It's Over

We've come to the end of a special time in our lives. It's officially over now. Fred and I can no longer keep secrets or talk about the boys by spelling whatever we want to say to each other. It's a sad time for us because we used it to our advantage many times. But now it's over.

Last night when we were getting the kids herded upstairs to brush teeth and head for bed, I spelled out to Fred, "Honey, he (Christopher) won't be able to s-l-e-e-p this early. His n-a-p was t-o-o l-o-n-g today."

This is when Stephen poked his head out of the bathroom and said, "You just told Daddy that Christopher can't sleep now because he took a long nap today!" ..... uh. yeah.

Then this morning, the boys slept in and we were in a bit of an unusual hurry to get breakfast done, teeth brushed, snowpants on, etc. I raised my voice slightly (Ha ha. All you moms know how much 'slightly' is when you have two kindergarten boys putzing along and the bus is due in less than five minutes!) and told Stephen he'd better get a move on and F-A-S-T! He stopped mid-run (or mid-dance) toward the laundry room to get his boots and said, "You just told me to go fast! I can read what you spell, Mommy!"

So, it's over. No more spelling around the kids unless it's in German, Fred said, which of course would be of no use to me as I don't know German except for a few words like fahrschule and ausfart. (Don't ask. Only Nancy knows how those two words came into my vocabulary!) I love to spell. I love the way letters all have a place in words even when they don't make any sense at all. I love to connect letters to make words whether real or not. I love to spell, but now spelling used for my advantage will have to shift. I can no longer hide words from Stephen. He's just too smart!

Maybe I will take up German. But by the time I learn all the necessary words, Stephen will have picked up on them, too, and I will lose that option, too. Oh well. At least we got a couple of years out of our opportunity to spell to each other.