an early arrival

Though my mother vehemently denies this, I am pretty sure they pulled me before I was ripe.
Here is why:
I was born the day before leap year on a year that was a leap year. Had I been born just hours later, I would only be a teenager at this point. Sometimes I wish that were true. Sometimes not. Even the few hours between my natal day and leap year the next day might have made a difference in some things.
Like my metabolism. Or the lack thereof. What I mean is, I have no metabolism. At all. Whatsoever. I am certain it would have developed had they left me in the oven a while longer.

And my height. I am not quite five feet tall.  I am a good half a foot shorter than either of my parents and shorter even still than both my sisters. I used to get hand-me-ups. When they would outgrow something, it would be altered (read: hemmed up) to fit me. I am three years older than one sister and five years older than the other. They both were able to ride the mouse trap ride at a nearby amusement park before I was tall enough.
This is a true story. I am not even going to go into the sad story of how I was able to ride the sky ride, it being without height requirements but I lost a new penny loafer into the lake below on a last of summer/back to school trip to the amusement park and have never quite gotten over it!
I might not be so sensitive if I had a longer gestation period.
Little wonder that I have endeavored not to arrive early anywhere since birth.