Month: September 2010

Riding the rails.

Melissa

There are so many things I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t have my little Monkey to show me. One of those is this, I love trains. I never knew that until I had a train obsessed, little man in my life and I might have never known it if I’d gotten that little girl I had hoped for.

Monkey loves all things about trains.  Our obsession started with Thomas and wooden train sets.  Before we got too far into that scene, however, we discovered motorized trains and we’ve never looked back.  It seems like a natural progression to move from little motorized trains to bigger motorized trains.  Duhdee has some schemes for a large train table and display for our basement sometime down the road but right now that’s a little too advanced.

Besides, now that Monkey has been on the real deal, he’s a little less enamored of the toys. He prefers watching YouTube clips of subway trains “Here comes!” and, whenever possible, riding on those same subways.  We’ve spent more than one afternoon altering our plans so that we could ride a train.  Sometimes we make plans solely based on the fact that we will go there by train!

It’s no hardship though because I really, really, really like trains!  I ride the subway 5 days a week and that is not much fun but experiencing it with Monkey is a whole different matter.  We’ve also made an effort to take him on various “tourist” railways to experience what a real, old fashioned train ride is like.  We’ve toured cranberry bogs in southeastern Massachusetts, shady woods in Maine, New Hampshire lake shores and, most recently, the Berkshire Mountains.  Every time we do this the stress of everyday life just falls away and the 3 of us (and sometimes a few guests!) can sit back and just grin at each other like fools as the scenery slips past.

I’ve decided something, and this is the first that Duhdee is hearing of this, I’m going to come up with my own “Bucket List” that involves all the amazing railroads I want to travel on. 

And, I’m thinking big…

Really big…

Embarassing yet adorable

Melissa

Monkey as been doing this thing for a little while. I rather thought it would be a passing phase but it seems to be escalating.  We’ve not really made any effort to curb this thing because it’s quite adorable but it can be a bit cringeworthy at times. There are times where he’ll do this thing in public and we get understandably quizzical looks. It’s not something we can explain away quickly though, now that I’m thinking of it, I could come up with a very easy lie as a cover story.

I know you’re just dieing to know what this thing is.  You see, whenever we see a man with gray hair, Monkey yells “Grampyyyy!” Loudly…and repeatedly. Most of the time they look nothing like Grampy beyond the gray hair but from now on maybe we’ll just fudge on that rather than leave a wake of confused old men in our path everywhere we go.

Lesson learned. School, Day 11.

Melissa

This time it is not Duhdee and I learning a lesson, how novel!

It seems that one of the classroom assistants brings a coffee from Dunkin Donuts with her each morning.  It seems that each day, for the last two days, her coffee was going missing before she was able to finish it.  It seems like our little Monkey has been missing his morning sips of coffee with Duhdee.  It seems like he’s found his daily fix despite the new school year schedule.

My only question, when asked if Monkey is a coffee drinker was, “Did he say, ‘Mmm, good!’ when you caught him?”

*Snicker*

I guess we need to teach them to reinforce the rule that Monkey only drinks out of his own water bottle or out of cups with his name written on them.

His daredevil gene emerges.

Melissa

I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a daredevil. I am scared of heights, claustrophobic, I hate being too hot (or too cold), I don’t like bugs and let’s not discuss spiders. I get my adreneline rushes by working on complex legal transactions, get the picture?

Duhdee on the other hand loves anything with a motor…the faster, the better. There is only one reason he doesn’t own a motorcycle and that is because he flipped a snowmobile at over 90 mph when we first started dating. Since that day he’s gotten nothing but a “Have you forgotten the time….” look from me coupled with a “Only if you triple your life insurance,” comment when he brings it up. He no longer brings it up. 

Monkey has seemed to follow me in this department so far. He holds the handrail on the stairs, he holds hands when we’re outside, he never climbs anything other than his 2 step foot stool. Sure, he loves being swung around by his ankles but only by Duhdee who he trusts without question. I mean, Duhdee’s only dropped him once, right? I doubt Monkey even remembers ((But, oh, yes, Umma does!!  It’s mostly forgiven.))

Anyway, he’s always been a cautious boy which is one reason it never crossed my mind that Monkey would hit the door frame in his new swing! I thought it was due to his nature but now I’m starting to wonder. Two days ago I witnessed Monkey, while swinging in his swing, let go of the ropes ever so slightly. I told him, sternly, to hold on.  He did.

Last night, as we waited for Duhdee to get home from getting the pizza he was once again swinging. The next thing I know he’s on his back on the floor looking dazed. He’s fine, he has a little scrape at the base of his back but otherwise is unmarked. We discussed the fact that he needs to hold on while he swings but I’m pretty sure, based on the gleam in his eye as he headed back to the swing, he was thinking “Let’s do it again!”

Progress has been made. School, day 9.

Melissa

We realized, last week, that none of the tabletop activities to choose from in the mornings qualified as a “sensory” activity. They have been putting out coloring activities, matching activities, puzzles, etc. These are all things that require focus and regulation. These are not good activities for a child who is struggling with the transition into the classroom. He needs something to bring his arousal level back down after that stress.

The teacher, who is amazing, added a sensory option to the tabletop activities at our request. There is now a table with little bins of colored sand available each morning. There are “treasures” buried in the sand for the kids to dig out. It’s amazing what a difference this one little change has made and it’s an activity that all of the kids in this classroom choose whenever there’s an open seat at that station! 

Yesterday morning, after we finished the “check-in” routine, Monkey’s teacher approached. This is when we make the final switch from Money and Honey to school. Monkey had been clinging to Duhdee for “one more hug” each morning but yesterday, as the teacher approached, he smiled one of his huge, contagious smiles and reached out for her. He took her hand, they walked to the table with the sand and then he couldn’t even bother with a “good-bye” for his beloved parents!  

There are some times when I am annoyed that he ignores me.  This is not one of those times!  Go Monkey!

In which I admit defeat and, yet, still win.

Melissa

When we were at the conference we purchased an indoor swing. Monkey loooooves to swing so we’d been considering one for a while. One look at the “special conference pricing” and we were sold. Over a month and many, many frustrating phone calls later ((and finally a fraud report to our bank)) and we were the proud owners of this:

Not terribly exciting on it’s own but when you add the strap swing, the trapeze bar AND the net swing. Oh, baby! Unfortunately, Monkey didn’t see anything terribly exciting about any of it, it seemed. I really and truly thought he’d love that net swing. I sure do! It gives great all around pressure on your body while you swing, it was perfect!

We put it up and, except for the times I used it, it hung forlorn and neglected in our doorway. This was what I was fearing would happen, to be honest. It never fails that when we find something we think Monkey will loooooove and convince ourselves it’s a good way to spend our hard earned pennies; he hates it…or at least is entirely indifferent to it. It’s frustrating.

So, I left that net swing up for a long time. I used it and was able to get Monkey to use it for a few seconds at a time while sitting in my lap but he wouldn’t use it on his own. The final straw came yesterday when he played with it briefly without actually getting in it and knocked himself down. He was fine but he was shaken up and I knew he wasn’t going to even look at it for a while. FINE. I put the net swing in the bag and, on a whim, hung the strap swing in it’s place. Monkey was not a fan at first. He  was used to seeing the net swing hanging there by this time and wanted me to fix it. I told him no, the strap swing is staying put for a while.

Not 5 minutes later, he was in that swing…swinging. And just like that this overpriced piece of metal, that I was beginning to resent, has become a source of total joy. If I ever manage to get him to use it while wearing something other than a pair of Buzz Lightyear underwear I’ll even let you see.

Day 5

Melissa

“No plan of battle ever survives contact with the enemy.” Heinz Guderian

It’s day 5 and I think we’ve got it.  Starting a new routine, even one we plan for, doesn’t always go perfectly right from the start but I’m hopeful we’ve figured it out for this year.

He walked into class easily.  He’s still keeping a close eye on his teachers and he’s a little reluctant to run through his routine if one of them is standing too close or watching him.  We did use positive reinforcements ((M&M’s, naturally.)) to help him work through the routine and when he balked he was not rewarded ((Mommy ate his M&M when he refused to move his name (written on an apple) onto the check in board (a tree).  Mommy even got praised by Duhdee for it, lol.)) so hopefully he won’t do that again tomorrow ((Though, I certainly won’t say no to M&Ms if he does!)).

A new local parent group!

Melissa

If you’re in the eastern Massachusetts area I’d love to invite you to check out a brand new resource group for families affected by fragile X syndrome!  There is a short form at the bottom of the page where you can sign up to receive updates from the group and if you want to help get the group up and running you can make that known as well!