This is a glimpse into our life with autism. Mason is an incredible 4 year old who happens to have autism. He is what I refer to as “semi verbal”, he can label things, places and people quite well but he is just beginning to actually create a vocabulary of useful terms to tell us what he needs and wants.

He also likes to eat at one restaurant. One. So we end up eating there every Saturday…and Sunday. We get there the minute they open, sometimes a few minutes before, to avoid the crowds. The staff knows us and most importantly, they know Mason. They have his rice ready on the table when they see our car pull up. You really can’t put a price tag on that kind of caring service!

20 minutes before I took this photo, Mason had a meltdown over us making him wear pants. He ended up winning and we swapped out his pants for shorts before heading into the restaurant. Sometimes you have to pick your battles and today, we weren’t going to let 4” of fabric keep our family from eating at a restaurant. Shorts it is, buddy!