This little (blue) light of mine

April is Autism Awareness Month.

There are many activities going on in our city to create awareness and raise funds. Though we are in support, we are probably not going to participate a lot this year. We are still getting our arms around the whole diagnosis and what this means for Morgan and our family. I read through our local Autism Society's newsletter and considered participating...then all of a sudden I felt so overwhelmed that I just couldn't commit to anything. Since then I've read a few blogs that have confirmed similar feelings of families with a recent diagnosis, so I know I'm not alone. There are a few blogs I read that have some very realistic points about what autism is for them. Here's one in particular:

www.starkravingmadmommy.com/2011/04/top-ten-things-im-aware-of-about-autism.html

Though Morgan doesn't have a quite as high-functioning form of autism, like this Mommy's boy with Asperger's, the facts are similar for us. I love this woman's style of writing and sense of humor. And another viewpoint:

www.momnos.blogspot.com/2011/04/when-autism-speaks-to-me.html

As this blogger states and per the picture above, we are pledging to "Light it up Blue" April 1st and 2nd for World Autism Awareness Day. The picture is a bit dark. It really did look better on the camera screen, but this is basically what our neighbors will see. They'll probably think we're nuts and have no idea what's going on, but maybe they'll ask and we'll have the opportunity to tell them.

And...what would a post be without a funny Morgan-ism. Today she was watching one of her beloved Yo Gabba Gabba episodes at lunch. Nick Jr. has short "lessons" in between episodes and this particular one was about Georges Seurat and his style of painting, pointillism. (Yeah, who knew they taught such things on TV for preschoolers?!) At one point, the moose character asks the viewers to "Say Pointillism." Morgan kept watching and didn't say anything...but a full minute later she randomly said, very calmly, "pointillism." It was so odd to hear that word come out of her mouth! I just busted up laughing. This kid may be delayed and backwards with her language, but her pronunciation is oddly accurate. Poor kid, now just for fun, David and I ask her to say it over and over..."Boo, say pointillism"...."Pointillism!" Ha Ha!