It’s snowballing, in a good way!

We were “reluctant” to move Monkey to his new school, you may recall. We I threw more than one hissy fit in which I wailed over the unfairness of it all. I do still think it was unfair for the district to assign him to 3 schools in 4 years but now, with the benefit of hindsight, I can see this was the exact move he needed. Just, you know, maybe a year earlier letting us skip school number 2 but whatever! 😉

Today we had an appointment with C’s developmental pediatrician at the Fragile X clinic here in Boston and I was left giddy and a bit breathless by it. That’s new and, I have to say, it’s way more fun than leaving the office feeling brittle and broken! I’d like to do this more.

Our last appointment was 5 months ago, before Monkey started at the new school, so the pediatrician’s last impression of us was one of pure anxiety and anger. We were still furious about the entire IEP process, we were still prepared to hate…well…everything. So when he asked us how things were going, I don’t think he expected to hear me say, “Perfect!”

Of course, thing are not really perfect. Copper is still dying, Caleb still has fragile x syndrome, I still struggle mightily with depression, I have friends who are hurting badly but…given all that…we’re still pretty good which is way better than I would expect. In that 1/2 of a second between him finishing his question and my mouth opening, the last 5 months flashed through my mind at warp speed and since, “Fucking awesome!” didn’t seem appropriate ((See, I do have a filter!)), “Perfect!” just popped out.

Of course the doctor wanted to know details and so I flashed through the highlights: learning to read, loves school, interacting appropriately with peers, well liked in general, interacting with less familiar adults with ease, opened every single Christmas present in an age appropriate manner and time frame ((i.e. like a BEAST!)) and, oh yeah, STUDENT OF THE MONTH ((ZOMG!!)).

The look on the doctor’s face went from intense and interested to incredulous to one of pure joy…and he did a full on fist pump when I hit him with that last tidbit. There was nothing I could do but laugh at his obvious excitement over Monkey’s accomplishments. I really needed to look at all the things that are good and getting better today. It was an added bonus to see the doctor totally lose his calm, professional demeanor there for a bit.

I know that changing schools wasn’t a small change but I truly never expected for it to affect so much of our lives in such a completely positive manner. I have not one negative or critical thing to say about his teacher or aids or staff or…well…about anything. That’s pretty damned amazing since I’m better than average at finding the negatives. Not only can I not find anything negative to say, I find myself singing their praises…almost daily. Seeing how much happier he is and how much he is growing and changing…how could I not?