April Walks With Autism

*Sigh* Today has been one of those days where you just.... *sigh.*

It actually started off last night when I realized that I booked myself at two schools at the same time. Making and serving breakfast in my son Jared's third grade classroom and driving to the zoo with Luke's class at the same time. But wait, this blog is supposed to be about autism, not about how I've lost my mind. Are they related? =)

So after the massive hullabaloo to get everyone and everything where it needed to be this morning, I met Luke's class at the zoo. I will repreat this several times throughout my blogging career so I may as well start now. going to the zoo is something that parents of "typically developing children" (I could write 12 blogs about that statement alone) take for granted. However, when you are the parent of an autistic child, you never know what you're going to get.

The good news is, Luke did fabulously at the zoo even though I didn't dress him appropriatley and he said several times, "I want sunshine." (read: I'm cold mom!) Luke is normally TERRORIZED by the sight of animals. I can't say "scared," or even "upset," I must use the word TERRORIZED. Today he roamed all over the zoo with his pals making "appropriate" comments about the animals and getting excited about what he saw. His favorite were the "meerycats." I even got Luke to go to into the petting zoo and get dangerously close to some goats. During previous trips to the zoo, Luke would scream at the SIGHT of the petting zoo. Score one for Luke. Heck, he was so good we'll even give him two.

But then, because Luke has such fabulous eating habits (can I get an AMEN from the rest of the autie parents reading this?) ~ we left the zoo tired, hungry, and GROUCHY.

"I DON'T WANT TO WEAR MY BOOTS ANYMORE!"
"I WANT LITTLE CHICKEN RIGHT NOW!"
"I'M NOT GOING INSIDE! THAT'S NOT FAIR!"
"I WANT BROWN DRINK RIGHT NOW!"
"I'M GOING OUTSIDE TO RIDE MY BIKE RIGHT NOW!"
and my favorite....
"NO I AM *NOT* WEARING PANTS!"

*SIGH*

But guess what? One year ago... Luke didn't even posess that many words in his ENTIRE VOCABULARY. And 6 months ago, he may have had those words, known those words, but he sure as hell didn't use them. Didn't know how to use them? Didn't want to use them? Doesn't matter, he didn't. And for the record, I'll probably never know why anyway.

What does matter is, he's using them NOW.

So to sum it all up in a nice, neat package for you ~ "you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have the facts of life!"

My friend Myra thinks I should write a blog. Something about, "people might want to hear what you have to say about autism." Well, I'm not sure if that's true or not but I guess if there's a chance out there that even one person gets something out of our experience, I might as well give it a whirl.

The truth is, I never really liked the idea of blogging. It's like an online diary and who really cares about my or anyone else's thoughts? But then I became a bit of a closet reader. Not too many. Just a few that I follow. But the thing is, I found myself smiling when I read them. And hey, even one smile is worth a read, right?

And people DO care about autism. And if they don't, they SHOULD. We've heard the statistics a million times. 1 in 150. More than any other disease combined. Trust me, you know someone. And now you know me, which means you know Luke. Luke is my 5 year old son who was diagnosed right around 18 months old. This blog is going to share our journey~the ups, downs, ins and outs. The laughter, the tears, and the many other uh... pieces of the puzzle. Pun intended.