SUBSCRIBE VIA RSSWell, apparently our baby is just one big fatty.
At least that’s what I glean from the comments we’ve been getting lately. It’s not as though people are coming right out and addressing our child as “fat”, but I’ve gotten pretty good at deciphering code.
Let’s roll through a few of the more common nuggets of opinion…
“Well, she certainly is a healthy baby!”
Translation? Your daughter is fat.
“Oh, wow! Look at those cheekers!”
Translation? Your daughter is fat.
“Six months old!? Really!? How much does she weigh?”
Translation? Just how fat is your daughter?
I’ll admit Kamryn is a healthy lil’ bundle but we’re left scratching our heads on this one. It’s gotta be her cheeks. I mean, it doesn’t look like she’s storing pumpkins for the winter, but it might get to that point if people don’t stop squeezing the bajeebers out of them on sight. I half believe her cheeks are growing due to the constant tugging they endure on a daily basis. But seriously, take away her ‘cheekers’, and I just don’t get it.
Cheekers in all their glory
We see absolutely no cause for concern over her weight as she goes through the rigors of infanthood, but when you hear these kinds of comments every time your baby sees the light of day you will eventually grow to be a little self-conscious about it.
Are we overfeeding her? Is she some freak of nature who should be relegated to a tent at the county carnival? Hardly. The reality is that she’s a vibrant and healthy baby girl. She’s not bending the growth chart curve, she’s simply surfing the top percentile.
She’s normal…she’s simply above average in size…and that stands to reason considering I stand at 6’7″. This considered, if her adolescent and adult years are anything like mine, she needs to get used to the comments, so I suppose it’s good that she’s hearing them now.
Still today, I’m amazed at how many times I’m asked, “how’s the weather up there?”, while the witty cutup stares at my noggin as it invades the stratosphere. You’d think people would find some new material when gawking at someone a whole SIX INCHES taller than they are.
Quite frankly, no comment can ever dampen the love, pride, and bond I share with my children. I just don’t understand why people feel compelled to verbally purge when they see her. It used to really irk me but because humor is ingrained to my very core, I’ve settled into my typical pattern of just rolling with it.
I casually joke that we weaned Kamryn off breast milk and went right to pork chops. This seems to guide the conversation in a different direction and by poking fun at something completely innocuous, we no longer take the comments personally.
Looking back, we really shouldn’t have taken these comments personally in the first place, but when you have children, any comment that sounds even the least bit disparaging will tend to draw out the claws.
We’ve since retracted our talons and have come to the realization that people aren’t being malicious, they simply aren’t aware that what they’re saying has become cliche to us. All that matters to us is that she brings so much joy into all of our lives. We’re blessed to have her and that’s really all that matters.
Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to go polish her cheeks.
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I, for one, LOVE chubby cheeks along with chubby thighs…the kind that if you squeeze them the baby will scream with laughter. She is absolutely adorable and looks just like you in your twitter pic. I’ve looked at her recent pic and she couldn’t get any prettier. Babies just store the chubs until they can grow and stretch it all out..lol
(I’m finally getting a chance to go back and read old posts)
Her cheeks are adorable!! Both of my girls were so chubby that I used to say that their fat rolls had fat rolls. I think people just don’t even think when they comment about kids. I was in the grocery store one day with my first when she was about 8 months old. She was almost bald with enormous crystal blue eyes with long dark lashes. A lady starts gushing (in baby-talk) about how beautiful her eyes are and goes “where did you get your pwetty bwu eyes,
huh?” She turns to me and upon noticing my brown eyes, drops out of baby talk, straightens up and goes “oh. Not from you.” and walks away. Awesome. Thanks random stranger.