Thursday, August 30, 2007

My Heart is Swelling

Okay, I've been feeling guilty for my crazy, ridiculous, obsessive posts lately. I LOVE my son so much - cone head and all. I look at him and I'm in awe that this tiny little being can make my heart so full. I know he's perfectly made just the way God wants him. So what if he's big, right? Courtney's right, I should feel proud. And I do:).

Now this is one cute baby . . .

Playing with the new mirror during tummy time - look, no tears! hooray!

First stroller ride without the infant carrier. Hunter's like, "I'm so chill. Don't you dig my light reflecting straps?"

And my favorite, here's my little genius reading the mail. Yeah, he's 5 months and already picks out what he wants from the Babies R Us catalog.

Monday, August 27, 2007

The Exit. . .Sort of

So Mondays are our Cranial Technology appointment days. That's the place Hunter goes to get his DOC band checked. These appointments are really pretty painless. We get there and wait in the waiting room for like 10 minutes (well this used to be the case, but lately we've been lucky to get there on time - the good news is this has actually cut our wait time) and then we're back in the treatment room for maybe 10 more minutes. Hunter's OT, Kristen, looks at his head and shaves some of the inside of the helmet out and we leave.
Last week Kristen tells us that he's about to outgrow his helmet. I guess it's a good thing that his head is keeping up with the rest of his body and growing crazy fast, but I was a little distressed by this news. Obviously Kristen noticed my panicked "How can this be!" expression and started reassuring me that Hunter has done so well with his growth . . and then goes on to tell me that we need to decide if we want another band. (My thought at this moment - his head's grown that well, huh?) So I go home and look at his head like a million times and change my mind everyday throughout this past week about whether we should get another one.

Then, today we went back for his weekly check up and Kristen tells us that he is in fact on the verge of outgrowing it and has 1 week left. I ask a million questions and since my child still has a freakishly shaped head, decide that we will opt for another band. What's another $500 out of our pockets and $2500 out of the stingy insurance company? Right. Good thing I'm working part time. (If the insurance company opts out of paying for this one, you will be reading a very angry post in a couple of days).

So, next week Hunter has his quasi-exit appointment. They all kept calling it an exit appointment, but he'll just be coming back the next week to go through the torturous casting again, so we're not really exiting are we? I am feeling kind of discouraged by the fact that we're already out of the first band and Hunter's head still looks obviously misshapen. I just kept thinking during my appointment today, "Don't be that crazy parent that all of the staff talks bad about when you leave." But I couldn't help freaking out a little. I know I should be totally thankful that my kid breathes on his own and has a nice warm house to live in and a comfy bed to sleep in and plenty of milk to drink, but all I can think is his head is never going to look normal. (Now would be a good time to read my post entitled "Does that make me crazy?" and you'll understand why I'm freaking out so unnecessarily.)
Here are some photos so you can view the progress. Okay, so really this is just so I can view the progress and reassure myself that his head really does look better.
This was taken a couple of days before Hunter got his band.
These 2 were taken tonight. The first one shows how much the back of his head has come out. It really looks pretty normal from this angle. The second one shows how the front of his head still has a pretty big slope to it.
And since this post hasn't had enough of my psycho obsessiveness, here is Hunter with his friend, Jackson, who also weighs less than him (and is older). I'm actually starting to embrace his size, though. Maybe he'll be a linebacker. On second thought, maybe I should hope for a safer sport.
(Okay, blogspot has outsmarted me again. It's not letting me space where I want. Grrrrr.)

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Good Role Model

My friend, Courtney, and Hunter's friend, Preston, came over to visit us this week. Preston will be 8 months at the end of this month (Hunter was 5 months last week). You wouldn't notice the age difference if you were just looking at them sitting or laying by each other though, because they are the same size. Hunter actually weighs a tiny bit more than Preston, but they are the same length. Yes, you read that right Hunter weighs more than Preston. This is my new obsession - Why is my son so HUGE? He's 5 months and has 3 pounds and 2 inches to go before outgrowing his car seat. Many of my friends have kept their kids in the infant carrier until 1 year, but my enourmous son will probably outgrow it at 6 months. Good.

Here are Hunter and Preston playing. . .

And here's some proof that I'm not exagerating. See how they are the same size!

Preston is pretty advanced physically for his age. He is soooooo mobile! He loves to walk around with his mommy holding his hands and stand up and sit down a million times in a row while pulling up on the table. I won't say I can't wait for Hunter to get to this stage because now I see how EXHAUSTING it must be, but at least I'll get good exercise!

While Courtney and Preston were here, I kept joking that Preston could teach Hunter how to sit up and he did! I guess Hunter got jealous of Preston's ability to view the world from a different angle, so he put his hands to the ground and held himself up for like a minute. I had to pick him up eventually because he was leaning forward so far that his face was almost touching the floor. Now, that's good parenting.
Hunter says, "For real mom, chill with the pictures." This was like the 5th one in a row I'd taken of him sitting up. I was super excited!

Friday, August 17, 2007

"He did it! He did it! He did it! Hooray!"

Hunter rolled over from his tummy to his back in early June before I went back to work, but he only did it 2 times in a row and then stopped. We've been waiting and waiting and waiting trying everything to get him to do it again. Then last night I laid him down on his back and went to the front door to tell something to James as he was watering our flowers. (Don't even know why we bother to do this. The scorching heat has killed all of the plant life in our yard anyway). When I came back, this is how I found Hunter. . .


I was so excited! I ran to grab James to tell him and Hunter did it 2 more times for him! I felt like doing that little song and dance that Dora the Explorer does at the end of her show when they accomplish their task. "We did it! We did it! We did it! Hooray!" Then they sing some stuff in Espanol.

Yay Hunter! We're so proud of him. Now he just needs to figure out how to pull that arm out from under him. It's hard out here for a baby.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Does that make me crazy?

Every morning on the way to work I listen to Kidd Kraddick on the radio. Most of the time they crack me up unless James and I are carpooling - on those days they are usually at their worst and NOT FUNNY AT ALL! Next time I should call ahead and let them know I'm trying to convert my husband over from The Ticket so they need to be at their funniest.

Anyway, they do this segment called, "Does that make me crazy?" and they play that Narles Barkley song. You know where he sings, "Does that make me craaaazy? Does that make me craaazy? Does that make me craaazy? Po-ossibly-y-y-y-y-y-y." People call in and say things like, "My name is Sara, and I count all the steps I take all day long in my head to make sure I am taking the exact same amount every day. Does that make me crazy?" Or sometimes you'll get a really crazy person that says something like "My name is Julie, and I keyed my boyfriend's car and popped his tires when he broke up with me. Does that make me crazy?" Mostly they are just funny though. I usually feel really normal at the end of the segment, so I really like it. Who wouldn't like a radio show that has a segment just to make you feel normal? And make you laugh at the same time! I've thought of calling in, but I just worry that they might vote that I really am crazy and I couldn't handle that.

If I did call in I would say, "My name is Carole and I obsess about things all day long. Does that make me crazy?" Seriously I couldn't be more obsessive. I obsess over everything. E-ver-y-thing. For example, I lectured for this graduate school class on Pediatric TBI, and the girl that teaches it wanted me to come up with 4-5 questions for her final exam based on my lecture. It was a lot harder than you might think, so I sent an email to get some of the STs that I work with to help me. I gave them my questions and asked for their feedback. After I sent it I was obsessing about what an idiot I probably look like to them because of the stupid questions I came up with. I couldn't take it anymore so I told the therapists in the therapy office what a nutcase I was being. And you know what? They all started telling me how they were the exact same way.

So the moral of the story is - even when you think you're acting like a psycho, there are probably several of your friends who are the same way or do even crazier things. So share your insecurities and you will totally feel normal and accepted! Feel free to leave me comments of the crazy things you do! I will reassure you of your normalcy!

Hunter says, " My name is Hunter and tummy time makes me feel sad. Does that make me
crazy?"


By the way, I just figured out the formatting. I am so smart.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

In Case You Care

Since I'm totally detail oriented and way too organized sometimes, I kept a running tally of how many votes each photo received based on the comments on the blog and emails y'all sent me. So here are the results:
Photo one - 3 votes,
Photo two - 10 votes,
Photo three - 12 votes,
Photo four - 7 votes.

Don't hate me, but I'm not going with photo three even though it won (not going with two or four either). I really do value your opinion, but when I printed the photos out, you can see them a lot more clearly. Photo one was the obvious choice once I took out the red eye (or at least as much as I could) and zoomed in. Thanks for the advice Rikki! I'll let y'all know when the calendar comes out!

Saturday, August 4, 2007

We need your vote!

Okay, Cranial Technologies has this calendar contest every year for DOC band babies, so my friend, Molly, and I took pictures for it. Since we have the cutest DOC band babies ever, we know we should totally get the cover page. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the boys to smile, but they still look way cute! We probably took around 20 or 30 pictures between the two of us. I went through and picked out my top 4 choices, and I need y'all to vote on your favorite. So, those of you who don't usually comment, now's your chance. The fate of my son's future fame is riding on it! Just choose the number of the picture that you like best. I'll put the number underneath the picture it goes with. The photos are due 8/15, so I need to send it in soon! Thanks for your help!

ONE


TWO


THREE


FOUR


I just thought this one was cute! Olivia went and put on her bike helmet so she could be in the picture, which totally cracks me up! I'm laughing as I'm typing this. She's too sweet.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Go Cowboys!

We got the DOC band painted, and if you know my husband, you probably predicted what team we would support. James wants to go to training camp, but poor Hunter is hot enough in that helmet sitting inside under the fan. Sorry Tony Romo, but I can't make my son endure a heat stroke just to watch you throw a football around.

Hunter says, "Tony's got nothing on me!"

Check out this hand-eye (or should I say hand-mouth) coordination. He's already training for the team!

Just wanted to give y'all a view of the other side of the helmet.