The other day in Target I told Emma Grace she could pick out a new nail polish. She found this both delightful and confounding. She spent a Long Time looking.
“Look, Emma,” I said. “Here’s a nice shade of pink.” I have never been a “pink” person, but a nice, sweet pink color seems good for a six-year-old girl. And only a few days before I had thrown out our old nice sweet pink nail polish. It was completely Dry.
Emma was busy with different shades of purple. Purple– not lavender, not lilac.
I thought I’d like to try the pink– a Very Dense Pink– on my toenails. “What do you think of this pink, Emma? Or how about this one? It’s lavender, and it’s sparkly.”
Emma Grace chose a sparkly purple and a sparkly green.
I bought the pink one for my toes.
***
I painted Emma’s toenails with the green polish when we got home. It required two coats to even begin to show up. We added a third coat later.
Later still, I tried the nice sweet pink color on my own toes. It needed only one coat, but it was ghastly.
I’m not a “pink” person.
I removed the polish and applied my summer favorite– a sort of red wine color called (interestingly) “Vixen.” I liked it Much Better.
***
Emma Grace looks Absolutely Radiant in pink. She looks good in Any Color.
***
I showed her my “Vixen” toes. “I tried the pink, Emma,” I told her, “but it didn’t look good At All.”
“That looks nice, Mommy.”
“Thank you, Emma.”
“Mommy, now do you want me to put flowers on your toes with the pink one? I can do it. I know how.”
She used the nice sweet pink polish to apply five little dots to my big toenails: a flower. And then she applied single dots to the nails of all my other toes– all except for the last toenail, the littlest one, because it’s “too small.”
And now I have sweet pink flowers on my vixen toenails.
***
Emma’s toenails are still green.
