3D Scanner

Rory went for his 3D computer generated head scan on Wednesday because of his Plagiocephaly; or a flattening of his skull.

Since his last appointment, we got word from the insurance company that the cost of the helmet would be covered at 80%; minus our deductible. Typically, these helmets cost in the range of $3,000-$4,000 to create. It seems outrageous at first, but considering they are molded to the exact dimensions of your child’s head and the cost includes bimonthly adjustments, it’s not really that much. Whatever the cost to us, he’d receive the treatment.

To take the 3D image, Rory wore a special skull cap that tied under his chin. This skull cap allowed a sensor to be attached to the top of his head. The sensor, linked to the computer, was able to place Rory’s head in space; even while he wiggled all over.


Using this sensor as a starting point, a laser scanner was used to take a scan of all four sides of his head. As each side of his head was scanned, the 3D image would slowly fade on to the computer screen. Listen lady, it was amazing to see his facial features become soooo computerized. The bright eyes and goofy grin I’ve become so accustomed to were now splayed on a computer screen for a man in Tempe Arizona to use as a guide to create a helmet.


Rory did amazingly well through the whole scan. He was happy as a calm and didn’t give a damn about what was on his head. We can only hope that we are so lucky when we go back for the actual helmet fitting.

Side note: we never lost power from hurricane sandy and the sub pump worked like a champ. Brett did a super marvelous job replacing it and we had no wind damage either. Grateful for our safety.

I will pump you up!

Here we are, in the middle of Frankenstorm, expecting to receive a huge flood of water, and the sub pump in our basement decides to crap out. Another great aspect of owning a home.

It’s funny too, because for months I’ve been telling Brett that our electric bill has been SOOOO high and I cannot figure out why. We are not running any new utilities nor do we have any new machines. Interestingly, we only discovered the sub pump was not working correctly on accident. You see Internet, our sub pump is in a small enclosed fruit cellar, and in that fruit cellar, I do not keep fruit; I keep holiday decorations. It’s a perfect compromise; great storage and I don’t have to worry about a kid falling down the hole in our basement. I happened to be down there yesterday getting out some decorations and noticed that the sub pump was running and not shutting off.

Hmmmm…..seemed odd to me. Perhaps this was the drag on our electric bill the past few months!!

Since our basement is finished and in attempt to save ourselves thousands of dollars in future damages, Brett ran to our local home improvement store and purchased a replacement sub pump. He spent the later half of last evening removing the old unit and attempting to put in the new unit.

As with any home improvement project, it never goes smoothly. The new unit would not fit on the existing pipe because it was too big. Listen Lady, I do not have time for this ridiculousness. Are we really going back to the argument of “does size matter?” Of course, at this point, the home improvement store was closed. Meaning that Brett was now going to have to take the morning off to go get the new part and re-attempt this debacle. The old sub pump was put back and we pleaded with it to work for a few more hours.

Early this morning, Brett went out and retrieved the new part. Again the old sub pump was dismantled and set aside while the new unit was put on. By this point, Brett was able to do it fairly quickly. Luckily the new part did the trick the the sub pump kicked right on and started removing the water immediately. AND THEN THE SWITCH BROKE AND FELL OFF.

I kid you not Internet. I can’t make this shit up.

Once again, Brett dismantled the entire sub pump unit. He returned to the home improvement store and returned the broken one for a brand spanking new one. With practical experience on his side, Brett was able to install this new unit with his eyes closed. So far, so good. The unit is running and has all switches remain fully intact.

Fingers crossed we make it through Frankenstorm with a fully functional and DRY basement!

Sorta like discovering boobs

Rory has recently discovered his feet and toes. I knew he was on his way when he began hoisting his legs into the air; performing floor joist checks by slamming them back down.

It wasn’t a surprise when he want gorilla warrior on his feet last night while we were having dinner.

Listen lady, I imagine the discovery of your hands or feet for a baby is somewhat similar to a pre-pubescent boy discovering boobs for the first time; they can’t take their eyes off of them and they will attempt to grab mass quanTITIES. Pun intended.

Green harvest

I’d like to introduce you to another disgusting talent that both my children have acquired. Please note, they have in no way gotten this lovely quality from their maternal side. In fact, I’m not even sure it was a genetic factor taken from one of our 46 chromosomes when they were conceived.

Listen lady, both Cardin and Rory have the innate ability to harvest the most gigantic boogers in their nostrils. I’m talking the size of my finger nail; and these kids have little nostrils.

IT’S UNNATURAL!!!

Take the above picture. I pulled these two green giants out of Cardin’s nose this afternoon. The kid must be a total mouth breather with these dam blockers in the way. I was surprised I didn’t see the Niagara river rushing out of her nostrils when these came dislodged.

We aren’t even going to touch the fact that I voluntarily reach in, up to my elbow, and rip out these alien creatures. As the mommy, it is my designated job to be their booger picker; until such time as they can publicly embarrass me by picking their own nose during the middle of their 4th grade concert.

The Case of the Flat Head

Rory had his four month checkup last week and he is in the lower percentile for his age, which doesn’t seem unusual based on Cardin’s midgety history. He weighed in at 14.5 pounds and 24.5 inches.

I have a tendency to birth children with no hips/butts and those who grow at incredibly slow rates. Listen lady, I sincerely hope they can keep their metabolism for the future so that they can maintain their boney ass structure.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get all good news at his checkup. Rory’s head is a bit misshapen. Technically, this is called Plagiocephaly. It is a condition characterized by an asymmetrical distortion (flattening of one side) of the skull.

There are two main causes for this condition.
1) The back to sleep campaign encouraged parents to only let children sleep on their backs to reduce the risks of SIDS thereby forcing pressure on the babies skull.

2)A restrictive intrauterine environment can put pressure on the developing skull causing distortion.

UMMMMMMMM…….can we say bingo.
In other words….my gigantic spleen was so cramping to his fetal development that I caused him a case of the flat heads.

The more and more I researched the condition, the worse I felt. It seemed that Rory’s unofficial “spleen twin” had caused this distortion. Luckily, our Peditrican is awesome and noticed the flattening affect early on when he was only 2 months. We have been trying repositioning therapy for the past 2 months to try and self correct. This type of therapy allows Rory to look in different directions and try to even out the shape of his skull naturally. Unfortunately, we have had little luck. He favors looking to his left side, though if I flash him a bottle or Cardin screams like a banchi we can get him to turn to the right.

We are scheduled for an appointment to have his skull measured next week with a specialist. From there we’d arrange a treatment plan; which would likely involve him wearing a helmet for 3-4 months. While this isn’t ideal, it’s a painless treatment regimen and I’m assured that he will adjust to wearing the helmet for 23 hours a day very easily; I hope so. The Peditrican emphasized that the time for treatment is now, before his skull bones fuse together and his head is permanently misshapen.

It will be a big adjustment for the whole family, and it’s made more difficult right now by the fact that I can’t hold and comfort him while them poke, prod, and measure due to my healing incision.