Ahem, and how old is your baby?

We have been keeping ourselves busy with birthday parties and cookouts, some with close friends, others with friends we see once a year. Yep, you know the million dollar question I am asked most often! Ready, everyone together, one, two, three... "How old is he?" And then the inevitable, "Well, what did he weigh at birth?" (Brady was 7 lbs, 7 oz) with the follow-up (after a long pause), "My child/nephew/niece/neighbor/etc was already 43 lbs when s/he was 10 months old..."

Now, I have no problems with people asking my Brady's age. Nor weight. Nor telling me their life story of babies and weights in general. I am just realizing that Brady is at an age that since he now should be bigger, I am going to get a lot more questions. When he was younger, he could still be little and people didn't think too much about it. But now that he's 10 months, people are going to want more info. Sometimes they get it, sometimes they don't. It depends on whether or not I have the energy to get into it with them at the time.

You know, you're at the mall and you get the questions above from a fellow customer in a shoe store. Do you explain he has William's Syndrome and that's why he's small? Oh, what was that? What's William's Syndrome? Oh, it's a genetic syndrome... blah blah blah. Oh, no it's not hereditary. Nope, they do a test... blah blah blah. Yes, he'll be delayed, yadda yadda yadda. Are we going to SEE this woman again? No... so you don't get into all that, you just smile laugh a little at what she says, say "I'll keep this little peanut" and move on.

And then there are the friend-of-a-friend people who you might run into again. Maybe you get the story, maybe you get an abbreviated version. TOTALLY depends on my time and energy.

At the birthday party we went to recently, there were three other babies there, one a month older and two who were three months younger. He kind of did what the others did - look around mostly. One adult kept trying to get Brady to smile, but I didn't tell her he didn't yet. I just let her go at it. No one asked me what was "wrong" with him, he seemed to fit right in. I'm not sure how long that will last, but it was relaxing for the time being.

And he might actually be getting on a schedule! Folks, I was the first to think it might not. I am sure writing this down will probably nullify it, Murphy's Law and such, but we'll see.