Me, myself, I

If you recognise the Joan Armatrading quote you must be at least as old as me. Or should that be I?
Pronouns are another thing that cause difficulty in language acquisition. I was recently asked why children tend to refer to themselves in the third person. It might not be obvious unless you stop to think about it, but lots of different people can confusingly say "I", but only Katy can say "Katy" and mean herself; whereas lots of people say "you" to her and it always means Katy. Thus when I ask "Do you want to walk up the stairs or shall I carry you?" she will often reply "Carry you" - meaning "Carry me", of course. Comprehension is gradually dawning, however, as yesterday when I asked her who would do something she said "I do it", clearly meaning herself.

We've just had a fairly adventurous weekend. Owen was up in the Lakes playing at the Ulverston Festival for 2 nights running, and staying with friends in Silverdale. On Saturday Katy and I braved a train trip to go and join them all. It wasn't quite Thomas the Tank Engine and The Fat Controller, but she had a great time and I don't think she drove any other passengers mad. Well, not much anyway.

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