Going On Three Weeks
Stephen is going on three weeks in his ultra-stylish DOC band. He wears it twenty-three hours out of every twenty-four (did I mention that last time?). The only side-effects we've noticed is that he's had some trouble staying asleep at night, but this might also be attributed to teething -- his top two teeth should be emerging from his pretty pink gums any time now.
What follows are some photos from his 10/26 check-up appointment.
Our appointment was scheduled for 7am. I don't know if that was the wisest choice for an appointment, considering that the traffic on I15 is really, really bad at that time of the morning (see below).
After more than an hour, we arrived at Cranial Tech's office. We were ten minutes late; all things considered, I think we made good time. Stephen spent the first half of the drive playing in the back seat (at left), and the other half napping. His mother and I discussed the traffic. Honestly, I think he had the better part of the deal.
After we were signed in and ready to rumble, we were shown to an exam room and they gave his head a look at. After only a week, there was (at least, to us) some significant changes. His head shows a good deal more roundness in the back. It's damn amazing that only a week would make such a difference.
One way to compare his current head shape to his original head shape is by use of a plaster model that they made from his original head cast. Here is the boy, with the cast of his head in hand.
They routed out his DOC band a little on the sides opposite of where his current improvement can be seen. In that way, his noggin will reshape itself proportionally. He played the whole time.
Compared to the drive down, it was a mercifully short appointment. We get to do it all over again this coming Wednesday, though we're heading in a little later than we did the last time. Thank God.
The office is decorated with murals that have been painted with murals depicting various nursery rhymes. You know, "Hey Diddle Diddle" and the old lady who lives in a shoe...whatever here name was. And, of course, Little Boy Blue, complete with horn and DOC band. Since Stephen was sporting his own blue overalls, I snapped a picture of him and Little Boy Blue.
Yesterday, we took a trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. It got off to a rough start, with Stephen being a little bit scared of his introduction to the park. It must've been the plants, the people, and...oh, yeah, the birds. Lots of them. We've learned that he's none too fond of my mother's parrots, either.
Some of our Animal Park highlights follow, starting with...meercats!
The little guys, always a favorite of mine, were out in force, and horsing around in front of the glass partition that surrounded their enclosure. Stephen got a close look at them, and he seemed to enjoy watching them. He likes our cats, so I wonder if he's really able to distinguish between cats and other similarly-sized mammals or not. For all I know, he thinks that dogs and kitties are the same thing.
Next...the balloon.
The Animal Park has a big yellow balloon that folks can go up in for the admission price of fifteen American dollars. We didn't go up...maybe next time. As high as it goes up, you can probably see our house from there.
Then again, probably not.
Flamingos. There are lots of stinky pink flamingos at the Wild Animal Park. You see them when you come into the park, and you also see them when you visit the Heart of Africa.
The Heart of Africa (at left) is reached by walking about fifty miles down a winding path. Don't worry, you get to see lots of animal butts on the way down.
We've got a story about animal butts. Our friend Karen used to say that if you go to the zoo, you shouldn't expect to see anything but animal butts. She, my wife, and I went to the San Diego Zoo one day, and her point was proved. So, this following picture of okapi butts is for Karen.
We also got to see the okapis eat, pee, and poop, too. I won't post those photos, though. Once you've seen one okapi butt, you've seen them all...no matter what they're doing at the time.
In any case, they've got a really great new lion enclosure at the Animal Park that they didn't have before. We weren't sure if there were any lions in the thing, until we took a stroll around and found them hanging out...on the roof of a car, no less.
All the while, Mr. Man rode in his stroller. He napped through much of the Heart of Africa, but woke up after a good stretch and was much happier for the rest.
That pretty much covers the highlights of the trip. It was a good time. I've spent so much time writing lately that I haven't seen as much of my wife and son as I would have liked. If only all of my weekends were spent with them in such relaxing surroundings...
...like Mombassa Lagoon. Mua ha ha.
What follows are some photos from his 10/26 check-up appointment.
Our appointment was scheduled for 7am. I don't know if that was the wisest choice for an appointment, considering that the traffic on I15 is really, really bad at that time of the morning (see below).
After more than an hour, we arrived at Cranial Tech's office. We were ten minutes late; all things considered, I think we made good time. Stephen spent the first half of the drive playing in the back seat (at left), and the other half napping. His mother and I discussed the traffic. Honestly, I think he had the better part of the deal.After we were signed in and ready to rumble, we were shown to an exam room and they gave his head a look at. After only a week, there was (at least, to us) some significant changes. His head shows a good deal more roundness in the back. It's damn amazing that only a week would make such a difference.
One way to compare his current head shape to his original head shape is by use of a plaster model that they made from his original head cast. Here is the boy, with the cast of his head in hand.
They routed out his DOC band a little on the sides opposite of where his current improvement can be seen. In that way, his noggin will reshape itself proportionally. He played the whole time.Compared to the drive down, it was a mercifully short appointment. We get to do it all over again this coming Wednesday, though we're heading in a little later than we did the last time. Thank God.
The office is decorated with murals that have been painted with murals depicting various nursery rhymes. You know, "Hey Diddle Diddle" and the old lady who lives in a shoe...whatever here name was. And, of course, Little Boy Blue, complete with horn and DOC band. Since Stephen was sporting his own blue overalls, I snapped a picture of him and Little Boy Blue.
Yesterday, we took a trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. It got off to a rough start, with Stephen being a little bit scared of his introduction to the park. It must've been the plants, the people, and...oh, yeah, the birds. Lots of them. We've learned that he's none too fond of my mother's parrots, either.
Some of our Animal Park highlights follow, starting with...meercats!
The little guys, always a favorite of mine, were out in force, and horsing around in front of the glass partition that surrounded their enclosure. Stephen got a close look at them, and he seemed to enjoy watching them. He likes our cats, so I wonder if he's really able to distinguish between cats and other similarly-sized mammals or not. For all I know, he thinks that dogs and kitties are the same thing.
Next...the balloon.
The Animal Park has a big yellow balloon that folks can go up in for the admission price of fifteen American dollars. We didn't go up...maybe next time. As high as it goes up, you can probably see our house from there.
Then again, probably not.
Flamingos. There are lots of stinky pink flamingos at the Wild Animal Park. You see them when you come into the park, and you also see them when you visit the Heart of Africa.The Heart of Africa (at left) is reached by walking about fifty miles down a winding path. Don't worry, you get to see lots of animal butts on the way down.
We've got a story about animal butts. Our friend Karen used to say that if you go to the zoo, you shouldn't expect to see anything but animal butts. She, my wife, and I went to the San Diego Zoo one day, and her point was proved. So, this following picture of okapi butts is for Karen.
We also got to see the okapis eat, pee, and poop, too. I won't post those photos, though. Once you've seen one okapi butt, you've seen them all...no matter what they're doing at the time.
In any case, they've got a really great new lion enclosure at the Animal Park that they didn't have before. We weren't sure if there were any lions in the thing, until we took a stroll around and found them hanging out...on the roof of a car, no less.
All the while, Mr. Man rode in his stroller. He napped through much of the Heart of Africa, but woke up after a good stretch and was much happier for the rest.
That pretty much covers the highlights of the trip. It was a good time. I've spent so much time writing lately that I haven't seen as much of my wife and son as I would have liked. If only all of my weekends were spent with them in such relaxing surroundings...
...like Mombassa Lagoon. Mua ha ha.
posted by Gary at 4:10 PM
3 Comments:
That mural is seriously freaking me out. What are those red, feeding appendages attached to the bloated, other-worldly being which looks like a sweet potato. For the love of all that is good, is it sapping the precious bodily fluids from the brain of that poor child?
Oh the humanity (Or lack thereof)!
It's not a sweet potato. It's the giant shoe that the old woman lives in. You know, the one with more kids than she knew what to do with? And the appendages are shoe laces.
I'll make sure to get a shot of the whole thing on Wednesday so that you can put it all into perspective.
i sooo miss the wild animal park. and its soo true about the animal butts, you have to admit i was right. and i am happy to see that you posted okapi animal butts cuz they are one of my favorite animals at the wild animal park. the zoo here in madison, wi is free, which is really cool, but small. only takes an hour or so to go around it, but its free and has most of the main animals, which includes giraffes & bears, more of my favorites. :)
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