The Boy Who Speaks in Color

Mister Three really likes color. He likes it so much that he distinguishes between levels of color already, like magenta vs. purple, or lemon yellow vs. lime green.

He actually converses with us based on his knowledge of colors. When he doesn't know a noun, he just refers to the object by its color. And since he is only 3, there are a lot of nouns that he doesn't know yet. There must be an official linguistic term for this sort of analogy, but I've yet to come across it.

For example, our Disneyland hotel room was decorated with orange, green, and purple. Since he doesn't know the noun "hotel", he tells me that he wants to go back to the orange, green, and purple place.

He likes yogurt, and his favorite brand is from Trader Joe's, so instead of telling me that he wants the Trader Joe's-brand yogurt instead of the Safeway brand, he says that he wants to eat some yellow, not some red.

His stroller is green, but since he's a big boy he doesn't want to use it so much anymore. Now whenever we park the car he says, "Not green, Papa. Hold my hand."

You can see the potential here. When he becomes a baseball fan, he can say, "Not blue. Black and orange!" And when he needs to choose a university, he can say, "Not red and white, red and gold!" Later, when he goes to a bar with his uncle, he can say, "Black and tan." Or, "Brown, straight up."

This kid is going to go places. I just wish I could figure out what it is he's talking about.