Our Little Lady

I've come to understand that Liz's perception on life as a little person will be very different than mine.

For instance, even though I'm fairly social, I enjoy my anonymity. I like going to Starbucks or another coffee house and reading my newspaper without anyone noticing me. I don't have people giving me unusual looks or coming up to me and asking me questions about myself, except on the days when in haste iced tea is dripping down my chin. But that's only once in awhile.

Liz won't get the same treatment as she gets older simply because of her height.

Luckily, Liz is much more extroverted than I was at her age. Sure, she gets shy among new people, but overall, she loves talking to people. She's not attached to my leg, the way I was attached to my mom's leg at this age.

Since there are so few people who are 4-feet-tall, she's considered unique simply by her height and will be easily recognized at places like the grocery store, the park or the local coffee shop. In some cases, people will give her an extra glance or perhaps make a comment.

In other cases, the clerks and employees at these locations will remember her more then they'd remember their average-height customers that they might see just as often.

While I had originally feared that this might be a negative experience for Liz, I saw this weekend, how it can be quite positive.

We were at the local grocery paying for our items when the person checking out our groceries mentioned how she watched Liz and I when we first came to the store.

"She's going to be a Little lady," she said. "Whenever I see her, she always makes me smile."

Obviously, she'd noticed us several times.

So, while we may worry about those negative comments, there are so many more people that are smiling at you....when you don't even know about it.

And, that's kind of cool.