Alex turned four on Saturday.

We had his grandparents over for lunch and I made parsnip and apple soup and boy .... that tasted good. Cooked everything from fresh ..... not exactly, I did use Knorr vegetable stocks instead of making my own - yeah right .... as if I have time doing that!

I find it difficult to update my blog recently. Since potty trained, Alex has been really good with asking to go to the toilet. He's done that alright, 15 times just yesterday and thank god Jeremy's home to help out. I would have waved a white flag if it's just me and Alex.

Anyway, his progress is kind of slow this two weeks - so, not much to update but he is extremely cute lately. He likes singing and he adores his dad .... I am a little jealous (not really). When I see the both of them so close, my heart melts.

Spoke to my mum last week and she told me something that made me feel quite sad. My cousin's son is 10 months younger than Alex and he is still not talking. He is displaying many symptoms of autism based on what my mum told me. I told my mum to tell my cousin to get professional advice. She said that she won't because she is afraid that they may not accept the possibility.

The problem with this scenario is that people have wrong perception of autism. I wished someone would have told me earlier about autism and I would have got Alex into the system earlier. The way I see it ...... I would rather have him checked and then told it's not autism than delay in getting help if it really is.

Early intervention proved beneficial to both child and parents. In this instance, the child's future is in the hands of his parents. If they cannot accept that there is a problem with the child, no amount of outside help will benefit either of them.

Label or not, the interest of the child comes first. I am not afraid to tell people that my son is in the spectrum if I know they can help him. Any amount of help is better than none. "Ask and you shall be given".

I suspect that autism runs in my family. My grandfather (my mum's dad) was nicknamed "Slow Boy" in his youth. My fifth uncle is also very slow when he was a child (my definition of slow is the polite version of stupid), and then there are a few uncles who are loners and dislike changes. I see this as vary degrees of the spectrum - the more I read about autism, the more I see it in my family.

The possibililty of my cousin's son being autistic is slightly higher than one without a family history of the disorder.

I know it's not polite to tell people that you think there may be a problem with their child but if you did and they take your advise on board, you may have saved them. I know I would like someone to tell me and thank god .... someone did!