is it just me?

I was walking in to daycare this morning and ran in to the mother of a little guy who is about 7 months younger than baby lizard, but was in her same classroom for a couple months before she moved up with the big kids. I have no affinity for this particular child, since when I saw him on a daily basis he was this squalling little blob of a thing who was always really shiny because he was covered in some weird ointment due to some skin affliction. ew. and I think the mom is really annoying. However, I am polite, and I said "wow! he's getting so big!" Though I was thinking "and less shiny, though he still looks kind of red and crusty." She says "He is! We're walking now. Are you guys walking?" And simultaneously all of my irritation bells rang out. 1) I hate when people refer to me and my child as a unit, particularly when asking a question like "are you walking?" Clearly *I* am walking. I mean, you can say "are you guys going to the zoo this weekend?" but not "are you guys eating solid food?" 2) I maybe have been a bit extra sensitive because my child does not walk. This is a bit unusual, since most children do walk by her age. But I am getting tired of people asking and even more tired of people looking at me with a very judgemental and totally fake smile and saying something meaningless like 'she'll get there!' And truthfully, it is not really good parenting that determines when your child does things like walk, so really just go ahead and get off your high horse.

So of course this lady tells me that her kid is only 8 months old (which, for those of you without kids is a ridiculously early age to walk and is really nothing to be excited about) and implying, with that same stupid smile, that clearly her child is superior to mine and maybe I should just go ahead and put the baby lizard in a group home and save everyone a lot of heartache. But what I wanted to say is "she may not walk, but she is so much cuter than your kid it should be illegal." And let's be honest, down the road those big eyes are going to get my little lizard a lot farther than being able to tell people she could walk at 8 months.