Star Student: Love Being Little

Last week, We had a big assignment for Liz. She was Star Student. Each child gets to be Star Student for one week.

It's a big deal. That kid gets to bring in their favorite belongings, have their book read in class and bring snacks one day. They also need to make a poster listing their favorite things.

That was our project a week ago Saturday. I headed to New York on Sunday and knew we needed to do this poster and I also knew it was going to take awhile. Brian ended up doing the "Take a Mouse to the Movies" poster in December while I was in New York the last time. So, it wouldn't be fair to stick him with another poster.

These projects are really more family or "parent homework" because the instructions even say, "with Mom and Dads help." This poster took more than three hours to do. And, of course if you look at the finished product, it looks like it only took us 15 minutes. Ah, well. We're not that creative.

What I liked about it was she had to answer a series of questions for the poster. Her favorite food: Pizza, of course. Favorite activities: Swimming. Someone she admires: Her cousin Daniel.

When I asked: Favorite thing about yourself, she answered without a pause: Being little.

How cool, right? I was delightfully surprised and I hope that she continues to realize that she'll have a unique view of the world.

Hannah and Lizzy Time

So, I could go on and on about what a big slacker I've been for not blogging for the past two weeks.

I've got tons of posts that I need to write about - our trip to Arizona, picking pumpkins, Liz's most recent medical mystery and also the "I've been tagged" post.

But before I catch up on all of that, the most important thing in recent weeks was when we went to Michigan and met a number of other bloggers who have kids with various forms of dwarfism.

The party was at Tonya's house - www.blogsmonroe.com/disability

And, we got to meet so many fabulous people - Tonya, Sarah, Sue, Cat and Jennifer - but certainly we were extremely excited to meet Hannah and Catie at http://tatertotsnfires.blogspot.com

Hannah has achondroplasia like Liz and they're the same exact age - just one month separates their birthdays. For some odd reason, it seems many of the folks I've connnected with have litle boys - either a few years older or a few years younger than Liz. So, this was wonderful to see another little girl - Liz's age with the same exact condition and to talk to her mom.

We talked about clothing issues, bathroom problems, social stuff and the list goes on and one.

You'll see from the pictures that Hannah and Liz truly hit it off. Tonya went all out for the party - pizza, Halloween crafts, a haunted castle, bobbing for apples and the list of fun goes on and on. Not to mention all of the candy!

We're actually going to miss Halloween with Liz on Friday so we were thrilled to get to have these fun Halloween festivities and Liz got to go Trick-or-Treating in the Halloween castle.

So, you'll see the pictures were of Liz and Hannah mostly because I was thrilled to see how well they got along and you'll notice they're both such hams whenever a camera is nearby.

For more than half an hour, the two of them dug in the haunted castle finding more candy and they also spent more than an hour playing "princess of the year" upstairs - not to mention their great time throwing rocks in the pond and jumping on the bouncy house.

I hope that we can get these two girls together again because you will all be able to tell what fun they had. It was just so heartwarming to see the two of them play together.


Here they are getting ready to bob for apples.


Look who's peeking out of the haunted castle.


All smiles.


The two princesses taking a break from throwing rocks in the pond and you'll see Knoah - busy with the rocks right behind them.


Another cute pose.


A good one with Liz and Daddy.


Here's Mommy and Liz.


Here are some bobbing apple shots and those of you who have bobbed apples with me will notice that Liz is quite persistent and gets just as wet as her mom.








Most of the kids where running all over, but I got a few here in "thoughtful poses." Really precious.





The princess is back in her street clothes - almost ready to leave.


But she wouldn't leave without a hug from Hannah.

Back to school

First off, I've got to thank that cute hedgeradventures correspondent for helping out while I've enjoyed a fair amount of free time at the pool with Liz. We're hoping Brian will continue to blog every few days or so (hint hint).

Now, on to a serious matter.

For months - actually more than a year, we've been on a waiting list at a number of pre-schools. We absolutely loved our school last year. It was an affiliate of Purdue University and the teachers were excellent and made perfect accommodations for Liz.

They even went so far as to have us bring in one her wooden three-step stools that was built by Liz's great-grandfather just so they could have the trade-school students make her one just like it for school. No extra cost, either.

How awesome was that?

They understood her condition and addressed it to the other children as necessary and talked with me about any issues as they arose. Overall, it was an outstanding school.

The problem: It's 30 miles from our house (and 45 minutes, at least, each way). Now that I'm working from home more it just makes no sense to drive that far to drop her off, just to drive an hour back home and then literally turn around a short time later to begin the drive again to pick her up.

So, the goal was to be patient and hope it would pay off with one of these closer pre-schools that we'd been on waiting lists for. Finally, we did find a school about 10 miles from home. Much Better. I jumped at the opportunity.

But this morning, I was thrilled when the so-called "ultimate" pre-school teacher (highly recommended by people in our community) called and told me she'd just gotten an opening. She goes by "Mrs. B," and runs the pre-school out of her house -- which just so happens to be less than a mile from our house, in our gigantic neighborhood.

We've heard nothing but glowing reports about this "Mrs. B." The kids love and adore her (allegedly). She is also well-respected by some teachers we've talked to about pre-schools.

So, I told her about Liz's condition. This is always my dilemma. I don't want Liz to show up and suddenly teachers are surprised or caught unprepared. Last year, I wrote a one-page paper for "Little Purdue" and they told me that they adored the information and found it so helpful.

So, I tried to tell "Mrs. B" a few of the same things during our brief phone conversation.

I explained that Liz might need help wiping when she went No.2 simply because her arms aren't long enough. Then, I also explained she falls a lot, but it's nothing to worry about because her bones are fine and she just gets back up.

The only reason I even mentioned the falling is because that's the first thing that other parents notice and ask me about. We had a great conversation and agreed that Brian would take Liz tomorrow for registration.

Later in the day, "Mrs. B" calls back to tell me that after considering Liz, she now can't accept her. Her reason is because she is just one person (no teacher's aides) and she fears that if Liz had to go to the bathroom and the other kids were cutting with scissors, then she'd be leaving all of the kids alone to go to the bathroom with Liz.

(Brian snide, sarcastic comment)
Yeah, and then I'm sure they'd all cut their fingers off at the nubs and there'd be HELL TO PAY and blood all over her new hardwood floors! She also brought up a bunch of other lame excuses, such as having a basement with a cement floor and she just wouldn't want Liz to fall and hurt herself. Well, A.) Who in the heck DOESN'T have a cement-floor basement? And B.) Why are they going into the basement in the first place? Seriously, woman.

Whatever ...

So, I hung up the phone feeling utterly rejected. Obviously, I could have fought a bit and said: "Why don't you at least meet her?"

But to me, it almost didn't seem worth it. Why have her meet Liz and then potentially still reject her? She's a private small pre-school and she's not required to accept everyone.

(Another Brian thought)
Also ... do I really want my kid being taught by some mamsy-pamsy wimp who's too afraid to take a kid with a couple of special needs dealing only with height issues? Why should we feel like we have to beg this old bag to take on the so-called "risk" or "bother" of teaching my daughter -- all without her even bothering to MEET HER?

Obviously, I think she over-reacted and began to worry and simply wasn't educated about little people and certainly knew nothing about achondroplasia.

I've second-guessed myself and worried that I told her too much information and perhaps I should have been more "vague." But I don't want to be misleading. I want teachers to know that Liz is a little person and she does need a few accommodations, and I suppose if they're not willing to do that - then we don't want to go there.

Perhaps, my teacher friends who read the blog (you know who you are) can e-mail me personally and let me know how you think I should handle school issues in the future. For instance, when should I contact her elementary about her condition?

Also, if there are any parents of little people kids who are in school - pass on any suggestions, as well.

Overall, I feel great about the pre-school she's going to attend (the one that doesn't have an old bag problem and that will accept Liz's condition). We'll have open house on Wednesday night and Liz and I are both looking forward to it.

The bottom line is getting rejected from "Mrs. B's" class won't impact Liz's academic future. It's not like she's going to get rejected from an ivy league school despite an impressive resume.

"Wow, this girl is awesome," The haughty dean of admissions would say, puffing on a pipe and wearing a smoking jacket. "Great grades, great extra-curriculars. But one glaring problem ... she didn't attend 'Mrs.B's' pre-school. Unfortunately, we must reject her. DENIED!"

Still, it hurts to be told "thanks, but no thanks," simply because your child is shorter than other kids her age. It's also unacceptable ... but what are you going to do?

Some people will never, ever understand how it feels to fight this battle.

Hangin' at the Mall

I must admit that I started this post a day ago or so, and then held off because I wasn't sure I wanted to post it. However, I think it's important to share these stories, because I know that other parents of Little People read this blog, and I think it's reassuring to know that you're not alone.

We had a little time over the weekend to take Liz to the mall where they have a perfect area for kids to play in. It didn't take Liz long to start running all over the play area. It's one of her favorite things to do, of course. And, in just minutes, she'd be-friended someone. That's also not a surprise given Liz's extroverted nature.

The girl, was probably close to twice her height, but about the same age. I'm only guessing. But the two seemed to have similar speaking abilities and enjoyed the same type of games.

They were playing a robust game of tag and obviously Liz is slower because of her little legs. This girl might as well have been a child-like Michael Jordan because she had really long legs.

Liz kept chasing her around and around trying to catch her. It didn't bother Liz one bit that she was much slower than this girl. They were having a great time.

Then, the little girl started to comment about Liz being slow saying things like: "You're slow. You're really slow. Wow, you're slow. You run very slow"

This is one of those situations where it's hard to see another child innocently pointing out your child's genetic faults. And, of course any smart 3-year-old doesn't make a comment just once, the repeat the same thing over and over again.

Of course, she's slower. Look at her legs. Her legs are probably the length of a 6 or 9-month olds (even though her total height is about the height of a 14-month old).

Her legs are much smaller and she gains most of her height from the torso.

Luckily the comments didn't phase Liz one bit, which is what really matters. And, the girl wasn't being mean. She was just pointing out an obvious fact. That's what children do.

Regardless, it didn't stop it from bothering Brian and I a bit.

I was also trying to mentally pass on suggestions to Liz of ways to tag the little girl- like taking a short-cut past the 6-foot bunny rather than following her all the way around the giant-sized turtle. After a little while, she started to do that. She must have read my mind.

Brian and I both also commented that she wasn't running her fastest. In Liz's mind, it was more fun chasing the little girl then actually catching her.

I've often hoped that it will be harder for me to handle people's comments then it is for Liz, and so far that's been true. She's so good natured that those little comments don't even phase her.

She will always be a little person and her perspective on life will be different than mine because of her height. Since I've lived my life as a person who is 5-feet-4 inches tall, it's hard to imagine being 4-feet-tall, but Liz is already handling the situation as a pro at age 3.

What a Kid!

Who's little?

Last night, we had settled in to our regular Monday night routine. We always watch "Matt, Amy and Zach" which is "Little People Big World" that is shown on TLC weekly.

Since the show started, we've enjoyed watching it. At first, it was mostly for Brian and I to get a sneak peak into the life of the Roloffs. Now, it's more for Liz. She loves to see what adventure Matt and Amy are involved in each episode. It also helps her to see what other little people are doing. And, if you've seen that show, you know that the Roloffs do everything. They don't let anything stand in their way - including their short stature.

Now, Liz understands that she'll be little like Matt, Amy and Zach. She also understands that Jeremy and Daddy are tall.

She's not so sure how Mommy's height figures into the mix. Mommy is shorter than Daddy (who is tall), but is Mommy a little person?"

We were talking about how Matt, Amy, Zach and Liz are little people." And she said: "And Mommy's a little person too, right?"

I tried to explain that I'm smaller than Daddy, but not a little person.

Her response was: "But, I want Mommy to be a little person."

If she only knew how much I wish I could be a little person with her.