The other day we bumped into a neighbor while I was walking Mila to her ballet class with Niko in her stroller. The neighbor, looking at Mila's tutu, asked, "Are you going to ballet class?"
Mila beaming with pride said, "Yes!"
"Will you teach your sister ballet when she's older?"
"No, my sister will not be able to walk. She's special-needs."
The neighbor recovered quickly. "Well you will just have to teach her the movements of the arms."
I'm so proud of Mila. I didn't have to say a single word. She handled this like a pro.
And kids notice Niko… a lot! I'm pretty honest with myself, I know Niko looks odd. In my eyes, she's cuter than a newborn puppy in a bike basket, but to the unfiltered eye, I know she's crazy looking. And as we all know, kids are brutally honest. But here is what I find interesting. Kids (under five) have not yet been programmed to recognize or judge people based on physical deformities. As I said with Mila, the abnormal is normal. I think what they do notice is the loss of symmetry and proportion. While Niko does strike them as different or maybe strange, they do not yet know why or perceive her defect. Niko and I drop off and pick up Mila from preschool nearly everyday. We see lots of kids. And this is what they all say to me, "Her eyes. There is something wrong with her eyes." Or "Her eyes are puffy. Has she been rubbing them?" They all notice her eyes. I think that is extremely interesting.
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| My tired Niko, rubbing her eyes |
I cannot agree more with you at this point! Kids with I-cell have luck to look very cute :))) My older son, Kamil, 5 years, takes the fact that Oleg is almost 4 and looks like 2 or less very easily - Oli is just Oli. I think it will change over time, but I hope it will come gradually...Oli walks in gait trainer and other children in playground are usually more interested in his "cool machine" than in his specific appearance (sometimes they ask about puffy eyes ;). Moreover, Oli goes to pre-school for kids with special needs and sometimes we all pick him up - Kamil saw other children with "abnormalities" and now he knows that "kids can be different". At home he kisses Oli and says "he is so sweet" but we did not have "serious talk" about Oli's ML.
ReplyDeleteKids are so amazing. I love how open and honest they are. I remember one little boy at the playground remarked how Gabrielle could live on the moon because she has oxygen. "She totally could!" I said and off he went to the monkey bars. I think you are so right though. Niko is the cutest little thing ever. Gabrielle became my 'barometer' for people as I wanted nothing to do with the people who stared at her or wouldn't even look at her and fell in love with all the other people who commented on how beautiful she was. Niko and Gabrielle let us know people's true characters as the 'beautiful' people were able to see past their disabilities and see who they really were! Bless them!
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