World Autism Awareness Day

First smile!! 2 months old

Seriously, we should have clued in right about now. At 13 months, Grant spent a day finding pairs. He found in his pile of toys through out the day, these two cards, two matching toy figures, two specific matching books, and two matching bottle lids. I thought he had met his match when he found a hand-held fishing video game. He searched for awhile and pretty soon, he found the remote. It was black just like the game, and about the same size. It was eerie.

Uh, hello Mom, do I have to spell it out for you!? Grant at 18 months carefully lines up blocks over and over. For awhile, only blue, green and red could be facing up.

Another Autism picture. We visited Grant's Tomb in NYC. Grant excitedly pointed out shapes to us. Age 3

Enjoying the rain, age 4.

I remember being so angry this day! I had no patience with Grant. I was trying to surprise Travis with a cute pic of the boys for Father's Day. I was on a deadline and it was so hard to find a time to even try taking the picture. But Grant didn't want to take pictures and did NOT want to wear Dad's clothes. I nearly lost it. Not one of my best moments. And I hate these pictures!!

Don't you wish everything came with an easy button? haha age 5

April 2, 2008 was declared by the UN to be World Autism Awareness Day. April is also Autism Awareness month. So what should we be aware of? For me, it's being aware of the signs of Autism. I'm still angry with Grant's (former) doctor, who told us on one occasion, that he wasn't speaking because he had a pacifier! I wish I had known what to look for. I wish I had gotten him help sooner.

Which brings me to another part of awareness: the search for the best care for our children with Autism. I'm so grateful to all of Grant's teachers for their dedication in bringing him this far. I appreciate their advice and their encouragement. Ms. Susie, who taught Grant his first sentence when he was three and a half: "Have you seen our Gingerbread Baby?" And sweet Ms. Teri who loved him and put up with the potty-training year. And a huge thank you to Ms. Stern who fights for him every day! This last year, Grant has started engaging other children, calling my attention to things, and even pretending. Today, he and Blake searched for red, yellow, and blue chameleons in the backyard.

Lastly, I'm just more aware of the struggles of living with Autism. I'm so glad Grant is doing so well and is capable of doing so much. I know that many families have really tough situations and will never hear their child's voice or even have multiple children with varying degrees of Autism. But it's still hard. I hate that we're still potty-training at 5 1/2. I hate fighting with Grant every morning. I hate worrying about the development of my subsequent children. I'm just glad to know that I'm not alone and there are tons of families with the same challenges.

Autism Awareness Month mostly reminds me that I'm a member of the Autism Club. The rest of the year, I can pretend that Grant's like other kids, but this month is all about how he really is different. It's about a disorder that hits one out of every hundred boys or is it eighty boys? It's about a disorder that changes a family, shades every stage of a child's development, and makes us different from most people that I know. It clouds our plans that we had for our first child, our sweet baby that we thought would be the most successful kid in the world. Autism throws uncertainty on every situation from how we'll get out the door in the morning to how he'll make it on his own. But it is what it is. Autism is our life and even with it, our life is pretty good. Thank you to all our friends and family who listen to us alternately brag and whine about Grant. Thanks for loving him just like we do and realizing he just needs the same love as every other kid. And Happy Autism Awareness Month.