In the Beginning......

I have a video of Zachary when he was about 10 or 11 months old, carefully pulling himself up by a bookshelf, only to plop back down on his behind.  Tears ensued.  When he saw I was behind him with the camera, his eyes lit up, the tears changed to a huge smile,  and he crawled happily over to where I was.  That happy, smiling face filled my viewfinder.

Anyone with their first baby knows those wonderful moments -- they're around every corner.  They fill your days with joy and surprises and a constant sense of wonder.  Anything is possible.

But then, around a year and a half, things started to change.  The smiles weren't as forthcoming.  The few words he had started to use vanished.  He would play differently with his toys -- looking at them too closely, doing the same thing over and over.  He seemed distracted, distant, preoccupied.  He wouldn't look at me when I called his name.  When we went to the playground he had no interest in the other children -- he was a solitary little boy.

Looking back, if I had known then what I know now, I would have had him to a specialist at 18 months.  As it was,  we muddled along like this, with our mysterious little boy, for another year and a half.  It wasn't until his third birthday that we received the diagnosis.  Autism.

And so began the "journey to another planet".   Where we've been living ever since.

I started this blog to share my adventures with autism -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.  There have been incredible highs, and overwhelming lows.  We've experienced giddy happiness,  crushing sadness, and regret;  laughter and tears, tantrums and meltdowns.  Oh yeah, and love.  Lots and lots of love.