My Boyfriend's Niece Doesn't Know I Have a Muscle Disability, But…

I've never considered myself great with kids, but my boyfriend's 4-year-old niece is adorably obsessed with me. She calls me Chichi — when she was 2, she couldn't pronounce "Chachi" (aunt in Urdu) so Chichi stuck. 🥹

She's beaming every time I come over (once screaming "SHE'S HEREEE!"), and always asking to play. When she was younger, that included bringing me every toy she owned and piling them in my lap, which was delightful to know she trusted me with all her worldly possessions 😂

Sometimes I'm self-conscious about things I can't do with her that other adults around her can — like when she hugs my legs and I don't crouch down to her because I won't be able to get up myself, or don't sit down in the beanbag chair beside her for the same reason, or don't pick her up out of fear I can't lift her while I'm standing.

I've never explained my disability to her, but sometimes I wonder if she suspects I'm different...and doesn't care.

Like when she saw me slowly coming up the stairs to the main floor, and stretched her hand out and asked if I need help.

Or when she brought my shoes, unprompted, from the front door to the back door for me, because she wanted to play with me in the backyard.

Or when she was pushing me on their backyard bench swing last summer (I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be the other way around?! 😂)

But every time a moment like those happen, I think, maybe she doesn't notice or care about the things I'm not doing, as much as I do. Maybe she's just having fun being with me, and the things we're doing together.

Maybe one day she'll learn I have a disability, or learn more about them in general. And maybe, by then, she'll have already figured out that people with disabilities are just fun, normal people — just like her Chichi. 💖