S-E-C-R-E-T-S

We gave up the whole "trying to hide things from the kids by spelling them" gig a few years ago when Sydney began to read.  In fact, I was kind of irritated when our pediatrician said at Sydney's last check-up, "She doesn't need any S-H-O-T-S this time around."  Really?  Has she come across a seven year old who can't spell the word shots?

Anyway, we've decided to go to DisneyWorld next summer (hurray!) and out of sheer excitement, Ryan and I discussed it at dinner last night.  Not wanting to spill the beans on the big trip, we reverted back to our old spelling tricks.  Knowing that most of the words we were spelling were unfamiliar to Sydney, it wasn't too hard to sneak things past her.  If there was a critical word that I knew she knew how to spell, I spelled it out super-fast.

Me:  So I was chatting with some friends today and they said we really need to plan out any D-I-S-N-E-Y L-U-N-C-H-E-S or M-E-A-L-S that we're going to have with C-H-A-R-A-C-T-E-R-S in the next couple of weeks.

Ryan:  Like which ones?

Me:  There isn't a T-O-Y-S-T-O-R-Y one, but there is a P-I-R-A-T-E one and a P-R-I-N-C-E-S-S one.  There is a T-O-Y-S-T-O-R-Y pizza place that we could do for lunch one day.

Ryan:  OK.

Sydney:  What are you talking about?  Where are we going?

Me:  And I heard that at E-P-C-O-T you can go to F-R-A-N-C-E and eat.  R-E-M-Y might be your server.

Ryan:  Who?

Me:  R-E-M-Y.  The one from R-A-T-A-T-O-U-I-L-L-E.

Ryan:  Oh.  That sounds like fun.

Me:  And we definitely have to go the M-O-V-I-E park.  They have a really awesome T-O-Y-S-T-O-R-Y R-I-D-E that I heard all three of them will like.

All the while poor Sydney was moving her lips and trying to sound out all the things I was spelling.  I don't think she caught any of them.

We'll eventually tell them what's going on, but with the trip still many months away, I don't want to hear about it non-stop from now until then.  So for now we'll keep spelling - at least until Sydney's spelling skills reach the point of no return.