Update on Max and a Few Videos, Too

Last Thursday we were able to meet with a neurosurgeon at U of C and after seeing Max for literally just five seconds he was able to tell us that Max did, in fact, have sagittal suture craniosynostosis.  Even though we were almost 100% sure that he did (based on the x-ray results and other research we had done) it was amazing to me how quickly a specialist can spot these things, especially when most people probably wouldn't even notice his head being misshapen.

On January 9th we are scheduled to meet once again with the neurosurgeon and also with the plastic surgeon he works with (he will be involved in the cosmetic outcome of the surgery) and Max will also undergo the CT scan at this time (by January he will be old enough that he will not require an overnight hospital stay if he has to be sedated, which is why we ended up not doing one this time). At the end of January he will undergo surgery. From what I understand, he will have to be in the hospital for at least several days following the surgery. We of course wish he didn't have to go through any of this, but we are so, so grateful that this is something that can be fixed and will almost certainly not cause lifelong problems.

Anyway, that's the update on Max's head.  I thought I'd also share some recent videos. Sorry some of them are a bit long...I am too lazy to edit.

Here is Jesse showing Max one of his books. He sounded a little bit like a broken record :)



Here are the boys bonding.



This is Jesse one night after dinner (well, we had finished eating, and Jesse was mostly done, but had to eat a few more bites if he wanted a piece of Halloween candy). I've Been Working on the Railroad is one of Jesse's favorite songs these days.



And here are Jesse and Max in their matching pajamas. We spent almost all day Saturday doing our big monthly grocery shopping trip (Wal-Mart and Costco) and picked up some matching pjs to reward Jesse for his patience. Jesse was trying to rock Max, but it was a little rough and looked more like he was trying to wrestle him.



Jesse was in quite the funny mood this weekend and I had to write a few of these quotes down. Friday night we had to buy a few clothing items so we drove up to the north side of Chicago and just made an evening of it.  After shopping we took advantage of 49 cent ice cream cones at McDonald's. Jesse loves to talk about the hand dryers in public bathrooms, but he is also sort of terrified of them. James went to use their restroom at one point and while he was gone, Jesse was asking me if James was going to use the hand dryers. I told him I didn't know but that he could ask him when he got back. So when James walked out of the bathroom, Jesse very loudly and audibly yells across the restaurant, "Daddy...You did it??!!".  Of course Jesse was referring to using the hand dryers, but it probably sounded like he was talking about bodily functions instead.

At Wal-Mart on Saturday Jesse was getting a little hyper in the shopping cart and began saying all kinds of crazy things. I think within 5 minutes he went from saying "I love Max...I just want to snuggle him all up" to "I want to KNOCK Max out of there (referring to the Baby Bjorn which Max was sleeping in at the time) and put him on the conveyor belt (to buy him, I believe)." Then later he informed us that Max costs "exactly ten dollars". I have no clue where he gets some of his "violent" talk...we don't talk like this and he watches very little TV (and the only things he does watch are very tame...basically just Curious George and Bob the Builder), so my only guess is that it's a boy thing.  He is very into knocking things over and dumping things out.  He told me at the produce store the other day that he wanted to knock one of the displays over. Thankfully he has not yet acted on any of these ideas.

And then for lunch on Saturday we were again at a McDonald's and Jesse spotted an elderly man a few tables away. In a very loud voice he says, "Mommy, is that an old guy over there?" I don't remember exactly what I said, but I think I just tried to distract him. Then he went on to say (again, loudly), "Mommy, what kind of guy is that over there?"