I think you mean Barack Jr. took the other with the parents in it.
I’ve been doing some comparisons of height in these pictures and the one of Ann, Barack, Maya and Grandpa at the airport which I think was taken when she and Maya returned to Hawaii in 1972. In the 1972 picture, Maya is about the same height as the top of the seats along the wall which would be about 25”. Barack is 1.66 her height which would make him about 42 or 43”. I compared that to my height and found he came up to my chin. Looking at his mom it seems like he would have done the same to her also so I figured she must be about 5’3” or 4” like me. I discovered on line that adult Barack is 6’1” and standing beside his Grandpa in a graduation picture, they are the same height. My husband is the same height and in the picture of the four people at the airport, Ann and her father’s heights are just like my husband’s and mine. In the white dress photo with Barack Sr. she seems like only 3 or 4 inches shorter than he is so he would have to be about 5’7” at most—kind of a short guy. The boy comes up to his armpit. So I added 3” to my height and measured from the my armpit to the floor and with a very slight slouch because Sr. is not standing up straight, I got a boy that is about 37” tall. Now all of these measurements are approximate but reasonable. If it is the same boy in both photos, one from Christmas 71 and one from summer 72, it means that he had to have about a 6” growth spurt in a 6 or 7 month period. Is that possible in that short of time? My own son went through a similar spurt but it was between the ages of 11 and 13( spread over the 2 years) and Barack at this time was between 10 and 11.
No. I mean they were divorced. I have no inclination to be in a photo hugging or even standing alone next to the eeeeeeeeevil slime mom, and I'm pretty sure she feels much the same way about me.
The early and short growth spurt seems unlikely. As near as I can figure it’s possible, but something like 99% percentile, if that.
Either your measurements are off, easy enough to do with so many variables, or the dates are off, or he had an atypical growth spike.
Just to muddy the waters a bit more, maybe he looked chubby because of a glandular problem? That might affect growth rate.