Gal Smiley is a very petite person. She is finely built all over, wears the same hat size as the Wee One, and is very, very short. For most of her life she’s been below the height and weight growth curves, but recent growth spurts have pushed her up to the 0% percentile. Whoo hoo! Her small stature isn’t anything to worry about, health-wise; she’s just destined to be really tiny like all the women in Sir Monkeypants’ family.
Even though I mentally know this about Gal Smiley, for some reason, it seems I never really understood it about Gal Smiley. I have a real problem judging the relative heights of people. Everyone in the world breaks into three categories: taller than me, about my height, and shorter than me. For years I did not realize that Sir Monkeypants was not, in fact, six feet tall. He’s in the “taller than me” category, that’s about six feet, or thereabouts. Whatever.
Gal Smiley and all her friends are all in the “shorter than me” category, so I never really understood that she is, in fact, shorter than the other kids in her class. A few weeks ago she was playing with Princess Charming, the girl whose backyard is attached to our backyard, and her mom, Queen Charming, was telling me that everyone always thinks that Princess C is older than she is because she’s “so tall.” And I was all like, “She is?” I totally thought she was about the same height as Gal Smiley, or thereabouts. Whatever.
Then on the weekend, Gal Smiley went to Princess C’s birthday party, and Sir Monkeypants took some group shots of the kids all standing up, and I was like, “Is Gal Smiley sitting down in this picture? Because why else would she be a full head shorter than Princess C?” And Sir Monkeypants was like, “News flash, YOUR DAUGHTER IS SHORT.” And I’m so embarrassed to admit, this was actually a big surprise to me. Apparently the growth chart doesn’t lie! Who knew!
Yesterday Princess C was over and I lifted her onto the swingset, and HOLY CRAP, did you know that she is way, way taller than Gal Smiley? And also, about 10 pounds heavier? I have a tiny, short daughter! Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?
We’re off for a height and weight checkup later today for all three kids, and I swear this time, I am really going to pay attention. Really.
TurtleHead 
I am totally same way when it comes to assessing height — especially the heights of children. Drama Prince’s physician tells me he’s something like 70% for height. Sure. Okay. If you say so. To me he’s one year old and therefore short.
I tend to get way too hung up about those growth charts. My oldest is around the 99th percentile, so it was a shock when my youngest was around the 1st percentile (he’s moved up the chart a bit recently.) After a doctor’s appointment, I have to remind myself that *someone* needs to be at either extreme of the chart.
Exactly! Although now that I’ve been alerted to the fact that the Gal is on the short side, I see it everywhere — every time she stands next to someone I’m mentally comparing. I hope to get over that really, really soon…
Crazy, you have one at 99% and one at 1%?? It’s so weird how two kids who come from the same parents can be so totally different…not just physically but in personality, too. It’s fascinating to see how they grow into their own little people!