Out Smarted by an X-er

Don't you hate it when your kids beat you at your psychological "I gotcha games"?

With Alex's anxiety issues, we are sort of limited as to where we can go and what we can do for entertainment, so we spend a lot of time in the car. We travel a lot. We go for nature drives... several hour long nature drives. We enjoy watching wildlife.

With Dad's family so far away, we spend a lot of time in the car driving to see them, too. Anyhow, you get the point.

I've written earlier about my Rocks. Thank God for my Rocks - and I do mean that! I hope every one is as lucky as I am to have people like them in their lives. I know there are times, especially recently that I would not have made it with out them... But some times, those Rocks, some times I'd like to just wring their necks!

At some point one of my Rocks had Alex in the car with her. She is just so sweet...(insert sarcasm) that she taught Alex this really cool travelling game. (more sarcasm!!) Her family calls it Bingo. Whenever you see a yellow car, you shout "Bingo!" Well, on one of our two hour drives to a nature preserve, Alex "Bingo'd" all the way up and back. On the way back, everyone else was trying to sleep! Alex can spot a yellow car four miles ahead of the rest of us. He would shout so loud, it would scare us to death!

You can only imagine the 10 plus hour drive to Colorado. Have you ever played the SAME game for 1o hours? Not even a good college drinking game ever lasted that long?

Now, all parents are smarter than their fourteen year olds, right? Especially their fourteen year old son with Fragile X Syndrome. Sad, but true... You would think! Well, not Alex's Dad and I. This "Bingo" torment lasts for hours, and I am telling you, there are A LOT of yellow cars out there. And Alex gets loud when he's excited! Try to imagine the inside of our car, especially during a loooonnngggg drive across, say Kansas, on our way to Colorado... No one, I mean NO ONE stays awake for that whole drive.... But we all did!.. BOTH WAYS mind you!! Even after dark!

Dad and I are geniuses, we developed a plan. Before we went on our trip, we changed the rules of the road. We thought that if we made the game too difficult, Alex would eventually quit playing. Peace at last....

Here are the new rules.... yellow car is a "Bingo", red car is "Nothing", VW bug is "Slug a Bug"- and you have to name the color, purple car is a "grape", green car is a "lime", orange car is a "mustang" - long story, the car has to be moving also. It's a hard game at 70 miles an hour, right?

Oh my gosh, those rules were made in November! We drove to Colorado with that game going on! Did you know it is possible to see car colors in the dark? Apparently Alex has built in night vision! Is that a Fragile X thing? Or an "I know everyone wants to sleep, and that just ain't happening, thing?"

And ... commercials! We will be sitting in front of the tv, suddenly we hear... you guessed it, "BINGO!" Sometimes Alex even makes sure we count it by qualifying his Bingo with, "It's moving!"

I sort of feel like the loser on that game show.... "I am Alex's mom, and I am not near as smart as I thought I was!"