You Are the Beast

Kyle has a pen pal.  Her name is Zoe.  She was born one month after Kyle, after her mother and I had nearly identical pregnancies, after leading nearly parallel lives – her on the east coast, I on the west.

Zoe and her family now live in the Bay Area, and we get to see them every now and then.  Her mother and I have often told both Kyle and Zoe that they are betrothed to each other.  If arranged marriages were accepted in our socioeconomic circles, it would all be done already.

Alas.

I saw Zoe’s mother a few weeks ago.  She came to my house for a little while before we set out on a girlfriends’ getaway.  Kyle said hello and then announced “I have something sad to tell you.  I’m not going to marry Zoe anymore.  I’m going to marry Lauryn.”

Zoe’s mother didn’t miss a beat.  “That’s okay, Kyle,” she said.  And she happily took Kyle’s friendly note back up to the Bay Area to her daughter.

Kyle started a mail chain with Zoe that includes multiple choice questions and fill in the blank questions too.  They mail them back and forth to each other.  Here is a picture of Kyle opening Zoe’s response.  Look at how happy he is:

Zoe’s reply matched Kyle’s tone and cleverness note for note, and kicked it up a notch.  Here is the most precious part, in my opinion:

If you have not worked with kindergarteners or first graders and watched them learn how to write, you might think this says “You are the ‘beast,'” but I assure you, she means “You are the best.”  In Kyle’s school it is called “kid code” or “guess and go,” and it makes way for some fabulous interpretations of the English language.

Next up?  Word search for Zoe, which Kyle designed himself.