Yes. Babies are little.
I had forgotten how completely comfortable total strangers are in commenting on the size of babies. It happened with Will a good bit but time and billions of episodes of Thomas and Friends seem to have swept those memories into the back corner or under the nearest rug. This is a different phenomenon from the squealing friend greeting about how tiny and sweet a new baby is. It’s more along the line of the following rough transcript that actually occurred last Friday at a restaurant:
Waitress: Oh, you have a baby.
Jesa: (thinking: wow, you’re good) Yes. Yes, we sure do.
W: Is it a boy or a girl?
J: (wondering how many moms put boys in pink feeties with strawberries on them) A little girl.
W: Aw. She’s so little.
J: Yep, she is.
W: I mean, she’s really little. She must be a newborn.
J: (we are very fortunate to get such clever wait staff) Yes, she’s just a month old.
W: Wow. She’s really…little.
J: Yep. She’s little alright.
W: How much does she weigh?
J: (wondering why that is an appropriate question about babies but never anyone else) She was 7 pounds and 4 ounces when she was born.
W: Does she eat ok?
J: (I’m sorry, did you really just ask that?) Yes, she’s a good eater.
W: Hm. She sure is little.
J: Yes. Yes, she is our little baby girl alright.
This, sadly, is not a one time occurrence. It happened over the weekend at a large superstore sort of location in the checkout line. And usually I answer as politely as possible, but there comes a point where I’m just aching to point out that babies, in general, are small. They start out that way and generally become less small with time. And those of us responsible for having them are often very thankful that it happens that way.
Incidentally, we are very pleased that Rachel, although most publicly recognized for being little, has received a big old thumbs up from her pediatrician for being in the 50th percentile at the 1 month mark! Go Rachel, go! :)
