They’re Taller Than Me (Officially)

They’re taller than me. Or should I say—they’re all taller than I am? However you want to phrase it, half the people in our family are male, and they’ve all officially surpassed me in height!

Even the youngest one, Ezie, just passed me.

He’s been flaunting this fact for a while now, but I stayed in denial.
“It’s your shoes!” I’d protest.

I knew Ezie had already passed his big sister in height. They’re two and a half years apart, but for almost five years they were the exact same height!

I’ve mentioned before that SJ started hearing (via cochlear implants) shortly after Ezie was born, so I’ve always called them my “hearing twins.” And honestly, in so many ways, raising them has felt like raising twins.

When SJ turned 13, she had a major growth spurt and was finally taller than her little brother—barely. I even took a photo to document the moment.

That lasted about a day before Ezie hit his own growth spurt and passed her again. This time, it’s final. SJ is 5’2”, and chances are that’s her full-grown height. My mom is 5’3”, and so is J’s mom. My grandmother was only 4’11”!

Ezie just had his 12-year-old check-up, and in the past year, he’s grown five inches. He’s now 5’4.5″.
I’m right at 5’4″ (when I stand up nice and straight), so yes—he’s officially taller than me.

I told J the news:
“He’s officially taller than me.”

J said, “Yeah, we already knew that.”

“Well, now it’s official.” I replied.

“It was already official. We could all see it,” he chuckled.

“No, we speculated—but now we have a professional report—from a DOCTOR!” I defended my denial.

It’ll be fun to see how much Ezie grows over the next couple of years. Z grew so tall so fast, we thought for sure he’d be over six feet. He was almost J’s height at 15, and we kept measuring, holding our breath, waiting for the day he’d pass his dad. But months turned into years, and it was clear that his big spurt was over. Our pediatrician says boys can still grow past high school, but that’s rare. And honestly, that’s fine! Z is the perfect height now—5’10″, just like his dad.

The baby of the family, Elle, is also growing faster than I can keep up. At nine years old, she’s in the 85th percentile for height. She’s wearing the clothes SJ wore at 13.

My guess is she’ll be the tallest female in the family. Or maybe she’s just growing quickly now and will slow down later. Time will tell.

It’s fun to speculate and observe, but I don’t actually care how tall anyone ends up. I’m curious, sure, but it’s not something I worry about. As a mom, your kids start out so tiny, and when they’re little, their ages and sizes line up perfectly—smallest to biggest, youngest to oldest. That’s probably why it caught me off guard when that was no longer the case!

That was actually the inspiration for our 2021 Christmas card—the kids were all having growth spurts, and the size order was getting completely shaken up.