I have to admit, I would love to be a spy. I think I would be awesome at it. I have seen and studied every Burn Notice episode on USA. I have also seen every Mission Impossible and Borne movie, so I’m basically already trained in the important stuff like hand to hand combat and how to lose a tail. I think that is how you spell tail. You understand I mean someone who is following me when I say tail right? I don’t actually have a tail, although that would be pretty cool. Imagine the balance I would have! Anyways, back to the spy thing. I thought I knew all that I would have to know about the trade until my daughter, Kaylee, came along. Thanks to her, I now have over 15 months of secret code breaking experience along with multiple months of non verbal cues training. That’s right, I can now tell what someone wants even though they don’t say a thing! Well maybe this won’t work on everyone, but it works on Kaylee!
Most people don’t give kids enough credit. They definitely know what they want in their mind from a very early age. When I say “early” age, I mean as soon as they pop out of mommy, and perhaps even when they are in the womb. I know this because you can see a baby getting frustrated when you can’t figure out what they want. In the first few months it is pretty easy because there are only three things in their world: Eat, Sleep, Poop. So you just go through that cycle and hope you hit the mark. There is also only one sound they make at this point. That sound is crying. As they get older their wants and needs grow as does their frustration when you can’t figure out what they are saying. It’s like a volcano getting ready to explode. I personally love the “babbling” that starts to happen, and the language that each child starts to develop that is unique to them. I feel like I’m a spy with my daughter all the time. She will say something to my wife or myself, and no one will have a clue as to what she is saying except us.
Now this secret code language took some practice to master, and still my wife and I have not perfected it. Kaylee will walk up to me and say something like “Ah da da oh wa wa.” And then I just stare at her. She then will say it again, but even louder, “Ah da da oh wa wa!” I immediately know that this means now, “Father, would you please as to be so kind as to hand me my cup that is filled with wonderful h2o so that I could quench my thirst?” The first time she said this though, the next 10 minutes was a game of walk around the entire house as Kaylee points to 1,000 different objects randomly shaking her head “no.” The secret code is not only words though. There are many non verbal cues. The best example of this was on a car ride the other day. I was sitting in the back playing with her while my wife was driving, and Kaylee looked at me. I knew something was coming, she had that look in her eyes. She said, “da da,” put her right arm above her head with her fingers stretched out, made the sound “bbbbbbbbbbrrr,” then shook her head and body. Go ahead, guess what that means, I will give you a second.
It meant she wanted me to take out my iPad and open up the app that has the dancing elephant on it. She wanted to dance to the music it played. Twelve months ago she was only asking to be fed or a diaper to be changed. Now she is wanting a dancing elephant to play music so she can get her groove on. The one amazing thing about trying to decipher the secret code is when we do figure it out, Kaylee claps her hands and yells, “YAH!” I know this secret language is not going to last long as she continues to grow and is able to form the english language all the way, but I’m going to try and enjoy every second of this game we play on a consistent basis. I know my skill level is growing when the amount of YAHs outnumber the no head shakes I get.
So thank you, Kaylee, for better preparing me for my future job as a spy!
Have you ever had to figure out the secret code of a child? If so, comment below!
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