Life with Fragile X Syndrome

I mentioned last Friday that Monkey had a fall and then forgot to tell about it. Sorry for worrying anyone. Anywho, Monkey and Cupcake were outside playing in the backyard. Cupcake looks a bit like a cartoon character when she runs, she’s 2 so her arms and legs…heck, her whole body…looks out of control and about to crash with every step. She hardly ever does crash but this time she went down.

Monkey was right on her heels and tripped over her. If he put his hands straight out to catch himself he would have landed right on her so instead he tipped to the right and went down hard. Poor guy skinned up his knee and his elbow and then his head hit the cement walkway near the porch. He has a scratched and bruised chin and two (TWO!) fat and bloodied lips. He’s still got the skinned knee and elbow but he no longer looks like Angelina Jolie.

Of course, there was the OTHER fall at camp that I forgot to mention that left Monkey  with a very large bloody and bruised patch on his back just before we came home.  He still has a discolored area on his back from that too.  *Sigh*  that boy.

You let a girl take a vacation and then she gets all lazy.  She starts laying around all the time eating bon bons, painting her toenails and neglecting her blog.

Or…alternative version…

You let a girl take a vacation and then the $600,000,000 deal she is staffed on explodes the second she steps foot in her office and she is just now digging out from the detris and is hoping like heck that she’ll be able to go home on time tonight b/c she’s getting really tired of only seeing her kid on the drive to school each morning.

I bet  you can figure out which one is true 🙂  I promise I will post about our vacation and all the other cool (and not so cool) stuff going on this weekend.  I might even add pictures.

FYI, you know your child has experienced a spectacular fall when your neighbor calls you early the next morning to report that her little girl, who just happens to adore your little boy, woke them up by climbing into their bed and stating “Monkey booboo?”  more than 12 hours after she was traumatized by watching Monkey get that booboo.  It was a doozy, but it shouldn’t leave a scar…beyond Cupcake’s mental one, of course.

The kid that never naps…is napping for the 2nd time in a week!  He lay down, covered himself over and fell asleep…just as he did earlier this week.  It’s so weird.

Mommy, heh.

My kid…can count to 10 all by himself.  I knew he could get to 7 with prompting but he kept going when I asked him to and then repeated it several times for me b/c I couldn’t believe my ears.  Woah.

We had a fantastic Father’s Day this year.  Duhdee didn’t want anything and he’s really hard to buy for without instruction because he’s very particular…it’s the engineer in him, I guess.  Monkey and I gave him something that I knew he would love though, the gift of time.  We gave him a bunch of “gift certificates” that he can use to get down time as he needs it.   Now I just need to make sure he uses them!   He’s not very good at doing nothing but I do think the “sleep in as late as he wants” one will get used in short order 🙂

Once we were up and dressed we jumped in the truck and headed to Maine.  We had to tend our experimental garden and I had managed to plan a lobster feed for my dad that included ALL of my siblings and ALL of the grandkids, this is not easy to do now that 5 of the 6 grandkids are teenagers.  We stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts to grab something to eat on the way and I heard myself saying something I wish I’d heard my mom say just once in my life. 

(After Monkey had finished his muffin)

“If you want any more to eat, you’ll just have to eat donuts!”

He didn’t seem to mind, lol.

When we got to my parent’s house it was raining steadily so I convinced (it wasn’t that hard) my sister to Monkey-sit while Duhdee and I played in the mud.  Just before we left Monkey grabbed two of the remote controls (and more than one is a universal, I don’t know why), handed one to Grampa and kept the other for himself.  They were seated side by side on the couch flipping when we walked out.  I barely got a “bye” from the little punk. 

Monkey had such a great time that day, he did so amazing.  I know he expects every trip to Grammy & Grampa’s house to be a party but it amazes me how social he is becoming with everyone.  He spent a long time playing ball with Grampa and then both of his Uncles, which was a first, he tends to avoid direct interaction with all 3 of them.  He was also not shy about telling them what to do “Up high!” was a favorite, lol.  He wore out the dogs playing ball after he finished with everyone else…and he still had energy to spare, of course.

My dad really seemed to enjoy himself and all the attention Monkey gave him.  He also seemed to take great pleasure in telling me to check out my “redneck” son.  Monkey had grabbed my mother’s little red rocker (she has had it since she was Monkey’s age, it’s an antique a couple times over now) ((I’m sure glad my mom never reads this but somehow I’m sure this will make it’s way back to her via my tattletale sister :-p)) and pulled it as close to the TV as he could get it so he could watch NASCAR. Prior to that he’d been standing with his nose practically touching the screen as he watched.  In a few years I expect he’ll be asking to go hunting with Grampa *sigh*

We had him hand out high fives and hugs before we mentioned that we were leaving and he did better than normal, we may be on to something there.  He also did great on the ride home, the day before he’d spent an hour (AN HOUR!!) whining “Home!  House! Dogs!” over and over and over until my ears bled.  I STILL didn’t shush him, though, but we were pretty close.  My mom can’t wait for the day we tell our “non-verbal” boy to STOP TALKING OMG!  The day is not too far off, I imagine.

This AM Monkey and I took the bus to school.  While we were waiting at the bus stop one of my bus friends ((someone I see and talk to almost every time I ride the bus but I don’t know his name…kinda weird but it’s a bit awkward to ask him his name after 5 years, lol)) approached and greeted us.  Monkey used his favorite diversion tactic and left me very confused.  I had to translate each of these for the gentleman.

“Look!  Bus!”  (He looks at the school bus across the street.)

“Look!  Truck!” (He looks at the truck driving by.)

“Look!  Elephant????” (He looks over his shoulder and then snaps his head back around with the most confused look on his face.)

All I could do was shrug and laugh.  That kid!

Given our gardening activities of late, I referred to this as my “farmer’s tan” at yesterday’s gathering.  My nephew correctly pointed out that there is, in fact, no “tan” involved.  I huffed that it was my NASCENT farmer’s tan to which he responded “Nascent skin cancer, more likely.”  Touché, you little punk 😉