Helmet Days of Summer
Today we went to the orthotics and prosthetics department of Scottish Rite because Micah's whole head was red when I took off his helmet yesterday. It was obviously time to adjust the helmet again. Micah has been eating well (except on his formula, but he is improving there) and is due for the standard issue 9 month growth spurt. Well, I believe it may have arrived!
Our orthotist, Ed, said for us to come back in 2 weeks for another cranial scan. He said, "I'm pretty sure it will be the graduation scan." What a funny way to say that we'll be done with the helmet! Micah is getting too old for the helmet. That means that he knows exactly what the helmet is, where it is, and is trying to push it off, which results in the helmet getting shoved out of place. This rubs his head and makes the helmet less effective. So, ready or not, Micah is about to be done with the helmet. At our last scan a couple of weeks ago Micah's head hadn't grown enough to effect change. Remember, the helmet isn't like braces. It doesn't correct what's gone wrong, it allows for improvement in the places that had gotten flat. For the previous 6 weeks, Micah's head grew less than 2mm, so his head couldn't correctly grow because it didn't grow at all. Over the last 14 weeks this helmet has gotten terribly stinky! Imagine a gym sock, left in the bottom of a gym bag inside of a plastic grocery sack by a 14 year old soccer player for about 4.5 months! Eewww. Seriously. It's nasty. Micah's head smells like that until it airs out for a little while. I'll be very glad to be done with it. In other news, Micah is learning to walk. It's amazing. That word is so not-enough. It's incredible to see him progress and be proud of himself for learning new things. He can reach into his toy bin and pick out the toys he wants to play with... or the toys he just doesn't want to be stuck in the awful box anymore! He has opinions and desires that are all his own and he's beginning to get very frustrated in the way that toddlers do when he can't communicate effectively what he needs. He threw his first tantrum. It was , of course, related to not being allowed to chew on a cord. He's bananas for cords! (That's not good.) In this tantrum, Micah yelled at me. He yelled at me in the way that if he had been a teenager using his words, I would have grounded him for 2 weeks! When I scooped him up to cuddle him, he threw-out and wouldn't be held. A couple of weeks ago, for the first time, he opened a cabinet door and pulled out a plastic pitcher. Micah now has a designated cabinet that is safe for him to play in.
