[music playing]
MASON: Welcome to my house.
TERRA: Woohoo!
No, he can't hold you Penny.
Here, you want to walk with me?
She wants to keep up with you, Mason.
MASON: Why's she so little?
TERRA: Because her mommy's little.
JASMINE: Mason, come here.
TERRA: Good job, buddy.
MASON: Mason is four now.
And even though his mommy is little,
I think he forgets that kids can be little, too.
So, I really love that we can have play dates
with Terra and her family.
And I can show Mason that people come in all different types
of shapes, sizes, and colors.
TERRA: Good job.
Good job, Penny.
JASMINE: You're such a great helper.
TERRA: Thank you Mason. JASMINE: Tell her.
Come on Penny, tell her.
Are you still looking for a babysitter,
or you want to do like the daycare thing?
TERRA: I tried to put her in daycare.
And they wouldn't take her because she's not walking.
JASMINE: Are you serious?
TERRA: And they-- yeah, they felt like she
wouldn't-- she would be like out of place in her little classes.
So like right now, I could put him in daycare,
but I couldn't put her in daycare.
JASMINE: I can't believe that.
TERRA: Penny just turned three and having achondroplasia
has not been the easiest for her little body.
DOCTOR: She has hydrocephalus, or water on the brain.
TERRA: I've never heard of a baby
her age having this type of surgery.
JOE: It's scary.
It's all scary.
TERRA: At seven months, she had decompression surgery.
And she's currently living with hydrocephalus,
which the doctors do feel has affected her ability to walk.
So, Penny has an MRI every six months to monitor
her hydrocephalus, because there's
still like water on her brain.
And the doctor called and said, like,
if she's not walking in six months,
that it's a very common surgery to have a shunt, which
is basically like releasing all of that water
and draining it into your chest cavity.
So, it's been like, like all of a sudden, that was like when
I was like, let's look up everything
to try and get her to talk.
JASMINE: Yeah.
Why would he want to do that surgery?
TERRA: He thinks that it might be affecting
a piece of her brain--
JASMINE: Oh, OK.
TERRA: --and that's why maybe she's dragging her leg.
But, the downfall with the shunt surgery
is that like they grow out of it.
So, it's like every few years you're having
to have the same surgery again.
JASMINE: Oh, really?
TERRA: As a mom, I don't want a shunt.
Shunt have a 50% chance of failing.
And I don't want to take away something that
will give her a better life.
I just want her to feel like a normal little person like I do.
I feel like a normal little person.
And I feel selfish for saying that.
I mean I wish I had hydrocephalus.
And I wish she didn't--
she didn't have hydrocephalus.
I knew having a little person going in that I was like OK
with all of the surgeries.
I guess it's my ignorance that I just assumed that she would be
like a replica of me, you know.
JASMINE: You cannot blame yourself.
She is doing so well already. TERRA: I know.
She's doing really well.
JASMINE: And you know what, it's OK if she's at a slower pace.
You know, that's OK.
You're going to do whatever you have to do for your kid.
TERRA: 100%.
JASMINE: I mean that from the bottom of my heart.