Our little linebacker

Well, we always said that Zander was such a chunk that he was for sure going to grow up and be a huge football player. That may be true, but now he will get to try out the equipment much earlier than expected. For the past few weeks we have been getting his head evaluated and starting next week he is going to have to sport a helmet in order to round out the flat spot on the left back side of his head. He was born with Torticolois, which means I guess that the muscle on the right side of his neck was tighter and shorter than the left, probably because his head was kinked in the womb. This caused him to always lay with his head to the left despite our best efforts and he developed a flat spot. Our pediatrician kept saying let's just keep watching it and see if it rounds out which it did to a certain extent. But it has come to the point where it is now or never with the helmet and I don't want to be selfish and forgo the helmet and have him hate me in the future if his head is a little weird shaped. His hair really does a good job of masking it now, but what if he wants wear it really short when he is older? I can't deny him the opportunity because of inconvenience right now.

I'm really kind of emotional about it because he is already such a stubborn and independent child that I know the adjustment to the helmet is going to be extremely difficult for him. They have to wear it nearly twenty four hours a day and, knowing him, we have a long, hard road ahead of us. Plus, I have seen babies with helmets before and I know about the unwanted staring attention.
We went to physical therapy to learn some exercises to strengthen and stretch his neck muscles and the physical therapist was impressed with how much he has corrected the neck problem on his own due to his necessity to get around and keep up with his brother. I have to be honest and say I am not doing very well with doing the exercises with him. Have you ever tried to get an 11 month old to sit on your lap for more than a minute let alone allow you to do various stretches that are supposed to be held at least 30 seconds each? And we haven't even added the helmet to the equation yet.
I am going to do my best to keep good humor about this. After all, Zander probably won't remember any of this and will just be happy we did everything we could to make sure he was as handsome as possible. So in that spirit, I am going to post this hilarious photo of him right before they did the casting for his helmet. He is actually smiling here with just the stocking on, but believe me after having to hold still in this position for 10 minutes while the casting dried on top of it, he was NOT well pleased.

Isn't he adorable? We went and got pictures done yesterday of the kids because we may need to cut Zander's hair so he will be a little more comfortable in the helmet and I couldn't let it go without some decent shots of him. I should have those back in about a week so I can post them. Plus, look for the helmet unveiling early next week as we pick it up on Monday.