"Autism Infection Sucks"

Gabriel rarely has an interest in writing on his own. I have a feeling that it's difficult so he doesn't have an interest in it. His letters have become more recognizable which is a nice development for him. Yesterday he brought a marker and paper into the room I was in and asked me how to spell "autism infection sucks." I'm not entirely sure why he thinks infection is apart of autism but he does so I spelled it out for him. I told him that I understand why he thinks autism sucks but I love him and I wouldn't change him. He doesn't care - he thinks autism sucks and wants to give it to a sibling or parent instead. He was even willing to put autism in strawberries in an effort to get rid of it. He knows he isn't considered neurotypical and it SUCKS. I can't blame him. I deal with asthma, depression and anxiety and it sucks too. Lane has reflux; it sucks. Andrew sarcoidosis and it sucks. Alex gets croup but he's outgrowing and it sucks too. My point is we all have something to deal with, he just got the crappiest mix of us all. I wish he didn't have to deal with the difficulty of autism. That does not take away from the fact that it SUCKS. And many days it sucks a lot. There have been many times that he has yelled about hating autism. He has sobbed in our arms about it. I know it hurts. I can tell when he's confused because he can't read social cues that it hurts him. It hurts him deeply. It's going to get more difficult to cope with these social situation as he gets older too.

There is one really cool thing about his autism that I wanted to share. It's something that other people won't notice if I forget to point it out. He has amazing visual acuity. We have said for years that Gabriel doesn't have "kid eyes" because he can notice and point out things that other children would not see. For instance, when we were walking home for the Pie Festival the other day, Gabriel noticed something on the road. He peeled a foam sticker off the road! None of us had even noticed it was there. It blended in with the scenery. I would guess that this would be a gift and a hinderance. I can imagine it's distracting to see every little detail in a scene. If the rest of the world can't see it, how do you describe it? I would imagine that all of these details would be confusing too. I hope that we are able to find a way to make this an asset for him. Somehow this has to be a big advantage over other people who can't see the same things.