Today the 3yr old was all about the stories:

"Daddy, today at work my friend Jessica learned a new word: Protest. And my friend Courtney? Has a new book. The title is the Princess and the Princess and the Prince and the Mean Witch Who All Live In The Castle With The Dragon. The one princess's name is Belle and the other princess's name is Ariel. The prince's name is Max and the mean witch's name is Caliban. His helper with is named Sycorax."

Jessica and Courtney, I may have mentioned, are women where I work who she has borrowed as imaginary playmates. Caliban and Sycorax are characters from Shakespeare.

On an unrelated note, do all little kids go through a phase where most words start with the Y sound? I remember my oldest once telling me a story to the effect that, because of something the "yady" had told her she could not have, she "had a yiddle meltdown."

Well my youngest, my son, seems to be doing the same thing . The other day, playgroup father Kip was over. When I walked in the door after work, there was my son, very excitedly yelling "Yip! Yip!" When he can't find his mother he wanders around the house calling "Mommy! Yahyoo?" And in the morning he more often than not walks his "yoos", although whether he's asking for juice or shoes is very hard to distinquish.