Of Eyebrow Safety and Mines

Longtime Fans know that one of our favorite past times here at Raleigh House is cataloging the verbal gymnastics in which Joe and Clara engage as they learn how to express everything in their little minds and hearts with the language they have at the same time as they learn that language.  So we wanted to capture here that this past weekend, before heading out the door to swimming, Joe came out with the pronouncement that he would be putting on his sunglasses so his eyebrows didn't get burned off.  It was some powerful sun that morning, Fans.

Clara, for her part, the other night, was looking over Julie's shoulder as she paged through the latest American Girl catalog (which begins arriving the moment the American Girl Mother Ship discovers that a girl has been born unto the household--which is to say instantly), and bending over the table to press her cheek to a doll*, stated, "That's mines."  The singular possessive acquiring additional emphasis with what amounts to a phonetic possessive.  To the extent there is a conscious rationale (which of course there isn't) it might be, "Yours, his, and hers all have that s on the end, so what's up with that unadorned mine?  Let's slap an s on there and makes it mines all mines."

*We do not make this up Brigade.  She lay her cheek lovingly against the picture of the doll in the catalog.  The American Girl folks know the heart of this American Girl and, no doubt, American girls the land over.