My children are quibblers. They will parse everything.

The Middle Girl, age three, sat down on our sofa this morning, bonked her head on the books piled precariously on the back cushion and exclaimed loudly, "What dumb-dumb boy left these books on the sofa so I could bang my head on them?"

I reminded her that she isn't supposed to use the phrase "dumb-dumb" in relation to her brother.

"But I didn't say I was talking about my brother. It might have been another dumb-dumb boy."