How many months she have?

Riley went back to the pediatrician for her anemia follow up and her second round of the flu shot today. Good news is that her hemoglobin levels were in the normal range this time and we just have to continue the iron supplements until her 12 month check up. She was a brave little baby and didn't even flinch when they pricked her finger. She was, creepily so, fascinated with her blood though! She kept trying to pull her little finger from the nurse to put it in her mouth and she protested with several "ENHS!" everytime the nurse would pull it back. She was even more so fascinated by the band aid and kept biting it and looking at me with a most quizzical look on her face.

Now on with the real purpose of this post...

Usually I hate waiting in the doctor's office to be called back. I'm always on time and they are NEVER on time which annoys me. However, today it was pretty crowded and there were several other little tots in the "well baby" section where we were sitting to keep Riley entertained. Amongst the crowd were two Hispanic ladies with an adorable little girl. Due to several years of Spanish in high school I could roughly tell what they were talking about and the conversation went like this...

** Riley is cruising and taking a few wobbly steps mixed in with turbo crawling. She notices the little girl and goes next to her at the table and starts banging her hand on it and blabbering as loud as her little voice can go at the little girl who can only stare wide eyed mouth agape***
Lady: Ohhhh...she no walking yet? 18 months is late for no walking.
Me: I'm sorry? (because I was monitoring to make sure Riley didn't start banging her fist on the little girl instead of the table)
Lady: How many months she have, 18 right? She same size as Atiana.
Me: Oh no...She just turned 10 months old. So she's actually starting to walk early.
Lady: Ohhhhh. (nice smile)
Then she turns to her friend and in Spanish, but I'll translate for you... Oh my, only 10 months old! Look at her she's the same size as Atiana. I wonder what she eats. That's a big baby - really only 10 months old? more spanish that I couldn't catch partly because Riley was inching dangerously closer to 18 month old but same size as her Atiana.

Now here's the thing, I don't really like to embarass people, and I could have just acted like I had no idea what they were saying, but come on she was talking about my kid! And even more annoying is that Riley really isn't that big - she is quite tall and she does have the most adorable buddha belly but they were acting like she was a giant! Though I know I shouldn't have, I couldn't let the opportunity to embarass them a little pass me by and the nurse couldn't have had better timing...

Me: Looking right at them pointedly...Oh yes, I know she's big isn't she? Most people assume that she's at least a year old by now...though I very rarely get a guess that she's 18 months old.
Lady: She realizes that I understood at least part of their conversation...Mouth agape and eyes wide open very similar to the way her daughter is still looking at my "giant" of a child.
Nurse: Riley?
Me: That would be us! Hopefully we won't break the scales before you get back there! Nice to meet you!

It's pathetic, but it was one of very few bright moments in my day and as I swooped her up to take her back Riley giggled and I just had to chuckle with her.