Everybody says that Evelyn is small. "She's so tiny" is something everyone who sees her declares. So tiny and so cute.
We get it.
Jen gets annoyed with it. I don't blame her. We had Evelyn a week early and she was small. To my wife its the equivalent of hearing every person say, "Oh your daughter has a handicap," "Oh wow, look at the size of the mole on her face!" or "Your child is not normal."
We know it comes with the territory. She's small, but she's grown almost a pound a week since coming home and now actually looks like every other baby her age. At least, I think so.
But this has made me realize that try as every parent may to believe their child is perfect, the next Einstein, or something incredibly special, everyone else is oblivious to this fact.
Sometimes I want to cut the person off rudely and say, "We get it. She's small. But guess what, your kid is nonathletic, horrible at math, and should probably get used to wearing shirts with a small plastic tag that has his name lettered on. Oh, and why were his first words, 'Would you like to try a Big Mac?'"
That's the angry dad in me. He stays restrained with giant chains in a dungeon locked away in the recesses of my mind. He will be unleashed when a bully threatens my children, when a parent-teacher conference begins with "I just don't like Evelyn," and when the Ice Cream man decides to short-change her for Popsicle.
I know people don't mean it wickedly or even are attempting to point out flaws. I would venture to say that 100% of the time they are meaning, "Oh she's so cute and new." New. Not Small.
But we've gotten used to it.
Really.
