So These Two Fragile X Kids Go to a Wedding....

Actually they didn't go to the wedding, they just went to the reception.  And they didn't go all the way into the reception hall, they hung out just outside in an overflow room.  It was pretty crowded and loud in there.  My dad and I were remembering at the last Fragile X Conference banquet (another loud, crowded event) there was a family there whose Fragile X son was overstimulated and he cried and laid on the floor kicking and screaming.  And all of us at that banquet have or know kids just like that, so I'm sure they expected us to be sympathetic, and I wasn't upset that their child was disrupting the event.  I was unsettled though, that they'd force him to stay in there when he was so desperate and miserable.  So no, we didn't make the boys go all the way into the reception hall.  We let them hang out where they were more comfortable.

And I, the self-proclaimed pathological picture taker, hardly got any photos from this wedding because

1.  the battery in my good camera was dead (I didn't get around to charging the camera battery this week even though I thought about it every single day), so I had to use my pocket camera, and
2.  apparently the lens needed cleaning, either that or there are ghosts hovering in almost every photo I took, and finally,
3.  My children were there. 

But I managed to get one or two good shots of the bride (my cousin Katie) and groom, and I have concluded that a wedding is a much more tender, emotional event when you've known the bride since she was an infant.  She was a most gorgeous bride, too.  If only one of those times I thought about charging the camera battery, I'd have actually done it.

My mom, dad, Mark and I took turns corralling and supervising the boys so that we could tag-team eat dinner, chitchat with wedding guests, listen to toasts, and clink-clink-clink-clink our glasses to get the bride and groom to kiss.  And, probably as a result of our preplanning and our organization and the added help of grandma and grandpa, the whole thing went pretty well.

Aliza bounced around, playing with my cousins' kids

and her cousin Jocelyn

and eating all the Hershey's Kisses off our table.

Isn't it amazing what she gets away with when we are preoccupied?

But while the boys didn't much enjoy the wedding, they definitely had a ball the next morning at the hotel pool.

Aliza also rejoiced in the luxury of the swimming pool.

The boys have scared me a little with how relaxed they got exactly two times in their lives.  The first time was the first time I gave them Clonidine.  They were both so dazed and glassy-eyed, I called the doctor, very alarmed.  The second time was today.

The hot tub at the hotel wasn't very hot, and the sign said it was for ages 6 and up.  So we figured if Aliza was allowed in (with adult supervision, of course), the boys, at 5 1/2, were close enough to 6 to give it a try.  Well, they loved it.  They loved the warmth and the jets.  And Zack was so relaxed, I thought he might take a little nap on my shoulder.  I started to encourage him to get out, it was so out of character for him to be that calm.  I mean, this is the kid who can't stand still, ever -- if he can't move around, he'll just jump in place.

It was nice to see them so relaxed, though.  We are wondering whether we should get a jacuzzi put in at home, strictly for therapeutic purposes, of course.  You know, after our powerball numbers come in.