Owen's head isn't perfect

What does Owen (as seen below) have in common with

the Crystal Skull from Indiana Jones?

Well, as it turns out, quite a bit. As you can see they are pretty much the same shape. The reasons for Owen's elongated skull could have one of two possible explanations.

(1) It might just be possible the Cory really is an extra terrestrial---like he's been telling his students for the past 7 years.

(2) Owen has Craniosynostosis--which in normal people words means that one suture (crack) in his skull closed prematurely and as his brain grows, it causes his skull to grow extra long cause it can't grow round since his skull is fused shut.

Well, I don't have definitive proof that Cory is not an alien. However, after a day's worth of doctors visits at Children's Hospital, we were able to confirm that Owen does has Craniosynostosis.

So here is a run-down of our Marthon Doctor-fest 2010.

Wednesday, Owen went for his 12 month check-up. The doctor was please with Owen over all, but concerned about this head shape. She told us to get an X-ray.

Thursday, we went to the Urgent Care place to get the X-rays. They confirm her suspicions about some premature closure of a suture. She schedules us to "meet with the team" of craniofacial specialist to see exactly was is going on and our next steps. For added kicks and giggles she requested a CT scan...you know why not?

So Friday....we loaded up bright and early for our trip to the City for our 8:30 appointment.

We are all smiles!

We get to Children's after a long ride. Then we check-in and our Marathon begins. Honestly, we didn't understand the scope of this event until we were in the midst of this. All of this stuff has really just came to a head (pun intended) yesterday.

So we wait....
And play....
We fill out papers...
And wait...
Every now and then it is our turn to see 1 of the members of the team.
When we aren't seeing one of the members...we....wait........
Sometimes we enjoy the fishes......
Or cuddle Dad...but overall....we....waited...
In all we saw 8 doctors/specialists: a ear, nose, throat; a speech pathologist; an audiologist; a psychologist; a craniofacial plastic surgeon; a nurse; a CT Scan technician; and a neurologist.

Each doctor/specialist individually evaluated Owen in their little specialty, jotted notes, informed us on the diagnosis, answered questions, and overload our brains with information.

Good News is Owen is developing just right and is very typical and average. Average is Good! Praise God!

Not as Good News is that Owen does in deed have Craniosynostosis. His Sagittal Suture has fused shut (likely in utereo), causing his head to elongate. Keep in mind these sutures aren't supposed to close until you are about 20. So he is only 20 years early on the whole suture-closing-process. Nothing like getting ahead! (yup...that pun was intended, too!)

So what does this all mean? Well, Owen will be having surgery in July to crack his skull in a few pieces so his lil' brain can continue to grow without any limits and boundaries. This will not only reshape his head into a nice lil' circle, but for certain not allow any cranial pressure to ever be an issue/concern. We will have two surgeons in on the process: the pediatric craniofacial plastic surgeon and the neurosurgeon(to, as the plastic surgeon said, "Make sure I don't screw up and protect the brain.")

After being at the hospital for just about 6 hours and really realizing just exactly what we've gotten ourselves into, we load back up in the car and head on back.

This little girl was out like a light before we even got out of the parking garage. She was such a trooper at the hospital. I was so proud of her. We would never had brought her if we knew it was such a big day. We thought we'd be in and out in a hour or two. But she was so patient going from place to place. Waiting and waiting. And allowing all the doctors to fuss over Owen. But as she puts its "Owen's head isn't perfect". That was after I told her the doctors aren't worried about her head because it's perfect.

This one fell asleep once we hit the highway. He, too, was a trooper. He didn't put up too much of a fight when the people wanted to hold, touch, poke, and talk to him. He really wasn't that bad during the CT scan. He just broke my heart when he looked at me with his eyes pleading me to pick him up. Gosh...he's absolutely adorable.

We don't have a surgery scheduled yet. We know it will be in July sometime and as it gets closer to date we will fill you all in with details of the surgery and his hospital stay. Until then, please pray for our lil' Owen and his big head!

Before -n- After

This is Bethany before:

And this was before:

She was so serious about her block placement.

You know...that was before.
Unfortunately, we aren't before anymore. We are in the after. You know, after the virus came and made our poor lil' girl feel like crud. After, it has been wreaking havoc for the past 3-4 days. After, Bethany had to miss the last three days ever at the sitters. Which is extremely sad for me. And after a few days of these pathetic looks and horrific whines...
Soon, I am hoping we will get back to the way things were before...

Drink of Choice...

Coke Zero is my number #1 drink these days.
I just can't get enough.It appears that I am not alone in that sentiment.

Evidently Owen needs a little afternoon pick-me-up.
I need to remember to put my drinks on the counter instead of table...unless I want his sloppy seconds to be a habit.

***note: no babies consumed Coke Zero at the time of these pictures. Coke Zero is not safe for babies & probably not safe for adults at the rate it is consumed in this household. BTW, babies were 100% supervised, you know, once the adult in room realize we had a Coke Zero theft on our hands.***

Fun on a Couch!

What do you do when your 1 year old is grouchy?

Why put him on the couch. He'll go crazy!

He loves crawling back and forth. When it is time to take him down, however, you'll be in for real trouble! For added fun..throw in an almost 3 year old!

Still here...

We are still here. Sorry about the two week hiatus. We've been...well you know...busy. You'd think with the school year ending in a week, we'd be slowing down. It seems to have the opposite affect on this household. That is rather unfortunate for us.

But we are still here. Doing well.

Things are pretty much the same (other than the busyness). Owen is still too timid to take anymore steps. He took two unassisted steps right after his birthday. He did it again that weekend afterwards. But he is to unadventurous to do it again. That stays consistent with her personality so far. He learns to do things (i.e. clap, wave, kiss bye bye) but he won't do them. I guess he doesn't want to be labeled as a show-off. No worries there, for sure!

Bethany is still pretty adorable. She's learned to huff and puff at things. You know what I mean? No?

Ok...an example is necessary. Here ya go:

Me: "Bethany, don't hit Owen with your Blankie."

B: "Arguf."

Me: "Bethany, don't growl at me. Just stop hitting Owen."

B: "Arguf. Okay Mom."

Later that day... Bethany takes a toy away from Owen.

Me: "Arguf. BETHANY be nice to Owen."

I've noticed where she's gotten the huffing and puffing from. I really need to watch that. But I get so exasperated at always telling them to play nice or her not to antagonize him...I just don't realize I do it. Well...I quickly learned that I do it. And now she does it, too! We are a work in progress.

So enough talk...here's a picture of my cute boys. Don't they look like they could be twins...you know if they weren't 30 years apart in age. Just too Cute! :O)

I promise not to be so bad at posting. I felt bad for my break. But anytime you miss us...just ask us if we are still here & I will get right back on to posting more! :O)

Owen's Day!

A picture story about Owen's First Birthday!

Once upon a time, Owen turned one!
When he woke up on the morning of his first birthday, he was greeted by his crazy mom and a camera!
He promptly got dressed and drank his milk. Then he was set down next to his overly expressive, sweater-obsessed sister for a birthday picture that he couldn't be less interested in.

After a breakfast out with Mom and his sister and a full day at the sitter's, Owen, ahem...really Bethany, opened his birthday presents from Mom and Dad.The presents included a cool tractor, pajama's and
a big box to sit on. Sitting on presents was proven to be far more fun then opening presents, ya know.
Eventually, they opened the big present (which was a shelf system for his bedroom) and we headed to Culver's to eat dinner with both sets of Grandparents. Bethany and Owen lucked out, as the Balloon Guy was there and made them some new friends.
After dinner...it was back at home with the Milles Grandparents. We posed with the cake...cause that is what you are supposed to do on your birthday.
Proving once again to take after his sister, he grabs his birthday cake.
Not wanting to make his mother aware of the grabbing-incident, Owen tries to hide the evidence before she catches on!
Once settled in the high chair, he was a lil' timid with his first piece of cake.
That timidness didn't last all that long. And he soon devoured the whole cake all the icing off the cake and was ready for a bath.
It was such a blast celebrating Owen's first birthday! I hope he had a fantastic day...I know that all of us enjoyed spoiling him rotten on his day! :O)

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday, Owen!

Gosh...I could just gobble him up!

just a phase

Perhaps it is just a phase....
You know...the phase you go through while staring at cameras. I think it is an unavoidable phase...like tantrum throwing, tooth fairy believing and thumb sucking.

This phase, though, is the one where you give the biggest, cheesiest smile humanly possible.

I will take that phase over some others (like trying to stand on the sit-n-spin) any day!
Yeah...it wouldn't be too bad if this phase sticks around a while. It's a pretty adorable phase, afterall! :O)

Wordless Wednesday.

I've seen other blogs do this thing called Wordless Wednesday. All it entails is a wordless (or nearly wordless) post of something going on in our lives. Well...here is our first Wordless Wednesday. Enjoy!

What do you see?

Look at this picture drawn by our own lil' Bethany:
What do you see?

Does it look like a blob of random colors aimlessly scribbled on the paper while she was waiting for her turkey dinner at Bandana's?

Or do you see more?

Like, perhaps, a heart (in purple) with eyes and a nose (all outlined in purple and filled in with orange) and a crocked sideways mouth (in light purple).

My jaw dropped to the ground when she says, "Look I draw a heart. Eye. Eye. Mouth. Nose."

Who knew that two-year-olds were capable of making such a detailed drawing of a Happy Heart!

Whole World...

He may have the Whole World in his hands....

I am happy as punch that I have these two in mine....

Cruel Irony

Whenever the kids need something, we are sure to go and buy it. During bath time, Owen's gotten in the habit of walking around the bathtub. He has an unsafe fascination with the faucet. I was concerned about Owen slipping and smashing his head on it.

So, we went to BabiesRus to buy this.

The Elmo Spout cover kept on slipping off the faucet. So we took it back and bought another one.






Here was our second bet.

A cute blow-up cover with little frogs. Well, that didn't work either. Instead of buying anymore spout covers.






I decided to take matters in my own hands.

With a hand towel and 2 ponytail holders, I custom-fitted a spout cover that was for sure to work. See, that is a perfect spout cover that would, for sure, protect our lil' boy from any possible ouchies.

See, now Owen didn't care as much for the spout as usual. I typically can't get him away from it all.
Well, Owen did find his way back faucet. I was working on adjusting the towel a little, while at that I got distracted by a 2-year-old. As cruel irony has it, Owen slipped and hit his eye on the very faucet I was working so hard to protect him from. The one day I actually had a suitable cover on it, he still hurts himself!

He didn't seem to care too much. He is pretty tough!
See, the lesson learned--is that sometimes the stuff you buy at stores can't stand up to good old-fashioned intuitiveness. :O)