Phrenology and you

As many of you may know, the newest addition to our family (The New Guy) was born with a knot the size of an egg on his head. When I asked about it in the hospital I was told, "Oh, that's just from when he was born." However, the child wasn't so much 'born' as 'removed', so it seemed strange to me that his head had any imperfections. Cesarean babies generally have perfectly round, Charlie Brown heads. The knot was worrisome, so I took him to the doctor. Yesterday we had his head examined.

First, the doctors did an ultrasound. The knot is bony, though, so the ultrasound could not penetrate it. But they did check out his brain through his little fontanelles, which I thought was pretty neat. Little windows into his head. "Brain looks fine", they said.

Next they did an x-ray on his head. Now, month old babies are not the most cooperative little people in the world. The New Guy did not like this at all. After screaming, wiggling and flailing to no avail, I guess he decided that playing dead was his best shot at getting the doctors to go away. The x-ray was very easy after that, and no one could find anything really wrong with his head. Just a calcium deposit or something on his skull. It will be there forever, but it will get proportionally smaller as baby's head grows. So he's got that going for him.

Anyway, I had to say all that to get to this part of the blog. While I'm at the doctor with baby getting the knot checked out, I got to thinking about the old idea of phrenology. Phrenology is the science (or pseudo-science, as it were) of reading the bumps on people's heads. People used to believe that you could tell a lot about a person by reading the bumps on their heads. So out of curiosity, and really just for *shiggles*, I came home and did some research.

Since I didn't have a 3D model to work with, I used this image I found on the internet. I located the knot on the New Guy's head, and I found that it was located in the vicinity of the area corresponding to Conscientiousness (sp). I like this! This just comfirms what I originally thought about my son, that he's a thinker. (Not that I really needed a chart to tell me this. Mothers just have a way of knowing.)
I don't really know what to think about phrenology as a science (or pseudo-science, as it were). Part of me feels that there had to be enough to it that people wrote about it, studied it, and practiced it for years. It's kind of like the old idea of blood-letting as a medical treatment. But doctors have recently gone back to using leeches to treat patients. Who really knows? I find it curious.
So farewell, dear readers! I'm off to read the bumps on my own head now.

** Update **

I haven't blogged in a long, long time. With two babies now it's hard to do anything that doesn't involve feeding them or cleaning up after them. But it is a labor of love. I know I'll miss their baby-hood when it's gone.

Here's what is going on with them:

Baby #1 (lil Hercules)

He's now 2 and 1/2. Three in February. Walking, talking, and he has ideas of his own and he likes to communicate them to me. He'll ask me to do things for him, "Mommy fix it, Mommy open it, Mommy say 'one two three go!'". He loves to run, he laughs a lot. He likes to try on all of his clothes and strut in front of the mirror. He loves people, he loves toys, he loves to play. He's so much like his father it's uncanny. He likes to wear hats. His favorite show is Monk. He loves to sing and dance. Every day he amazes me with something new that he's learned.

Baby #2 (the new guy)

He was one month old on Monday. His favorite things to do are kick, stretch, wiggle, and poot. He isn't a fussy baby (much). When he's awake he just likes to look around and take in the world. He seems to be a thinker. The New Guy takes more after me. At least, he looks more like me. When he's just sitting there looking around, I like to think that he's a quiet, contemplative type. But I know that most babies just sit and look around. The New Guy is just now beginning to come to life. I like to think of him as a little flower that is just opening, revealing a little more of himself every day. I can't wait to see what kind of boy he's going to be.

Other than the babies, there isn't anything much going on in my life. There isn't a lot of time right now to pursue my own interests. I could whine about that, but I won't right now. There's no time! Busy hands are happy hands, right? I'm very happy with my role as mother, but in the back of my mind I'm always making plans for when the babies are older, when I have more time... I'll travel. I'll take dance lessons. I'll redecorate the house. There will be time, there will be time...

Right now I have to run. Doody calls! (get it! I said 'doody' instead of 'duty' because the New Guy needs a diaper! I'm so funny :)

Hope everyone is enjoying the Holidays!