Autism.. a family diagnosis.

On nights like tonight it's thrown in my face that autism really affects the entire family, especially Julia. At John's school tonight they held their annual family holiday fair. Last year John LOVED it! Well this year was a much different story, I don't know if it was the classroom change, the star he couldn't have, mommy talking to the other adults, Julia having a blast, or hell maybe the stars were just not in alignment tonight whatever it was made it a disaster.
I should have know when we walked in and John wanted to go right into his classroom which was not one of the open rooms, but I thought we could power threw.... how wrong I was. We started upstairs in his old classroom and they had the star of the day star hanging on the bored.... John wanted it.... and no was juts not working so we left that room and tried the arts and crafts room (Julia's favorite!) John wouldn't step foot inside. Julia went ahead in with Andrew she looked so proud, so happy to be in school! She sat down at the table with all the big kids and painted her tree. She would have stayed there all night had she be given the choice. After about 10 minutes we attempted the  movie room again (passing the music room which is something Julia would love), John was not having it so again Julia went in with Andrew and when I say "went in with Andrew" really she walked in all by herself and Daddy followed her so she didn't get lost. She went up to the teacher she never met and asked if she could please have a water, sat down and watched the movie with the kids. She had a blast!
Like many other things it was cut short. John could not deal, we had to leave knowing full well it was not fair to Julia. Knowing Julia could stay and play till it ended, we put on her coat and left promising that when we got home John would be going to bed and Julia could stay up and paint. John cried all the way home while Julia talked about colors. At home John screamed in bed while Julia painted her little heart out and I watched and couldn't help but question how much will she miss out on in life?