Things People Say

"She's so tiny!"

She seems pretty big to me. You try carrying a thirteen-pound weight everywhere you go. More than that, though, I think the difference of perspective arises from our standard of comparison. Other people are subconsciously comparing her to the individual who will be guiding thousands of pounds of metal at high rates of speed in just sixteen years. I am subconsciously comparing her to the individual who three months ago fit in my abdomen.

"Having kids sure changes your life, doesn't it?"

DOB does identify with this one, because we don't get to spend time alone together like we used to. (Though not even ten months passed between when we stopped having a younger sibling in the back seat and started having a baby there. But then babies don't make deliberate rude noises or snicker.) Maybe it's just that my life has had a few more changes than his in the past few years, but as far as I'm concerned the changes from a baby have been no more of a fluctuation than all the other changes that have rolled on through.

"What a precious little girl."

OK, I can't really argue with that one.