I am looking out from the 10th floor office that we occupy and I see the green trees, buildings off in the distance, airport control towers, and cars...hundreds and hundreds of cars. Sam used to love lining up our matchbox cars in color coordinated groupings. I would try and make vroom-vroom noises and get him to laugh. He would patiently wait for me to stop acting like a child and put the cars back in their place. I would do this again and it would make him frustrated. Each car had a specific place.

“This is just a virus,” says the busy doctor as he rushes his pen across the chart, not even looking up to make eye contact. No time. Patients waiting. “You can try this antibiotic if it doesn’t go away in the next few days, but this is typically the rash that occurs at the end of this virus strain.” Hands chart to nurse. “Looks good, mom.” (Mom is the safe word, that way you don’t actually have to know anyone’s name. Smart. Very smart.)

Last October I wrote about connections with other parents on this journey HERE after Jenny McCarthy spent some time in Dallas with a group of Warrior Parents during a book tour for her most recent book: Love, Lust & Faking It. This week, as I prepare to travel to Chicago to attend the 2011 Autism One Conference with Jenny McCarthy keynoting with Byron Katie, I can’t help but recall that evening and get excited about making new connections and deepening existing connections in Chicago.

There are many ways we can tackle this situation. Today we want to address two different ways, teaching the language “mad” and “no”.