ACCESS!!!! And a Cough-versation...

Okay, what's wrong with this picture? Can you guess? In order to use this handicap swing you have to go down the STAIRS! And no, there is not another way down. Lucky for us, Noa likes doing stairs and she can stand on her own, but for a lot of disabled kids this would be a big problem. Oh, sigh. Really, people? No one noticed this when they were installing it???

ANYWAY - as annoying as the swing's location is, this playground is very close to our house but I've never really used it before. It's actually a bit of a maze to figure out with a wheelchair (or giant disabled kid bike, which is what we had with us), so I just never really took it on but it's lovely and was almost empty - unlike the playground at St. Varten's which is often packed with pushy kids that no one seems to be attending to.

As Noa and I were going from place to place in the toddler area at the top of the stairs, there was a lone kid - about 3 - who kept running up to us and jumping in front of us. I'd wave to him and then he'd run off for a bit and come back again. I tried to get Noa to say hi, but usually by the time she'd respond he would be off and running again. Kids do this a lot to Noa because they are fascinated by the fact that she doesn't respond to them. It just seems weird. Which I guess it is.

As I was putting Noa back on her bike he ran up to us again, and when Noa - again - didn't respond he stood there starring at her for a bit thinking and then... he fake sneezed. "Oh," I said, "that was quite a sneeze." So he did it again.

"Bless you," I said.

Noa smiled and echoed "Bless choo." And then she fake sneezed.

And the kid fake coughed. Noa listened. The kid did it again.

Then Noa fake coughed. And I realized --- this is a big. I get why her teachers don't want to encourage her doing this all the time (especially the belching) but THIS is one of the first verbal exchanges that Noa has had with another kid, much less a kid she doesn't even know. This is a give and take conversation! Noa is creating a relationship to this kid that I don't have to facilitate. To shut that down just because it's not a socially accepted conversation seems to be risking cutting off the impulse to have an independent conversation so.... I guess I'm going to have to have a conversation with Noa's teachers come fall about how to deal with the fake coughing and sneezing and belching because it seems to me that just trying to make it stop is totally, 100% wrong.