growth, again

There is something about baby boys that automatically make people want to express exactly how much like the father that baby boy is. I read somewhere once that it has its cultural origins from way back in the days where cavemen would reject their offspring unless Baby Glorg looked just like his father Glorg,Sr...which now that I think about it, might be crock of poo because didn't they all look alike back then? Fuzzy, hunchy, prominent brow?? At any rate, people still do the Looks Like the Dad thing.

It starts with the ultrasounds: "OH, he's bouncing off the walls.. JUST LIKE HIS FATHER." (and by walls, you mean: my uterus. It does not make it any less ouchy when you refer to it as "walls", ultrasound techs, just a word up) And then when the baby makes it's entrance, it just goes on from there. "oh ha ha, he was crying and crying til he saw your boob and then he stopped..JUST LIKE HIS FATHER." And then, THEN, once the baby stops looking like a hairless wombat and starts resembling one of you, god forbid the baby develop any of the same features as you, his mother, because no one will ever say that. They'll say, "oh look, his eyes are JUST LIKE HIS FATHER's, only brown". Yeah. um, like MINE?

And the thing is, I don't mind. Not really. it's kinda cute and I mean, I carried the kid for almost ten months, I know where he comes from. I feel fairly confident that at some point there will be some manifestations of ME in there that people will be hard-pressed to deny. "oh look, he eats tatertots and cheesedip for dinner..JUST LIKE HIS MOTHER."

I only tell you this by way of explanation of why sometimes I harbor a secret wish that he turns out to be like 5'6 or something in the Tom Cruis/Prince range. Anything short of 6'4, really, signifying MY genes, as opposed to the Land of the Giants that is Sam's side of the family. THese hopes were dashed yesterday at Hop's doctor appointment when we learned that he has grown five inches since March. FIVE. INCHES. In six months. This is a tad bit more than the 1-3 inches I was told he would grow this entire year. He is just shy (1/2 an inch) of three feet tall at 18mths. In case you're wondering, that's tallish. Specifically, 97th percentile. The next time I wonder aloud why my child is waking up at 2am for no apparent reason, remind me that he's probably just growing ANOTHER HALF FOOT.

Jeesh, so much for my buying him those cowboy boots with the 5-inch heel.