My sense of "normal"

I actually made a post about this on a forum I'm on a few days ago. My sense of normal is so skewed. One minute I'll be telling myself nothing is different about him but then the next minute he does something that is so obviously not what typically developing children do. Since he is my first child, I really had no prior experience to go off of, so I just assumed for the longest time that everything was fine. Even as a baby Michael has been different. When I'd get emails from babycenter telling me "this month your baby should be doing x" I was always like "Um no he's not. What are these people talking about?!" But everyone assured me that he was developing just fine. Even when I was concerned about his speech people told me it was all normal, he would catch up, they had a brother, kid, friend, etc that all talked late and they are just fine. But I went with my gut and had him evaluated and so he has been in speech since September. He has flourished with words, which is amazing, but it wasn't until we realized there was still a huge communication block that I began to worry some more. But even with all the red flags and seeing all his behaviors in black and white on video staring me in the face, it can be hard to distinguish what is "normal". To me this IS normal. This is how it's been since he was a baby. So I still go back and forth and think to myself "Is this REALLY autism? Am I making something out of nothing?" But then I'll see him around children his age or even younger than him doing all those things that the emails told me kids are supposed to be doing. And my son isn't and never has. Then it's clear again and I realize how my "normal" is not normal at all. Queue the roller coaster of emotions right there.