Catching Teenitis

Middle Boy, who is almost 11 and has always been my sweetest boy and really still is, is starting to show signs of being infected with the malady Teenitis. I already have one child with full blown Teenitis and Middle Boy seems to somehow have caught is despite our best efforts to quarantine and disinfect First Born. It started occasionally with little fits. The funniest was when I sent him to clean his bathroom for the third time. I was at the top of the stairs and I could hear mumbling from the basement. I thought it was muffled due to the distance and the inability of Middle Boy to talk above a whisper. But that was not the case. He was downstairs cleaning his bathroom again and mocking his mother in a Peanuts style adult voice "Wah waaah wahh wah waaahhh." I laughed so hard. Whenever I bring up his mumbling to others he gets all shy and smiles and I know he loves the attention and the fact that he's not in trouble for mocking me.

This weekend was a little different. I originally thought he was cranky from a sleep over, which is rare, it's usually the other two that take three days to recover, not him. But when the crankiness continued through Sunday and a little on Monday I got worried. I debated taking his temperature but remembered First Born never had fevers associated with Teenitis. I thought about quarantining him but realized that would be more stress than it was worth since that hasn't worked with First Born. I thought about calling the doctor to determine if there was a cure, but I'm pretty sure I would have heard about a cure if there was one available. I really think it would be front page news. In the meantime I am looking forward to more fits and rebellion and independence as his Teenitis takes root. More fights about stuff he used to do without a problem. More mopey days as he deals with his hormones that doctors still haven't figured out how to regulate. I propose we inconvenience doctors with teenagers in their life on a more regular basis so they might realize how much of a breakthrough this cure could be for the whole world!