just own it.

Son, you want a pink Hummer. I’m going to try to find you one. And it’s going to be the toughest pink Hummer anyone’s ever seen!

Love,

Daddy