Secret Code

With Clay getting older, we have to be very careful what we say around him. Not so much about saying anything bad; although that is a concern too; but with saying anything at all about going somewhere or doing something. For example, if I say "I wonder if we should go to the pool this weekend?", I will be inundated with endless questions about when we are going, why we are going, why can't we go right now and why aren't we there already! So we talk about the aquatic recreation area instead of the pool. Forget mentioning "Chuck E. Cheese"; it's Charles the Rodent. IHOP is the multinational destination for flat breakfast pastries; Bob Evans is Robert, Roy Roger's brother-in-law's place. Chocolate milk is brown bovine byproduct, Toys 'R' Us is the place of which we do not speak. We even try to speak about the boys as #1 and #2, as in "#1 didn't take a nap this afternoon", but recently Clay has figured this code out. He's starting to get to be too smart for us. Soon S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G will not work for us either. Even now he says, "Daddy, what's P-O-P-C-O-R-N spell?" I need to teach Nancy more Ukrainian.