A whole bunch of little somethings.

I’ve been collecting little moments in my head that I should blog but they’re such small moments I can’t figure out how to make a whole post out of any one of them.  So, here’s a little collection of moments…list style.

  • One recent morning, I asked Monkey if he was hungry and he said, “Hungy, capiller.”  “Are you a hungry caterpillar?”  “Yes!”  Hee.  He then informed me that hungry caterpillars eat “Crunch (Cinnamon Toast Crunch), milk, and ‘gurt (yogurt.)”  Who knew?  It certainly wasn’t in the book I read.
  • One recent evening, he was reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to me and said…”Booful, buffly!”  Which, is not new, what was new was when followed up that statement with “Mommy, two bufflies.”  There weren’t but that’s the first time he’s ever used a plural and he nailed it!
  • One distant evening, we took Monkey out for dinner at our favorite restaurant.  As we walked up to the door, he saw an elderly gentleman standing by the door.  Instead of hiding he looked the man square in the face and said, “Hi, Grampy!”
  • After he greeted this complete stranger so nicely, he then knocked on the door to the restaurant rather than walking right in.  Now we just need to convince him that he doesn’t have to knock at a restaurant but that he should knock on the bathroom door at home…
  • After we opened the door for him, he walked in and greeted each of the servers and the hostess at the hostess stand.  He also greeted every person we walked past on our way to our booth.  He greeted the cute high school girls sitting in the booth behind Duhdee several times…naturally.
  • When we were in a toy store recently, Monkey picked a toy off the shelf.  It was a craft activity and, under normal circumstance, I would have bought it for him  just because he asked but I thought it was going to be a little too difficult for him to do and would frustrate him/go to waste so I said no.  Once I convinced him that we were not going to buy that craft, he pouted and refused all other suggested replacements.  He’s never done that before!  Most people wouldn’t cheer that but it is more developmentally advanced that we’ve seen in the past.  So, yay!
  • Monkey has picked up a new saying.  Actually, he’s picked a few  new sayings but  most are not appropriate so…we’ll skip those. Though one of the really, highly inappropriate ones (that he saves for traffic jams) secretly cracks me up.  The one that he says all the time, that openly cracks me up, is “Oh, dear!”  He says it whenever anything goes wrong, unless it’s traffic related.  It’s such an old man thing to say, I find it endlessly amusing.
  • Another saying that we heard recently that struck my funny bone is “Hi, fella!”  No idea where he picked that one up but he used it when talking to Copper which seems appropriate.  He said it in such a sweet voice too.
  • I’ve been asking Monkey if he will let me cut his hair for a while now.  His hair, when it’s wet, comes down below his shoulders!  Good thing it’s so curly!  I’ve asked him so many times that he has a very emphatic “No” that he uses each time I ask now.  When I ask him if he likes his hair short or long, he tells me “wong.”  So, I guess he now has an opinion on his hairstyle.
  • He’s started dressing himself more frequently and he has style opinions in that department as well.  The rule is, if it is seasonally appropriate, he can wear whatever he picks.  It makes my eyes cross some days to let him out of the house but we wanted him to be more independent…
  • Speaking of more independent, he’s started refusing to hold our hands when we’re out and about.  Remembering the days when he was so uncertain about everything that he kept a death grip on my index finger whenever we left the house, it’s hard to believe that he actually refuses to hold hands at times.  If it’s safe, his preference is to walk a few feet in front of us now too.  I thought we had another 7 or 8 years before we had that particular issue pop up.  No matter how desperately I want him to gain that independence, my heart is not quite ready for this sight…

Phew.  OK, now I can clear out my “Draft Post” folder!  Go me!

At some point in the future…

We’ll be taking off for vacation somewhere for some period of time.

Is that vague enough to pass the internet security test?  Just in case it is not, for any would be thieves who may be lurking on the world wide web, or masquerading as “friends” on Facebook (I’ve got my eye on a couple of ya’ll), we’re leaving a rabid, wolf-hybrid loose in the house with no access to food.  It won’t kill him, it will just make you taste extra delicious should you slip by 1. our amazing neighbors who will e-mail us as soon as you set foot out of your car and 2. Grampy who, I must warn you, is hopped up on some serious steroids at the moment and thinks he’s Superman.  So, there are probably easier pickings in the nearby mall parking lot, FYI.  Though, really, GET A JOB…geeze.

I will still have my CrackBerry and I’ll do my best to keep you all posted on Monkey’s adventures somewhere or other…perhaps…sneaky people we are…in our very own backyard!  Perhaps this is all an elaborate ruse to catch bad guys doing bad things.  Who knows, we may have a whole TEAM of police officers camping out in our living room just WAITING for you.

So.  Later gators…or not…mwah, ha, ha!

This should really be two posts, just warning you.

It’s a longun’. 

After our last appointment with the developmental pediatrician we’ve decided that the medication we’ve been monkeying (ha! I crack me up) around with for the last few months is not The One.  We’ve switched to a new generic stimulant medication but not F.ocalin which had been the plan.  Why?  Because my insurance company won’t pay for it unless we can prove we’ve tried everything else.  So. 

Monkey took the new medication on Saturday and had a very emotional day but Saturday was also a day of shopping and birthday partying so that could very well be why he was having trouble.   We skipped the medication on Sunday morning because HE SLEPT UNTIL TEN AM!!! (Although, he did wake up at 2 AM and then again at 6:30 AM and I wasn’t able to fall back asleep that second time so it did me no good but this isn’t all about me, now is it?  So, Yay for Monkey for sleeping in!)  And then we skipped the medication on Sunday afternoon because.  What, you need a reason?

He is taking the medication again today.  We’ll see what difference we see from Saturday if anything.  If it *is* working and the emotional fragility is not a problem in two weeks we’ll increase the dose.  If it is not working as hoped in two weeks we’ll stop and revisit the issue with the Dr. 

About that birthday party…we went and Monkey decided after about 20 minutes that it was just too hot to party and he went home.  Fortunately, the party was for Cupcake, the little girl next door, so going home was an option for him.  Being a responsible parent, I went home with him.  He did eventually decide he would return to the party for…cake, of course.  He had one bite of cake and then our little Bug Whisperer thought it was a good idea to pet a bee.  That was, in fact, not a good idea.  It was the first time he’d ever been stung and he exclaimed “Hot!” and then burst into tears.  We went home.  Again. 

I gave him some ibuprofen and then I waited nervously for any allergic reaction.  The good news is that Monkey is not allergic to bees.  It is good information to have though I do wish we’d been able to discover it in another manner.  Ten minutes later, Monkey was totally fine but my paranoia has no such limits…which means that when he slept in until 10 AM on Sunday I had to restrain myself from going to check on him every 5 minutes in case it was the result of some delayed allergic reaction.  I restrained myself until 10 AM and then woke him up when I couldn’t stand it any longer.  I didn’t mean to wake him up, I just wanted to check his temperature and make sure his finger wasn’t swollen…oops.  But, it was 10 AM so, come on!  We can’t lay in bed all day!

Sunday afternoon a friend came for a visit.  She hadn’t seen Monkey in a while so there were lots of changes since the last time.  His language is clearer, he was social (for him…which means he stayed in the same room with us while we talked and drank wine) and was he pretty calm.  He didn’t stumble across a single inappropriate YouTube video and he used his best manners.  Uh, except for one little slip after dinner when he apparently forgot we had a guest and came strolling through the dining room clad only in a pair of SpongeBob’s.  Oopsie!  He had either forgotten that she was there or he did it entirely on purpose because he thinks it’s funny to mess with us.  It’s really hard to tell but given the way he was smirking…I’m leaning toward the latter.  Punk.

End of the year.

Yesterday was Monkey’s end of the year celebration even though he’s not actually finished school for the year.  It marked the end of the year for the peer models, the kids on IEPs will reconvene for summer session in July.

Duhdee and I managed to miss the kids’ performance.  We tried to squeeze too much in too little time and then traffic stopped us in our tracks.  I did not cry but I wanted to.  One of the other parents taped it and is going to send us a copy.  *sigh* 

Duhdee pointed out that Monkey probably did so well, per his teacher and all the assistants and a few parents,  because we weren’t there.  If he’d seen us he would have done what he always does which is to demand to “go home!  Mommy change!”  I still hate that we missed it but what’s done is done.  On the bright side we did get gorgeous sunflower bouquets for the teacher, the assistants and the therapists.  End of the year thank-you’s get expensive when you have teams of people!

The teacher had posted all of the pictures that she’d taken of the kids over the course of the last year on the walls and invited parents to take whatever they wanted.  After a few minutes Duhdee and I realized that if we took all the photos with Monkey in them we’d be taking 3/4’s of the photos, lol, and most of them were of him alone.  Monkey loves, loves, loves his teacher and it looks like the feeling may just be mutual based on the photographic evidence!

Jokingly, we asked her if she’d come with Monkey to kindergarten and she told us that she had, in fact, considered applying for the job but decided her passion is for pre-school.  Darn it!  We are all going to miss her tremendously.

Happy Father’s Day!

Duhdee is an amazing dad.  He is an extremely calm and giving man.  He is our everything.  He can wind the child up with wild games of swinging Monkey around by his ankles, he can soothe the wounded beast Monkey can turn into at the drop of a hat, he can stop Monkey in his misbehaving tracks with a word.  He does all the same for me…except for swinging me around by my ankles but he has been known to throw me over his shoulder, much to Monkey’s delight.

He is, at his core, a selfless person.  He lives for making others happy.  He lives for taking care of people.  I know for sure that I’ve never done anything to deserve him.  I’m convinced we found each other for the amazing little boy that we both dote on.  I thank my lucky Monkey that we both have him.

Name the story.

Monkey just “read” me a story.  Can you guess?  It’s pretty easy, lol.

Capillar hungy.

Cake! Pizza! ((No, pizza is not eaten in the book, it’s Monkey’s favorite food and he insists that the pie is pizza.  Wishful thinking.))

Big capillar! Big!

Cocoon, sleep *fake snore sound*

A buffly!

You OK?

The other night Monkey and Duhdee were in the living room playing.  Duhdee told Monkey to go give me a kiss.  Monkey came running to find me.  He caught me just as I entered the hall from the bathroom and he held his arms up for a hug.

I bent over to hug him, he hugged my neck tightly and wrapped his legs around my waist.  As I stood, lifting him up, I bumped my back on the door handle.

As soon as the “Owww!” was out of my mouth Monkey asked, “You OK?”  and he patted my back gently to comfort me.  Then I fell into a diabetic coma from the sweetness. 

Once recovered I told Duhdee, for probably the third time that day, “We got the best one!”

I should have known better.

This morning a copy of Monkey’s ABLLS results were in his cubby at school.  I definitely agree with our advocate that it provides great visual evidence of Monkey’s skills.  I also agree with his teacher that it shows his strengths and weaknesses very effectively. 

So what’s the problem?  We were just given the score sheet (not the technical term, I’m sure) which is what we had asked for.  So, again, what’s the problem?  The score sheet doesn’t tell us what questions were asked for each skill so while I know what categories the results are for I don’t have specifics.

I should have known better.  When have I ever been satisfied with anything less than alllll the information I can get my hands on?  The answer to that, should you be new here, is never.  Duhdee’s going to have to ask for the full test results.  All ninety-six pages.  At least I know what I’ll be reading for the rest of the week…

A different world.

Sometimes when we talk about Monkey with co-workers or other parents it’s really clear that we reside in a totally different world.  Sometimes it makes me a little blue to be honest. 

On Thursday, I was quickly wrapping up a project meeting so I could leave for Monkey’s IEP meeting when a co-worker asked if it was like a “PTA meeting.”

Heh, no.  So, while I stuffed papers into my bag and thanked people for coming, I explained what an IEP is and she said…

“Oh!  How cute!”

I stopped in my tracks, turned to look at her and…laughed.  Several people stared at her like she had two heads but how can you not laugh at that? 

My response was, “Not really. It’s kind of a pain in the ass, actually.”