Our house's version of "Dude!"---#GBE2: Hidden

There we were, in our van.

Our older son and I were in there. Together. In the dark van. In the garage.

The engine was silent. And, for the first many minutes, so were we.

Silence was not my choice. Truth be told, it makes me uncomfortable a good bit of the time. I feel the overwhelming urge to fill the silent air with words. Today, our son won't let me.

He brought me into the van. I thought we were going on one of his trips. You know, the kind of trip that results in eight carousel rides at the mall, ten trips up and down an escalator somewhere or round and round in the hospital's revolving door (Security guards with dirty looks? I see nothing.)

As I placed my key into the ignition of the van and turned it, I heard, "All done!" from our son.

"What's all done?" I asked.

"All done!" he insisted once more.

"Did you forget something?" I asked.

"All done!" he responded.

"Do you have to go to the bathroom?" I asked.

"All done," he replied.

Now, what was I to do with this? I was frustrated. He clearly had a plan, but it was hidden, buried under the single-most elusive answer in the world to me at the moment.

All done.

I sat. He sat. Silence.

What the heck were we doing? Fifteen minutes passed.

"If we aren't going anywhere, how about we go inside?" I finally suggested.

"All done," he quietly answered.

So we sat, he in the back seat and I in the front, until I hear from him once more, "All done."

What now? I didn't even say anything.

"What's all done?" I asked.

Silence. Smile.

On a hunch, I moved to the back seat, closer to him. He had such a great smile. What mom could resist his smile? Moving in for a kiss, I hear, "All done," from him.

So, I moved away.

"All done," he said.

I think I was getting the hang of this, this crazy language of his. Finding the hidden meaning behind the only two words he seemed to be able to say in that given time.

It occurred to me that "all done", in our house, had become our "dude".



Placed in that perspective, this situation didn't seem so crazy any more. It wasn't so frustrating trying to figure out the meaning behind the word. All I needed was context.

How many meanings does "All done" have in our house? Hm. I've never formally counted. Here's a try:

No
Stop
Wait
I don't want that
I don't like what you are doing
I don't like where you are sitting
Your singing annoys me
Your talking bugs me
You are too close
You aren't close enough
I'm not trying that if you pay me

Well, I'm sure you get the picture.

In that van, the context was telling me that our guy wanted a dark, quiet place to sit, alone with his mamamommy. How lucky for me. And, how fun that we did.


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This entry was written in response to a word prompt issued by The Group Blogging Experience 2 (GBE2).