Over the years, Mikaela & Katrianna have dabbled in code writing & communicating via assorted languages that they invented. At times, this has created indecipherable moments in terms of interpreting the motives of certain family members, like this exchange which took place when the girls were 8 & 5... As part of their secret club activities, M&K have taken to talking to each other in code. It is a reminder that while it is the parents' bias to constantly attribute each minuscule intellectual glimmer as proof of their child's penchant for profundity & genius, it is the child's inclination to assume and fully take for granted her parents' utter ignorance, complete lack of perception and not-up-to-her-grade-level acumen.
Case in point, the highly encrypted conversation that our daughters were certain we couldn't figure out:
"ikaela, o ou ant o lay a ame ith e?"
"ure, atrianna, 'd ike hat."
Oh, the sheer cleverness of it, no?
To Katrianna's repeated inquiries, bordering on jeering, "Mooom, you don't know what we're saying, do yoooou???" I assured her that indeed, no way could I understand them.
But, after only a week, Chris was no longer able to resist: "ooooo, atrianna, e an't nderstand a hing!"
Poor kid, her expression was one of world-altering shock & crushing disappointment!
And yet, I was much more upset than she. Just like that, Chris had blown our parental secret club advantage: without expending any effort whatsoever, being able to overhear every single secret they shared (and realizing that none were more deep or dark than confiding that they totally
hate the name Ralph or simply adore a particular color crayon or - and you must triple-promise to keep this just between us - admitting that Prince Harry is really cute even though he's so, so old). But here was their father, so gleeful and caught up in displaying his vast powers of discernment that he actually did prove -- to Katrianna & Mikaela & his wife, as well -- that he is performing precisely on grade level, with all the class of an advanced 2nd or 3rd grader, if I may be so bold...So, the girls are busily modifying their conversationally encoded sister tongue.
And Chris is expecting a call any day now from the FBI or CIA requesting his masterful codebreaking expertise.
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