Well, here we are :-)

Or, more likely, here I am.  Possibly all by myself.  I have no idea what I am doing here, or where this is going, but I think it could be fun.  At the very least, it will keep my hands occupied, which can only be a good thing with a 'more for sharing' pack of Malteasers in the fridge.

So, starting a blog was easy peasy and a little bit exciting.  Feeling very pleased with myself, I googled 'The Boo Files' and discovered, dagnammit, that a lovely and very dedicated lady in Ireland had beaten me to it, several years ago, with her gorgeous blog about...what else?...living with her autistic child, who she calls her 'Boo Boy'.

http://hammie-hammiesays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/boo-files.html

Strange coincidence.  That will teach me to believe I am in any way original!  So I have tweaked the name of my blog, which is never going to be in the same league (because I would like to have a life and this is just my new hobby), and I am now calling it, as you can see, The BooHooMama Files.

Another strange happening was waiting in my inbox when I checked my email.  I subscribe to 'The Daily Flame', which I find to be a great source of comfort and wisdom, in the occasional absence of best friends, the Dalai Lama, Old Moore's Almanac, Oprah Winfrey, guardian angels, or husbands who give a monkeys.

http://www.owningpink.com/dailyflame.html

It pretty much said: don't get too big for your boots; always remember what really matters and don't let that get lost along the way.

OK then.

So I want to speak up for autistic kids, who are often written off by their neuro-typical peers, struggling with hidden sensory issues, usually misunderstood and regularly gawped at as part of their daily existance. 
But I also want to speak up for their families; their parents who -as if being heartbroken by a diagnosis of ASD wasn't enough- have to navigate their way through life with these baffling, beautiful children and all that that entails.  It is not easy.  And the siblings of Autistic children do not have it easy either.  My two neuro-typical kids are affected every single day by their sister's autism, no matter how hard we try to smooth things over for them.

We can moan about it or we can celebrate our uniqueness.  I intend to do both, as the mood takes me.