Climbing

For many people with dwarfism, their most valuable "tool" is the humble step stool. We have a few around the place, mainly for Lana to reach the bathroom sink to wash her hands. This one ended up being used for a footstool at our keyboard and as such, lives in the lounge room. The kids have been using them as seats, but tonight, Maddy figured out that with the stool, she can manage to climb onto our sofa. Not a small achievement, given that the sofa is around the same height as Maddy's nose! 

I think I need to get more of these stools, and also figure out how to make the bottom slip-proof. We need to be very careful to hold the stool while Maddy is climbing, otherwise it goes flying from underneath her. I welcome any suggestions!

(and how's that? No posts for six weeks and now you guys get two in a day ;) )

Playground Independence

Playground independence has been a long time coming for Maddy. Many of the playgrounds here in Hong Kong have large steps which are difficult for little legs to climb (and by little legs, I mean legs that are possibly still shorter than the average newborn baby's!). Then there are high bridges with not much protection at the sides which freak me out, even though I'm not usually a paranoid parent (it would be so easy for her to fall). Last of all, there are the other kids. As you can tell in this video, Hong Kong parks are crowded places and kids are very interested in Maddy, who honestly does look too small to be walking as well as she is. Many of them want to hold her hand and inevitably knock her down in their efforts to be "helpful". 

As the weather cools down, we find ourselves at the park more and more frequently - and this year, Maddy is starting to hold her own! She has mastered the smaller stairs, she can go down just about any slide and controls her speed with her shoes, and she avoids the extra-friendly kids as much as possible. It makes me so proud!