A Day in the Life of Autism

Sometimes Gabriel acts so... well, ... normal. I start to think this autism thing isn't as bad as it feels. Then I wonder if I'm just overly sensitive to each of his quirky ways.
THEN autism hits again. Gabriel had a particularly bad day yesterday. He threw a fit going into Build-A-Bear for the autism group's activity. He called it "stupid" and refused to go into the store. When we got there, he insisted on crawling under the gated entrance rather than just walking into the store when it opened.
We went to lunch afterward and again it was "stupid". Gabriel ran down the hallway of the mall to go back to the Build-A-Bear, the place where he didn't want to go a few hours earlier. He would not eat lunch with us but thankfully I had my phone to keep him busy. He had to sit in between Andrew and me so he wouldn't run out of the restaurant.
Later in the day, we went to dinner at Joe's. They have a playground with little rocks on the ground. Gabriel sat on the ground and covered himself in rocks. He put them in his ears. His hair has rocks embedded in it. He filled his mouth with rocks and crunched on them. When he went to the restroom, hand fulls of rocks flowed to the ground.
I know, you might be thinking, "what's the big deal?" My kid has eaten rocks. My kids hasn't always cooperated in a mall. My kid drank the water out of the public water fountain. My kid touched everything in the Farmer's Market. Those last two items happened this morning when we walked down to the local Farmer's Market.
The difference might be that Gabriel is SEVEN. I don't see other 7 year olds incapable of keeping their hands to themselves while walking down a row of vendors. Other children might touch a couple things but not Gabriel, he touches EVERYTHING he can get his hands on. This includes the breakables and he is not careful. It makes the adventures stressful but I suck in my frustrations and make the most of the adventure. If I didn't, I would sit in the house with the kids all the time.
Eating rocks and drinking public water made quite a few people stare. It looks rather odd. I can't always stop him. If he has something in his mind, he runs to do it and I have two other children to keep an eye on. Sometimes a mouth full of rocks is the least of my concern.
If you see a child munching on rocks or drinking out of the water fountain, try to hold your judgmental comments. It might not be poor parenting that lead the child to that place in time. It might be a disability rearing its ugly head.
At one point when Gabriel was screaming and yelling in the van, five year old Alex asked, "is he doing that because of his autism?" Yes, Alex, and I know it's difficult to watch and listen but it will make you and your sister more accepting people in the future.