Mine!

E's possessive shouts fill the air on the playground, in the children's museum, everywhere we go. She's also trying out the word "yours" a bit, trying to figure out its nuances, but it's clear she thinks it's a synonym for "mine" - which of course it is, when I say it. She hadn't seen Victor for over 2 weeks and on Tuesday morning when I told her she would see him again, her face briefly lit up but then immediately took on a worried expression as she announced, "Mine." A pre-emptive general claim for the day.

Victor came over here yesterday and a few times E shouted "mine, mine, mine!" until she got red in the face. David observed last night, "I guess little kids are naturally conservative: they don't like change, and they think everything is theirs." But Victor was so suave - E's shouts hardly fazed him. He just kept on playing while I intervened, or he went on to another toy. At other times E was desperately trying to get him to notice her, like when she put her head on the floor and looked back through her legs. She adjusted position a few times so he could see what she was doing, and she said, "Dit-duh, see!".