How old is your baby?

I seem to get this question a lot... 'how old is your baby?'

For the first few weeks of E's life, I would answer truthfully... he is X weeks... but at the 8 week mark, I converted to months... and I am now using 'almost' 4 months, or 'he was 3 months on the 5th' when he hasn't exactly reached another full month on the dot.

I really have hard time with Mom's who are hell bent on keeping the week count going for the first year of life, and then the one's who keep the month count going well into the toddler's second and third year of life.

I mean... I was an Arts major for a reason, because I wasn't quick with division, and it pains me when you ask how old someone else's child is and they reply with 'he's 33 months' and a straight face.

Are you kidding me?

The other day, a friend and I were out for lunch with our little ones... to which her little girl is 7 weeks (an acceptable count), and me with E, who is almost 4 months. The waitress was so taken by our little ones, and as she was seating us, she told us how cute they were... and then proceeded to say, 'I have a 22 month-old at home - they grow up so fast'!

22 months? What are we talking - dog years? In my head I am scrambling to do the math... let's see 12 months in a year... 12 and 12 are 24, 24 minus 2 is 22, so that makes this kid, 1 year and 10 months... which is practically 2 - why didn't she just say 2, or a year and a half?

I think a mother tends to get caught up in every little milestone her child achieves, so I guess it's easy to understand why some people choose to go the week and month route for so long... but it drives me a little bananas.

I know during pregnancy, I was a bit of hypocrite in this department, as people would ask me how far along I was and I would say 28 weeks or 32 weeks, but I would try to follow it up with a month count for clarification.

Maybe its my communications background that tells me to always communicate to the lowest common denominator - so that everyone has a chance at understanding. I'm not sure, but what I do know is that when 'I' ask you how old your child is... please, just give me the rough estimate, and save yourself from my famous eye roll and a smirk!