do they ever know they have fragile x?

The latest issue of the Quarterly arrived the other day. I went to put it in the magazine rack on the end table in our family room, and Hayden said he wanted a copy. (I must have accidentally renewed our membership more than once, so for some reason we do receive an additional copy or two.)

I gave him a copy but I told him it might be boring for him because there are no cars in there. I told him it's a small book about fragile x, and that he has fragile x. I have said this to him many times before, but he does not know what it means.

Since he was in one of his listening moods, I decided to attempt some sort of an explanation.

I spoke to him about his aides at school, and explained that the other students in kindergarten do not have someone helping them during the day. I told him this is because he has fragile x.

Then I offered my license plates as an example, because he realizes it has something to do with him but he doesn't know why. I said, "your fragile x is the reason my truck says CUREFXS. Because I want people to know about fragile x. People can change their license plate to say something, and that's what I changed mine to say. Cure FXS, because cure means to make it better and FXS is fragile x syndrome. Aunt Jenna did the same thing. We all want someone to fix fragile x one day. Then you can do more stuff by yourself and you won't need someone to help you."

"Fix blazer?" he said.

I brushed his hair from his forehead, and kissed his face. "The blazer is fine. It just has new license plates."