AJ�s class must be practicing songs for the Christmas party, for he has become a regular canary. This morning I caught him trying to work his way through the twelve days of Christmas, as follows:

On the first day of Christmas, my tulip gave to me
A partridge in a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas, my tulip gave to me
Two turtle loves and a partridge in a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas, my tulip gave to me
Three French fries and a partridge in a pear tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my tulip gave to me
Four collie birds and a partridge in a pear tree.

On the five-th day of Christmas, my tulip gave to me
Five golden things!
And a partridge in a pear tree.

At about that point it fell apart (and so did I).

AJ�s language development of late is revealing his attempts at defining linguistic logic, as in the example of �five-th� above. This morning we took a break from our errands to stop at a coffee shop for some sustenance. �Look, Mommy, that sign says �Indoor CAYF� (caf�). He was perfectly right, actually, as there was no accent aigu on the final E. Cayf it is. Most perplexing to him, however, are plural constructions. Child is not childs but children, mouse is not mouses but mice. Worst of all, moose is not mooses but moose (again). AJ does not like to be wrong, so when constructing plurals he has become very suspicious. Today he was trying to say something about railroad tracks. He knows they are called tracks, but he wanted to make sure he was right, so he asked me how to spell first track and then tracks so he was certain he knew the difference.

My own language skills seem to be deteriorating rapidly. I seem to be going through one of my phases where I write in homonyms (or perhaps right in homonyms). It is an aggravating problem, particularly since I cannot rely on a spellchecker to help me out. It proves to me how sound-based language is for me, even when I write.

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