Zoo Day

We had a terrific day yesterday, at the Zoo with a local autism group. I'd never met any of the families, but connected right away with a few of the other moms. One was a fellow New Yorker, there with her 13 and 11 year old sons, the younger of whom has autism. She is appalled at the services available here, and kept advising me to move back to NY as soon as possible (we'd love to, but need a job!). She's been going to school district meetings, and says "No one here speaks up or complains!" She was very supportive of our decision not to send the boys to PPCD.

J. loved her two boys, and they helped him ride the merry-go-round, while I rode with G. He was desperate to get on the thing, and then was afraid to sit on an animal. So we sat on a bench, with him covering his ears and grinning from ear to ear.

We ended up separated from my husband and B., because B. fell in love with the fish building, which was dark and cool, and which allowed him to run free.

J. discovered the goat-brushing area, and happily brushed goats for a long, long time. G. did not want to get close to the goats, but was interested in the chickens, and kept trying to find a way into their pen. Shortly after that, my friend's 11 year old disappeared, and we spent twenty minutes locating him. She stayed amazingly calm (I would have been frantic, but I guess he doesn't usually go far). He is pretty quiet, but can write his name and address, if someone thinks to give him paper. She said he used to have a medic-alert bracelet, which I've thought about for the twins.


We all met up for lunch, and got a chance to get to know one another. Both twins fell asleep, and J. talked me into a giant bag of popcorn, so I actually talked to adults for almost an hour! We live all over the greater Houston area, but many of us want to get together again soon. We automatically had so much to talk about. especially food issues. There were at least four kids having goldfish crackers and not much else for lunch.

I didn't used to be much of a "joiner", but autism seems to be turning me into one.