I came up with a new non-sweary swear today. It was a tweak of Sylvester the cat’s “Sufferin’ succotash”. “Perseveratin’ balderdash!” hasn’t quite got the same ring to it, but saying it to myself in a lispy cartoon moggy voice possibly saved my sanity (although if anyone had overheard they would have thought otherwise).
You see, my daughter has been putting the persevere into perseveration this week. (Perseveration is the uncontrollable repetition of certain phrases and questions. It’s a common trait with Prader-Willi Syndrome. She’s done it forever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever...well, you get the idea).
Some of her questions and mantras have been around for a while, but what I realised today that one in particular is growing. It is having extensions added to it.
I had a little search through the posts on this blog, and discovered the earliest recorded instance of the pick of her perseverations was in April 2011, when I noted that “Have I still got lots of teeth?” was high up in that week's Top Five of her repetitive sayings. Over the months, this morphed into “Do I grind my teeth?” and later: “Do I gnash my teeth. I don’t gnash my teeth do I?”, and then later still the addendum: “This tooth is worn down more than that one, isn’t it?”
A few weeks ago, I broke my rule of not engaging with the tooth questions after five times of answering them, and told her in no uncertain terms that she didn’t need to ask them any longer as she hadn’t ground her teeth together since she was little. She demanded to know exactly how long, and I came up with an arbitrary answer, which has now been tacked on. So the perseveratin’ balderdash now goes something like this (keep in mind this is a sample of my girl having a complete conversation with herself, answering all her own questions in a slightly exasperated manner, at the same time as directing all the questions to the silently teeth-gnashing me)...“Do I gnash my teeth? I don’t, do I? No, of course you don’t. Is this tooth worn down more than that one? It is, isn’t it? No it’s not. Do I gnash my teeth? I don’t do I? No, of course not. You haven’t done it for 12 years!”
Ad. Bleedin’. Infinitum.
So I’ve started to have this thought. It’s kind of wicked. I’m going to have to think carefully about it, because it has every chance of backfiring. But I’ve realised that I probably have the power to shape the continuing growth of the Tooth Chronicles. What will the next clause be? And can I lob in something random, just to amuse myself?
I’ll report back in a few weeks. I’m thinking along the lines of: “You’re not a pterodactyl in a tutu.”
