Mart, hard at work

At age 13, Mart’s the youngest of Auntie Lourdes’ children. Mart spends quite a bit of time styling his hair every morning, and I must say, it looks pretty cool. He’s also studying Tae-kwon-do, but what he’s a real expert at is what I call E.B.C.—eyebrow communication. Nonverbal language is huge here—I have no idea why. It drives Adam and me crazy, actually—we often talk about how we just want to have a normal conversation with normal responses. A conversation with Mart, however, will often go like this:

“How’s it going Mart?”
He raises his eyebrows, purses his lips—gives a slight nod.
“Does that mean good?
He repeats the gesture.
“How was school?”
A slight variation on the nod—a little to the right side this time.
“Oh yeah?” At this point, I tickle him.

I’ve started to train him though. The other day I had Adam, Mart and Raul, a neighbor friend of Mart’s, over to play Monopoly. I asked them if they’d like some hot chocolate (universally called Milo here—a popular brand—even if it’s a different brand name).
We had something of a breakthrough:

“Hey Marty—want some Milo?”
He nodded, eyebrows raised. A slight smile crossed the pursed lips.
“Does that mean yes, Mart?”
He nodded.
“I have an idea. When I ask you if you’d like something, why don’t you say ‘yes, please’ or ‘no thank you’?”
I don’t usually get like this, but it started to drive me nuts.
He sat up straight and smiled at me. “Yes I would like some Milo please!” He shouted. Then he fell back into his chair.
“Wow—that must have exhausted you,” I say.

Secretly, I’m amazed that he actually expressed himself verbally, but I won’t let him know that.