Arg.

I know now why we visit the small town of Eastern Oregon only once or so a year.

My nephew Zach Man, has something going on. We don't know what and really, it may turn out to be nothing. He's 2 and a half. He's in speech (am I spelling that right?)speech therapy. How I graduated high school is beyond me. Anyway, he's in speech therapy because he's at a 12 month old level for language or whatever. No biggie, but the biggest concern was that he was talking at age 12 months. He was saying "Where did it go?" and would say "mama" and "dada". Then he just quit and is not saying anything aside from high pitched screaming and babble. He's also a prolific climber. Natural for a two year old you say? Could be. But the dude climbs anything and everyone. At least 70% of the time, people aren't people. They're objects to be conquered by Mr. Zach Man. He must climb. And he doesn't learn from his mistakes.

Again, could be nothing, could be something. Who cares. If he's got something, that's the way it is.

So when My brother and sister in law (I will now refer to her as Sis because she's more of a sister and less of an in-law) weren't around, the relatives were all sitting around talking about how Zach Man is for sure Autistic. My aunt (uncles wife, I'm not related bloodly to her) said that when you're holding a kid and they fall backwards in your arms and hold out their hands, that's a sign of Autism. Well shit howdy, that must mean that Dani is autistic. And all the kids I babysat were autisic. And most babies have a form of it.

I mean, c'mon. How the hell would she know?

Anyway. And then a couple Sis didn't even know was talking about how my mom and dad were so worried about Sis's kids that they couldn't enjoy themselves.

News to my mom. Sis talked to her about it, thank god, and mom was aghast and perplexed. We didn't know this couple. I think the dude was my uncle's builder for his remodel, but none of us spent time talking to him. My mom was having a great time until she realized Sis was having a horrible time.

Oh yeah, and my cousin, who doesn't have kids and has zero idea on how to raise them and has very unrealistic kid expectations, made a comment to Sis about how Zach Man should be medicated. She was joking, but that would have set me off. I know that Sis is sensitive to that. I can tell she's stressed out. She and my brother are going through a tense time because their son is having some issues at such a young age. I can imagine Sis, being the good Catholic-Non-Catholic-Guilt-a-Holic is wondering what she did or what she fed Zach Man or whatever that caused this.

And they did nothing wrong. It's just the way Zach Man is. And he may grow out of it. And he may not.

To him, I'll always be the wierd lady that kisses him way too much. I am the Kissy Monster.

Angela, my middle girl, is the Kissy Monster in training.

Okay, I'm going to end this entry. Wait for the picture at the bottom of this entry to complete itself. At least on my computer it takes a while.

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