I always knew our little rockstar would be in a band!

Just an update on our sweet Max. He is smiling as I write this!

We went to Cranial Technologies today to get an evaluation on Max's head shape and asymmetry, due to his torticollis and subsequent plagio/brachycephaly. Say that five times fast. No, really, go ahead. I'll wait. It's a mouthful, so allow me to translate into terms that I myself would have much better understood about two months ago:

Because Max's left neck muscles are slightly tighter and shorter than his right, he has a tendency to tilt his head to the left and favor looking to the right. As he continued to lay on the same spot of the back of his head while lying down, day after day, week after week, his head is misshapen in the back. Fortunately, these conditions do not affect brain growth or function whatsoever. We go to physical therapy twice a week to address the muscle tightness, however, the head shape is best corrected by a temporary orthopedic helmet called a DOC Band. For about 6 to 9 weeks duration, Max will sport this band 23 hours out of the day, so that as his head grows, it fills in the correct areas to become nice and round. He should be out of the band by late February or early March, and Mommy's gonna save ALLLLL the pictures to show his little girlfriends when he gets all machismo and teenager-y.

The evaluation was quite simple and seemless. I was asked to strip down Max to just his diapie, and we were ushered into a room with a table draped with a white cloth, a pillow, and equiptment fit for a magazine cover shoot: bright lights, that umbrella looking thing, you name it. As I propped up Max on the pillow for the photo sesh, he started to smile, giggle and wave about. "Ooh! Take the pictures now! Oh did you get that one? He's beaming! Ok now shoot, he's drooling out the side of his mouth! Did you see that, he's kind of making a thumbs up sign... take it!"

"Ma'am, we're here to get pictures of his flat head."

Right. Carry on.

So there you have it. Max should have his helmet in about a month. As my brother (Max's Uncle Andy) put it best, "He'll be all the more ready for those batting cages!"

Batter up!