As some of you may recall, little Lain has hip dysplasia, a condition where her leg sockets did not properly form. Because of this, she has to wear a harness to keep them in place so that they will form properly going forward. It’s a pretty harmless thing, in the overall. She cried like thunder when they put it on, but after that, no issues. Nor is there any concern of long-term problems. She should even crawl on time. All it does is hold her legs out a little bit, which has some convenience because it makes her easier to hold.
So for the most part, we’ve gotten used to it being there and don’t think much of it. We forgot to inform people that we were going down to see during our trip back home. So we kept having to explain it. And we have to explain it to strangers, as well, who are constantly asking about it. We don’t really mind their curiosity. If we saw this thing on a baby, we’d be curious, too. It also helps that it comes up in conversations about how cute she is. It does get just a tad tiresome, though. After a while.
There was one lady, though. We were at the airport and Clancy was changing her in the women’s bathroom. Someone saw the harness, new exactly what it was. “Hip dysplasia?” Clancy confirmed. She said that her daughter’d had it when she was a baby. And now she’s the star of her track team. Now, with the above in mind, we weren’t worried about any permanent harm so long as the harness puts everything in the right place. On an intellectual and medical level, we know that. But it’s still kind of easy to forget. And it was wonderful of that stranger to remind us.
Today I took the baby to the supermarket. As it happens, she was wearing her jammies and I decided not to change her. I figured, if nothing else, it would save explanations about the harness.
As per usual, she got a lot of oohs and ahhs. Then one lady was really taken aback at how her legs just jutted out like they did. She thought that was the cutest thing and brought her entire family over to see the baby with the jutted legs. She said that wow, the baby must have really good leg control to be able to do that. Clancy said at this point she would have corrected the lady, but I chose to let it go. It was at least a sort of different kind of benign gawking.
Ha.
My closest friend as a child was my cousin; 11-months my senior, and exactly 3 days to young to be a grade ahead of me in school. She was the center of my young world.
She had to wear corrective shoes. Braces. Glasses. She had freckles.
These things, I knew, were the hallmarks of goddesses. I wanted them all; but to no avail. I remained plain jane me. Sometimes, a different kind of benign worship is the best thing ever.