Last month I wrote about Crabtot's orange obsession. Cute at first. But the kid is now so deeply into orange, I'm starting to see red.

At first it might be adorably odd when one's tot sleeps with an orange plastic shot glass every night for a month. Or wakes up and slurs sleepily, "I want an orange sky." Or tells you when she grows up she will do "orange work." Indeed, it can be quite charming to have your child insist on wearing only orange underwear. And when you can't find orange undies for girls, you even dye them yourself to help the little muffin in her quest for total orange domination.

You're down with the orange food. Carrots. Mango. But when on the family walk the child looks at a big brown butte and calls it "brownlish-orange," you start to wonder, Is this a problem? A question that intensifies when Tot insists on wearing, every day, a set of too-small, too-orange Patagonia long underwear. As outerwear.

It could be worse. It could be purple. But people, it's still bad. It's Patagonia.

Yes, at its core my concern has less to do with the color obsession —a color I, after all, advanced —but it's the fact that the orange love has made Tot fall for sensible athletic gear. I want my tot to attend a party in a sweet little Zutano dress, but her choice the Patagonia. It's a choice wholly appropriate in our Croc- and Croakies-infested, ski-wear-draped town, but I'm not digging it.

Judging by her savage love of the long undies, we have a long, hard, and expensive road ahead. In grade school she'll demand a Cloudveil shell-jacket. Then it's Prana pants to the prom...At her wedding she'll have her dress designed by Goretex. She'll be tromping down the aisle in Tevas. Carried away? Maybe. But I see a slippery slope, with high-performance brands all the way down.

Advice, anyone? How does one turn a tot onto cute clothes in a sporty place?

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