Adults Are So Confusing

I've rarely if ever used "baby talk" to talk to my kids.  I might change my tone, or spend a little more time explaining things, but I typically use the same words to talk to them as I would use to talk to any (intelligent) adult.  I always used to think that my kids understood pretty much anything I said to them, until recently.

When we went to the BVIs, we told the kids that even though we were going to be really far away, if they looked up at the moon in the sky, they would be looking at the same moon we were looking at.  We even planned to all look at the moon at the same time one night (we remembered, the kids forgot!).  Zach didn't seem phased by our trip, but Lexi seemed happy with the moon thing.  Last week we told the kids that Miss Melissa was coming to babysit for them.  They were very excited, as they love Miss Melissa.  Zach asked us if we were going out to look at the moon.  I thought it was cute, so I told him that we were, at one of our friends houses.  When the night came and we were saying our goodbyes, Zach said to Miss Melissa, "I'm not going to be scared of you when my mom and dad leave.  But I might be a little shy of you."  I laughed and assured him he would have fun, kissed him on the head, and left.  The next morning I heard Zach get up in his room, but he never came in to wake us up.  About twenty minutes later, Lexi came him and woke up her Daddy.  Before they went down stairs I asked them to check on Zach.  When they opened his door they found him sitting on his bed, and he exclaimed, "DADDY!!!  You came HOME!!  Did Mommy come home too????"  It was at that moment that we realized that he thought we were leaving him for a week with Miss Melissa.  We never said, "See you in the morning." or clarified that we would only be out for the evening.  I just can't imagine what he thought about that!

A couple of weeks later I was fed up with the kids one morning because they were not doing what I had asked them to do.  I told them that if they didn't start following my directions that they were going to be grounded, and lose all of their privileges (cartoons, play dates, Imajine That trips, etc.).
The kids settled down, and a few minutes later Zach came to me and said, "Mommy, am I being a good boy?"  I said that he was and he said, "But are you still going to put me in the ground?"  After we laughed about the misunderstanding, Lexi told me that the first time she heard the term "being grounded" (not by me) she thought it meant being put into the blender and ground up!  My goodness.  I'm going to have to be much more careful about what I say in the future!