Colorblind

A noble goal for any society, particularly those that claim to be democracies.

Colorblindness on a personal level, however, is a pain in the bum. I have what they call red-green deficiency, which makes no sense to me, since I can spot those colors a mile away.

It's the blue/purple divide that gives me trouble [I can't even tell you how many light purple dress shirts I've almost bought, thinking they were blue].

Why am I telling you this? Because Samson, for reasons known only to him, is obsessed with taking the paper/wrappers off his crayons.

Which is funny, in a way, because he is so industrious about it and will sit quietly for minutes at a time completely engrossed in this task.

Unfortunately, it means that I have no reliable guide for the colors he's using. Obviously not a big deal when it's a brown or yellow crayon, but yesterday morning he was using a red crayon to color some trucks in his coloring book. He then reached for another crayon and started to color. The following exchange ensued:

Me: You draw very nicely. What color is that crayon?

Samson: Red.

Me: Very good. What about the other crayon?

Samson: Blue.

Me: No, I think it's actually purple.

Samson: [not looking up] Blue.

Me: Purple. Can you say "purple"?

Samson: Blue.

I let it go, figuring there was no point in arguing with a toddler who was quietly coloring. Besides, I was only half-sure I was right.

As we readied to head out for our Father's Day outing, I asked Samson if he wanted to bring some of his Thomas trains with him.

Me: Do you want to bring some of your Thomas trains with you?

Samson: Yeah.

Me: How about that green one, Percy?

Samson: Yeah.

Me: And Thomas? What color is Thomas?

Samson: Blue.

Me: How about the purple one, Fergus?

Vicki: [Laughing] Fergus is blue.

Me: Ok, bring the "blue" train, Fergus.

Absent the prescriptive Crayola wrapper, I'm willing to let the crayon conundrum be, but I'm pretty sure that Fergus is, indeed, purple.

Can I get a little help here? I think Vicki may be Gaslight-ing me.