Miss Lauren

Lauren is our oldest and our blondest.  She cracks us up! 

Well, she is incredibly in love with Matt.  She loves Rach & Austin too but she adores Matt. 

This morning I got out of the shower and heard Matty open his bedroom door.  So I threw my robe on and put him on the potty.  I went back to my room to get dressed.  I was about halfway done when I hear Lauren getting Matt off the potty.  Five minutes does not kill the child but apparently it killed Lauren. 

Then I busted her trying to carry him to his room.  Carry him!!  He is 11, 65 lbs, almost 5 foot tall and she is carrying him down the hall.  Luckily she is tall but still she didn’t need to carry him.  I have no clue what her reasoning was except that she did it out of love and concern.  I couldn’t help but laugh at her for it cuz they looked so silly.  I just told her that she needed to let him walk. 

The thing is that Matt is really smart.  He knows when he can pull the wool over someones eyes and he will manipulate it.  If he can get Lauren to do stuff for him he will.  So we’ll need to work on that this summer.  Silly girl.

Her silliness didn’t end there.  Lauren is home today.  She let the dogs out.  Well our pitbull and our shar-pei are great at running away.  She didn’t know just how great they were at it till she tried to let them back in.  They knocked her down and hauled butt.

She called me freaking out.  She was worried that the dog catcher got them.  She was worried they got hit by a car.  I told her to go try to look for them over by the school.

So she did and a neighbor drove her around to help her find them.  She called me back freaking out because the neighbor told her that the shar-pei was an expensive dog and someone might steal her. 

Later in the morning the pitbull finally arrived home.  Lauren called and told me that she was all wet.  I told her that she likes to go swim in the ditch when it gets hot out.  So then she freaked out because the shar-pei wasn’t with her and might have drowned…lol!!  I had to inform her that shar-pei’s hate water and more than likely when the pit was swimming the pei went off to an adventure involving dryer activities. 

Thankfully, the shar-pei arrived home an hour or so ago.  Lauren now knows just how cautious she needs to be when she lets the animals in or out.  But I don’t think I’ll ever get her to calm down.  And that is really just a charm about her.   Plus it can be darn funny!!

Cure for Autism & FXS in mice!?

This article is interesting to us all

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MIT researcher offers hope for syndrome that causes retardation, autism

By Carey Goldberg, Globe Staff

Blocking a key brain chemical can reverse many of the symptoms of Fragile X Syndrome — an inherited form of mental retardation often accompanied by autism — in mice engineered to have the disease, an on-line scientific journal reported this afternoon.

The findings raise the prospect that drugs with similar effects may someday help restore brain function in human children with the syndrome, and possibly with some forms of autism as well, said Susumu Tonegawa of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, senior author of the paper in today’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. About 100,000 Americans have Fragile X.

Mental retardation has long been thought to be permanent. But recent research increasingly suggests that even with diseases that strike after birth, the brain may be more fixable than previously believed. Earlier this year, scientists from Scotland reported that dramatic recoveries could be achieved in mice with Rett Syndrome, another genetic disease related to autism.

Tonegawa’s paper says “that some of the abnormalities with mental retardation syndromes and autism aren’t necessarily cemented in stone,” said Eric Klann, a professor in New York University’s Center for Neural Sciences, who was familiar with the paper but not involved with the research. “I think it gives some degree of hope.”

The research focused on blocking an enzyme called PAK. Tonegawa’s research used genetic manipulation rather than drugs, but he said that he believes drug and biotech companies are already working on developing compounds that block the same enzyme. His lab may seek access to such compounds that are aimed for other diseases, or ask a chemist to synthesize them, he said.

There are currently several drugs in development as possible treatments for people with Fragile X Syndrome, said Katie Clapp, co-founder of FRAXA Research Foundation, a locally based nonprofit that helped fund the research. Her 18-year-old son, Andy, has the syndrome. None of the compounds has reached the point that she would want Andy to try them, she said, nor are they publicly available.

“But talk to me in a couple of months,” she said. “There are more drug targets coming out of research that we’re funding, and some of it does suggest drugs that are already available. So sometimes I feel like I’m living a dream — a really good one.”

Counseling and tough morning…

Lauren & Austin didn’t have counseling last night.  Apparently the secretary, who was fired, scheduled it for when the place isn’t even open!!  So my hubby has to get off early again today and take them in around 4ish.

Ya know how you plan things out the night before and the day arrives and nothing goes the way you planned it.  I am having one of those days.  My hubby just called and apparently so is he.  I’m trying not to be irritated at the people, or animals, incurring the changes because life happens.  But sometimes it’s so darn hard!!

10:00 a.m.

Not long after I posted this a coworker emailed the following to me.  She had no idea about the morning I had but it sure got the point across.  I don’t know how valid this is but it has a great message.

As you might know, the head of a company survived 9/11 because his son started kindergarten.

Another fellow was alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.One woman was late because her alarm clock didn’t go off in time.One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.

One of them missed his bus.

One spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change.

One’s car wouldn’t start.

One went back to answer the telephone.

One had a Child that dawdled and didn’t get ready as soon as he should have.

One couldn’t get a taxi.
 

The one that struck me was the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, took the various means to get to work but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid. That is why he is alive today.Now when I am stuck in traffic, miss an elevator, turn back to answer a ringing
telephone, all the little things that annoy me. I think to myself, this is exactly where God wants me to be at this very moment..Next time your morning seems to be going wrong; the children are slow getting
dressed, you can’t seem to find the car keys, you hit every traffic light, don’t get mad or frustrated. It may be just that God is at work watching over you.

May God continue to bless you with all those annoying little things and may you remember their possible purpose.