WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY!!!!

Today is extra fun for me, it's when the ENTIRE WORLD gets together to support those living with Autism. If you are wondering what you can do to support this cause here are some suggestions:

1: Wear a puzzle piece on your lapel today and through the entire month of April.
2: Wear blue!!!!
3: Change your lights outside to blue bulbs.
4: Bake puzzle piece shaped goodies and take them to the office.
5: Change your Facebook profile picture to represent Autism (I chose the Empire States Building that chose to "Light It Up Blue" as my pic) 
6: Tweet or update your status on Facebook to say how much you choose to support Autism.
7: BLOG about it!!!
8: Hug a parent of an Autistic child and ask how you can help make life easier.
9: Educate yourself on the signs and symptoms and act today!!
10: Write all your emails in blue font.
11: Purchase a piece from the Autism Speaks Shared Heart collection at Zales.  My hubby bought me this ring and I wear it proudly!
12: DONATE, DONATE, DONATE!!  You can walk into any Toys R Us  or Babies R Us and donate through the end of April or log on to www.autismspeaks.com or www.ianproject.org to donate online (these are my two favorite organizations.

Parents of neuro-typical children don't think twice about how good they have it.  Here is an example of things that are extremely hard for my family to do, so thank your lucky stars you have the wonderful life you do....

1: Road trips and vacations: G's special diet and medications/supplements make eating on the go obsolete.  Everything he eats I have to make from scratch, I can't do that on a road trip.
2: Attending arenas or other loud places: G gets agitated and anxious when it's too loud.
3: Standing barefoot in the grass: G would rather have his feet cut off.  He doesn't appreciate summer time like you and I.
4: Eating: G looks at eating as torture.  He's been given a "failure to thrive" diagnosis because he literally eats like a bird and weighs nothing!  It can take our family a full 50 minutes to eat a meal due to the screaming and tears.
5: Play dates: G doesn't understand social cues like other children so everywhere he goes, I have to go to make sure his friends he has managed to make don't dump him (sadly, this will get worse as he gets older because parents don't teach their kids how to befriend special needs kids, instead, they get made fun of and are left to eat alone in the lunchroom each day).
6: Therapy: therapy gets in the way of everything.  I myself have lost friends due to therapy because I can only think that other parents believe I'm either lying or I'm too much of a high maintance friend to deal with.  It sucks.
7: Potty training: G is 6 and we are still working out kinks.
8: Dressing: G has issues some days with the sleeve lengths of his shirts.  Just last night he threw a hug fit because his jammie shirt didn't have sleeves and it cause the other kids to cry as well.
9: Talking: G has come a HUGE way in his speech but because his brain works differently he can't hold a full conversation without you having to play 20 questions with him to get what he's trying to say.
10: Sleep: G's insomnia has gotten better over time but there are still nights he's up for HOURS!
11: Low muscle tone: G can't run and play as fast as other kids on the playground so he's often left out and for an Autistic person, that is the worst thing you can do, NOT include them.
12: Insurance: Insurance doesn't like to cover Autism.  We spend out of pocket on our own over 20K a year.  It's an un-affordable diagnosis and so many families are suffering.
13: Birthday parties: Parties are rough because parents don't ever think about food allergies when providing food, it's always pizza and cake.  I have to always bring something special in place of all the fun food. and this includes the cookies and cupcakes parents bring into school for the birthday child.  It's hard to watch my child be different.

This is just a glimpse of things in our life, definitely not a full list but enough to hopefully make you think about how good you have it today and forever.