Life of a Mom with a Teenage Boy

I am happy to announce that after three years, I am now fluent in two languages.  Obviously, the first one is English.  My second language may not be as beneficial to those who know Spanish, French or German, but to a mother of a teenage boy it is a must.  Today I realized that I am officially fluent in the language of "mumble."

Cal wasn't always a mumbler.  In fact he used to talk all of the time.  Some time during 8th grade I noticed that his answers to my questions had become shorter.  His voice had also started to change around this time, so I thought that maybe that was the reason I could no longer understand his response.  It dawned on me after a couple of months of asking him to repeat himself, he was really telling me to stop asking him so many questions.  So, I did.

There were many mornings I drove him to the middle school (a six minute drive) with neither of us speaking until I said, "Have a great day!" as he exited the vehicle.  He always mumbled something in return, but I wasn't quite sure what it was.  That is the way our life continued for several years.  I limited the amount of questions I asked him, making sure they were ones that I really needed answers to - "What time do you need picked up?"  "How did you do on your test?"  "Do you need money?"  "Will their parents be there?"  I didn't need to know who was dating whom or what offense they were practicing in basketball, so I didn't bother him with those.  Long gone were the days when I knew what he ate at lunch, who he sat with and which team won the football game at recess.  We did find common ground on several topics - especially IU basketball, golf and the NBA.  

Today I am proud to say that Cal does talk in our house again and even lets us know where he is going and when he will be returning.  First thing this morning he asked if he could go with Alex to the high school swim meet, then to IPFW for a basketball and out for dinner.  I knew I pushed the envelope when I asked, "Who else is going?"  This time, however, when he mumbled two names that would have been inaudible to most humans, I knew exactly who they were!!  

After three years of trying to track his code, I finally did it.   After he left,  I looked on Google translate to see if "Mumble" was an official langue yet.  It wasn't, but if they ever add it, I will be the first to apply for the job.  Of course, the only words that I am extremely confident in are "OK", "Fine", "Not much" and "Jayce".  I do know, however, if I keep trying I will probably have a vocab of at least 50 words by the time he graduates.