Poor, poor little Chicken...

Well, we went to Chicken's appointment today regarding his flat head. I WAS NOT impressed with this doctor, nor did we get the helmet he probably needs. The doctor rushed in and took a quick look at him, told us insurance wouldn't pay, the cost was $2900, $750 of which was due TODAY and he'd see us back in 4-5 weeks. Now granted, he was a LITTLE nicer than that but took only a few minutes to explain that the liklihood of Chickens head improving on its own was unknown. Gee thanks, you're making $600 bucks an hour and I drove two hours for THAT? They then ushered us into an office where we signed a waiver saying it was ok not to even BOTHER to file insurance (apparently because they've had so much trouble with it) and then tried to make the appointment a few blocks away to get Chicken fitted. No.thank.you. I kept throwing hints at hubby. You know, the kind where I say with a raised eyebrow, "We can't afford this, can we?" hint hint...hint.

He signs the waiver papers, and tells the lady we need to talk about it before we commit...thank goodness! We then leave, and I having this sinking feeling in my stomach that Chicken's head is NOT going to get fixed and he's going to be a fat little goth boy in high school trying desperately to fit in because he has a flat head and everyone laughs at him...AND he'll probably be going bald if genetics plays any role in this. Hubby doesn't want to buy anything because he thinks his head isn't bad enough. It's not BAD, at least no where NEAR as bad as it was a few months ago - the back of his head looked like an upside down triangle. Now it's round everywhere but in the middle where it's supposed to stick out the farthest on the back. He has a concave part right smack in the middle that when he moves you can see a shadow. It's about as wide as my thumb print but about half that at its deepest and fans out from there. I wish someone had a black and white answer for me. What I would give for the gift of time travel to see what he's going to look like at 18. I can't get past the fact that we have the ability to do something NOW and not later about it. What if he resents us? What if it leads to the life-long misery of never being able to wear glasses because his ears are uneven? Or what if, from what I've read, he has problems with his jaws because everything doesn't line up? What about his eyes? The doc did say that since he sleeps on his tummy and is upright most of the day he didn't see it getting worse, but he simply couldn't tell us if it would get any better. Can someone just tell me what to do so I don't have to be responsible for this kind of decision????

On a lighter note, after the appointment, we had most of the day to run around Nashville. We went to a really cool restauarant in Opry Mills Mall called The Aquarium. It's got this HUGE aquarium in the middle and the whole restaurant is set up around it. There's sharks, schools of unknown HUGE fish, colorful tropical fish, sea horses, eels (yuck, I get the hibby-jibbies when I see those things!), and numerous other....fish. Can you tell I'm not edumacated in the area of fish? Punky fell in love and she was mesmerized, as was Chicken who sat in his stroller the whole time we ate simply staring and letting out the occasional squeal or giggle. Oh, and they were so excited they both pooped. Yeah, I do mean that literally.

We had a lot of fun having our first family outing as a family of four. They both did quite well in the car, much to my surprise. Chicken slept for about half the ride and I brought half of Punky's library and she occupied herself "reading." She's getting to be so precious, not that she hasn't always been, but today while we were standing and looking at the aquarium she came up to me and hugged my arm and said, "Iluhyoooou" (I love you.) My heart just melted. My kids are my life and to be rewarded so spontaneously like that almost made me cry. Finally! Punky's recognizing my worth in this whole thing called life. That's right kid, you're learning!

Anyway, after the aquarium we walked around the mall for a bit where Punky dutifully pointed out every "puntin" she saw. We went in Old Navy and shopped a little. As usual she found a ball she wanted to hold (I don't know why they keep those things everywhere!) and we finally left, walking right out with it. I was about two stores down when I realized we were thieves and I jetted around nearly slinging Punky out of the stroller (Thank goodness for seatbelts!), glancing left and right to make sure mall security wasn't on my tail and walked back in, nonchalantly laying the ball back on a display table as I appeared interested in a hideous sweater. Whew! That was close!

In closing, a few posts ago there was an anonymous comment left about ASEMT helmets for children bought online. I would love to talk more about this if by chance you're reading this. I really need to examine all my options and this is something hubby wants to look into as well. PLEASE post again with your email or a way for me to get in touch with you! Thanks!