Would it be boring if we didn’t have these games to play?

Monkey’s speech is…uneven. He has a lot of really clear words that he uses in very typical ways. He also has really clear words, and more than a few less than clear ones too, that he uses in very scripted ways. He quotes The Penguins of Madagascar (Oh, dear!) most often.  Then there are the muddled words that he is clearly using in some sort of script but gooooood luck figuring out what the H-E-doublehockeysticks he is talking about. This is where the fun starts.

We’ve played the “What is he saying?” game here before…now with the scripted speech we’re discovering a new game. The “What episode is that from?” game. It has turned out to be quite a lot more difficult than I expected. There are only so many episodes of the Penguins! This should narrow the field down considerably but then you add in the fact that sometimes Monkey mispronounces words or swaps out a challenging one for an easier one which significantly lowers the odds of you finding the right episode.

Two days ago, Monkey began talking about a tiger. “Look! A tiger! Oh, dear.” Hmmm.

Clearly he’s quoting The Private, the “Oh, dear” and slightly British accent gives him away every time. But there are no episodes with a tiger that I could find! I found FanFiction with a tiger but nothing official. Just as I was beginning to think that maybe he was changing up the game by combining quotes from YouTube clips he showed his hand. He called me from the other room, “Mommy, LOOK! A tiger! Oh, dear.”

Dude, that’s a BADGER! And that makes total sense because, as everyone knows, The Private is scared of badgers, duh! So, Monkey is learning a new word this week while I’m home. Not that “Look! A badger!” is going to make anymore sense to people but at least I’ll know he’s sticking to the script.

In his defense, as if a Monkey as cute as he is needs a defense, the badgers do look a little…cat-like, perhaps even a little bit tiger-ish, no?

If at first you don’t succeed…

try, try again. This would be my special needs parenting motto number two. See here for my other parenting motto.

Our first attempt at apple picking and pumpkin choosing did not go so well. Neither Duhdee nor I seem capable of admitting that life gets in the way of “traditions” sometimes so we’ve been rather stubbornly holding on to the need to do these things despite Monkey’s anxiety and Duhdee’s inability to walk for more than a few minutes without losing sensation in his leg. I guess the thinking is that if we skip a year we, what, fail? Lose our “MOST AMAZING PARENTS EVER” award, though I don’t recall even getting nominated…I don’t know. I don’t know why we put so much pressure on ourselves sometimes to do these sorts of things. It seems rather silly, at times, but…

Part of it is that Duhdee and I really want Monkey to understand that these things…apples, pumpkins, Christmas trees…all come from someplace and that someplace isn’t a grocery store. This is part of the reason we have a vegetable garden. Monkey knows that potatoes come from the ground. He knows tomatoes and cucumbers and the beans ((he won’t eat)) all come from plants in the backyard. Duhdee buys our eggs from a local farm so Monkey know eggs come from chickens and that chicken…it also comes from chickens, lol. These are things that matter to us. Living in the city as we do it’s very easy for kids to grow up thinking that food comes from a grocery store and never ever realize where it came from before that. So there is that bit but skipping a year of apple picking shouldn’t throw the entire world into chaos, right?

To prove that we are not entirely inflexible (though, we are on Christmas trees, Duhdee has force-marched us through knee deep snow, biting winds and veritable oceans of mud for the perfect tree…here’s hoping he’s fully recovered by then) we’ve decided that we’ll go to a local nursery where we can buy local apples (Honeycrisp, yum) and local pumpkins. It’s going to have to be good enough since Duhdee refuses to consider the wheelchair option.  He even laughs as if I’m such kidder when I bring it up!  Of course, I am just kidding…

This should be interesting!

Today is (dun dun dun!) school picture day. This will be his 4th school picture day and he’s only managed to sit for one photo out of four attempts. The instructions this year were the same as always, “Here’s the check ((WAY TOO LARGE….really???? There is a new company this year. They offer “retouching” (oh la la) and the packages were ridiculous. Ridiculous! Given the fact that a large number of kids in this district are on free and reduced lunch, it is an urban area, I was really taken aback by the costs.)). Don’t torture him over it though.”

Last year he went first in his class which eliminated the waiting and his teacher stood with the photographer so Monkey would look in the general direction of the camera. It went well. The photographer will have a 30 second window for the perfect shot. I feel like I should have sent him in with a flask for the photographer as a thank you, lol.

Will we be greeted with a “He did great!” or a “Here’s your check back?” The suspense is killing me 😉

FYI, I totally cheesed him off this AM when I made him wear a collared shirt ((Never fear, it’s one he normally loves, I suspect he was just being difficult…shocker)).  He kept asking Duhdee “T-shirt?” as Duhdee was helping him get dressed and he *threw* the shirt at Duhdee when he finally realized I was not budging.  He’s so cute when he’s mad!

He’s simply not cooperating!

Monkey is being completely uncooperative these days, he’s giving me zero blog fodder. *Hrumph*

School is going well. He is doing his morning routine and transitioning to his teacher very well. I think, in maybe another week, we could step back a micro step and start the process of making him more independent. Maybe we’ll start with one less hug, lol.

This past weekend we intended to go apple picking but two things stopped us.

  1. Monkey decided that there were just tooooo many people there (it was a madhouse) and that staying in the parking lot would be the best course of action. We managed to get him out of the parking lot briefly but deemed it in everyone’s best interests that we return him there as quickly as possible.
  2. Duhdee, still can’t really walk that much. Apple picking in a large orchard was probably not a good idea in the first place, eh?

I ended up picking apples all by my lonesome…out of a bin in the farm store, lol.

We spent time with Duhdee’s parents on Sunday as well. We had a yummy dinner and Monkey ate a lot of food. After dinner, Grammy offered us homemade apple pie and I told her Monkey and I would share a piece since he doesn’t really like pie and no, thank you, he won’t eat icecream…only to have my entire serving stolen! AND he asked for and receieved two small scoops of icecream. Shows what I know.

That’s about it. Totally and utterly boring. 

Isn’t it so cool??

Why can’t I let this go?

Monkey doesn’t like Halloween. He never has. He tolerated costumes long enough for photos when he was younger but he would never go door to door. Now that he’s older, he doesn’t even tolerate the costume. Somehow his teacher convinced him to dress up last year and she sent us a photo of that event but he wouldn’t wear it at home, not even to pass out candy.

Last night, I made Monkey cry. I coerced him into wearing the costume I picked out this year despite his repeated declarations that he didn’t want one. I finagled him into that costume, had him look in the mirror and then helped the poor crying boy out of it. What is wrong with me? Why can’t I just stop this? I felt, and still feel, like an utter asshole for forcing such a non-issue.

Honestly, who cares if he doesn’t want to dress up for Halloween? Who cares if he never runs down the sidewalk while Duhdee and I stroll behind greeting all the other parents out and about on Halloween? Who cares if he’ll never go door to door with a pack of kids when he’s older?

Me, it turns out.  Sometimes I hate Fragile X and what it’s done to even the smallest, pointless dreams I had…