Author: Melissa

This may seem a bit odd to people but I still haven’t been tested for Fragile X. It was one of the very first items brought up by the geneticist I met with in the weeks after Monkey was diagnosed but I was not able to think about it at that time. I was too focused on what this news meant for Monkey. I didn’t have the emotional energy to think about what it meant to me.

Since that time I’ve periodically given some thought to being tested but never reach a conclusion. I am vaguely worried about what having the test in my medical records could mean for me. Genetic test results are well protected in Massachusetts and in Maine, the two locations I will likely spend the rest of my life living in, but that is not the case in many, many other states. What if I decide to move to another state? What if that decision is made for me by my career or some other situation I can’t yet anticipate and I move to a state where it is legal to discriminate based on genetic information? What if I move, only to find out that I cannot obtain insurance for myself or my son because of the testing?

Other than that fear, there is a bit of “What does it matter?” involved as well. I am what I am. Is there a reason, beyond curiosity because my insurance won’t pay for that, to establish whether I’m full mutation or carrier?

What do you think?

Monkey is, without a doubt, a mama’s boy.  He will do and say things for me that he will say to no one else.  Sometimes I’ll ask him to share a new word or a new skill with Duhdee and he ignores us.  Sometimes he’ll even be doing something particularly cute and as soon as Duhdee walks into the room he will stop.  I know it won’t always be this way.  There are things he does with Duhdee that I can’t do with him.  There will be more and more of these activities as he gets older, I’m sure.  So for now I store away little nuggets like this to carry with me later:

From school, Monkey was on a walk with his class after recess.  As they approached the driveway at the front of the school where we do pick-ups and drop-offs he said, clear as day “Mama.  Home.” and he pointed in the direction that we drive away.  One thing that is particularly funny to me is that I never do afternoon pick-ups, those are Duhdee’s responsibility!

I hope no one feels judged by the following. I do not judge the decisions others make, I’m simply going to discuss the decision that my husband and I have come to regarding our family circumstances and how we’ve gotten there.

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We could be in real trouble with this boy.  He has always been a flirt, he comes by that honestly, Duhdee, in his single days, was a notorious flirt.  He made his living by flirting really, he was a bartender. 

So I shouldn’t be surprised that Monday’s report from his teacher was that he had a great day and that he was being very flirty but good grief!  He is an adorable little guy with curly hair and those cheeks!  We’ve been told many times that he looks like a little cherub. 

So good looks, coupled with this propensity for flirting with every little girl (and some not so little girls!) can mean only one thing.  Ladies, lock up your little girls!  Don’t say you weren’t warned.

I am back.  I’m just struggling to get back into a routine of any sort!  I spent all of last week working and complaining that I was just so tired and, really, it doesn’t get much more interesting than that now does it?  Finally, I smartened up and decided to take a day off!  Sheer genius at work here.  So on Friday I very purposefully did not go to work but I had to turn my out of office assistant on so I logged in remotely and…2 hours got sucked away.  Wooosh!  See what I’m saying about the genius thing?

Since prying myself away from my laptop mid-Friday morning, I’ve been trying very, very hard to remain away.  We had quite a lot of fun on Friday as a result.  There was lots of laughing and tickling and chasing.  Then Monkey came home from school.   Ha!  I’m kidding!  Anyway.

We’ve had a lot of good ‘ole clean family fun since Friday but I had to go back to work this morning so I guess my standoff with my laptop is over.  I’ve got my feet up on the coffee table, I bribed Duhdee to walk the dogs for me and I’m all settled in…now to go see what everyone else has been up to!

Last week is officially the week that wasn’t.  Holy moly.  I worked 41 hours of overtime last week alone. 

I have to say, I feel totally lucky to have two such fantastic men in my life.  Monkey handled a very tough week like a champ!  I only got to see him for about 30 minutes each morning as we got ready for school/work but he held it together and did really well.  I think I cried about it more than he did. 

Duhdee was also a superstar.  He did everything last week.  I worked and slept.  Anything else that happened like dog walking, playing, cooking, cleaning, bathing (well, I did bath myself) was done by my amazing husband. 

We’re still bone tired, I’m hoping to take a day off this week (that’s already 1/2 over!) and just sleep for the 6 hours Monkey is at pre-school.  Maybe then I can come up with two functioning brain cells.

Don’t you just hate it when work gets in the way of the rest of your life?  I’m a corporate paralegal and though I have a limited client group compared to most (only 1 client) they’re a very busy, very large group.  I am responsible for 5 publicly traded companies and their approximately 450 privately held subsidiaries.  There are about 20 different real estate, corporate, litigation, environmental, intellectual property and tax attorneys who also work on this group and my job is to keep track of everything they are doing at all times.  Right now we are in the final week of preparing for a fairly large deal.  Just a smidge over $130 million will be changing hands.  Man, I wish I worked on commission.  ANYWAY, I will be back to posting  and commenting on all your sites consistently after the deal closes.

Happy Easter!

Monkey is clearly feeling better since yesterday.  It’s so nice to see his “spark” back!  Last night Duhdee and I were sharing a hug in the kitchen.  Monkey was in another room watching TV but his radar went off and he came running to break up the lovefest.  You see, in this house, only Monkey should be hugged.  It’s quite amusing to us to hear his little feet pounding on the floor as he comes running to find us.  We’re always snickering and waiting for him to come around the corner with his big, saucer eyes.  We’re so naughty, we shouldn’t torture him.

Anyway, Monkey came running to break up the hug, as usual, but this time instead of merely separating us by a few inches he decided I needed to be removed from the room entirely.  He must have suspected that we’d just go back to hugging once he left to return to his show.  So little man put his hands on my lower back and gently pushed me out of the kitchen and into the dining room.  Then he must have decided it was FUN to make Umma move so he pushed me around the dining room table and right back into the kitchen where Duhdee was still standing.  Hmmm…not acceptable…so he pushed me back into the dining room, around the table and then into the hallway.  He finally stopped when I was about a foot from our bed. 

The whole time we’d been giggling and I turned to look over my shoulder at him and asked “Now what?”  He stood back a bit and yelled “BOOM!” which is what Duhdee makes him say before he tosses Monkey onto the bed.   “Boom?” I asked.  

Monkey grinned at me and suddenly pushed me, face first, onto the bed!  “BOOM!”  he yelled again before dissolving into belly laughs.  I couldn’t help but laugh in return and so we both lay there on the bed, howling with laughter and Monkey was looking me right in the eye (!) as we did.  It was such a funny and sweet moment.

I know, I shouldn’t ecourage the whole “pushing” thing but it seems relatively harmless.  Right???