Tuesday, March 22, 2011

My Growing Girls

While I'm pretty average in height (5'5") I remember thinking of myself as "short" growing up, until the spring and summer before junior high when I suddenly grew something like eight inches (and then stopped!). Even in college though, people usually thought I was younger than my age and at work when asked what year in school I was my response of "sophomore" was often met with "at (fill in the name of a couple local high schools)?"

We're running into the opposite sort of experience with Sadie. When she came into the world, 22 inches long, she was already "tall." The last time I measured she was right at three feet (and that was before Maggie was born!) and I know she's grown... I just haven't gotten her to hold still long enough to measure her.

I didn't realize how tall she was, however, until we were at Mass on Saturday and she walked ahead of me and passed an altar server. She came up to the boy's shoulder. I would guess he was nine or ten... and she is now two and three quarters!

Which brings me to the issue that we run into the most frequently with our little towering two year old...

People think she's much older than she is. It seems that the assumption is that she's four, or maybe five. You really only have to be around her for a few moments to realize that she's much younger, but that doesn't stop frowns and glares when she's squirmy (she's quiet at Mass 95% of the time, just squirmy) that I really don't think she'd get if she were an average sized two year old. After all, the expectations for stillness with a five year old are much higher than for a toddler, but few people seem to realize that she is still a toddler!

In Maggie News: she took six steps pushing her sister's doll stroller on Sunday afternoon and now seems determined to learn how to walk. She keeps standing up and letting go of what she's holding on to (she sometimes raises her arms like a "V" and smiles) and trying to just walk without anything. I can't believe how determined she is!

9 comments:

  1. It's not just the size, Cam, it's the hair as well. So many little girls her age have very little. My granddaughter is not huge for her age, although she's bigger by quite a bit than her mommy was at the same age, but she was born with a full head of hair and never lost it, she now has hair down to her shoulders and it does give her a far more grown up appearance than her current 21 months.

    So long as you know what's appropriate behavior for her, don't let others evil looks bother you too much. Some of them would give you those looks even if she didn't look older, simply because they don't really like to see children in church.

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  2. Well now, seeing as how it's PAUL'S genetics primarily contributing to Sadie's growth, I humbly suggest it be PAUL who takes her out during Mass. :)

    Oh wait, what was I thinking. Surely any fellow who could successfully woo such a lovely bride must have at least one or two redeeming qualities himself. He probably does already help during Mass.
    :)

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  3. Cute! We have tall kids too... I'm pretty sure Sadie is taller than Kalila, last we checked (Sept) she was 3 feet too and she's a bit older. She hangs out with older kids a lot though so it evens out, she does look smaller when her friends are 6 and 7 lol. Zavier on the other hand... I'm really curious about when we take him in next month. He's already to Kalila's shoulders!

    Love the starting to walk phase :-D I kinda wish we'd had more toys for Z to do that on when he was doing that.

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  4. We've been using "divide and conquer" during Mass. Paul takes Maggie, usually to the back and I keep Sadie in the pew. They seem to have mastered the "feeding of each other" tactic pretty well and what I think gets Sadie the most looks is that SHE wants Mommy's lap and people think she's too old to sit on it (that's my guess at least).

    On my lap she's pretty silent, but then Maggie gets jealous (if she's sitting next to us). And then oh the drama! So Paul takes Maggie to the back and stands and Sadie sits on my lap.

    I hadn't really thought about the length of her hair, but Liz I think you're right and it definitely does contribute!

    These tall babies are going to be taller than us before too long!

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  5. Cam, we make our almost two year old sit on our lap. He is not allowed to get down and one of us (usually my husband) holds him all throughout mass. He is a doll and doesn't make any noise but does squirm a bit. People might think he is too old to be held (he also looks older than he is) but you know what, at least he isn't dive bombing off pews and running up and down aisles.

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  6. I agree! That's what I tell myself when she's particularly wiggly! It could be much worse! She could make a break for the altar!

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  7. Your girls are beautiful! I remember many years ago, we had a neighbor whose son was very big for his age. He would come over and act like a 5 or 6 year old little boy and I would have to remind myself he wasn't expected to have the maturity or common sense of a much older boy. That was when I had the urge to drop kick him back across the street. :-)

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  8. Somehow I missed the wiggly part... We can't keep K still either, but she won't sit in our laps. Its getting a lot better the past few months, but still nowhere near pew ready :-( Unfortunately ignoring the looks/comments is easier said than done too.

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  9. My girls are short, but we have some distant cousins with very tall children. Frequently the mother of the cousin who is five days younger than my oldest would lament to me that people would say things to her about her son or give her dirty looks when he acted like a typical two year old and it's because they assumed because he was the size of a five year old that he was older. I can imagine that it has to be incredibly frustrating.

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