Helmet

William is sporting a new look now. We have had several questions about this and thought that we would just address some of those here in a FAQ section.

1. Is this helmet for protection?
Not primarily, though it sure has come in handy for that, given the violent tendencies of William's older brother. We just might keep it around for as long as possible.

2. Are you trying to restrict his amazingly fast head growth?
Not really, we love big heads. In fact when he was fitted for the helmet, his head had grow 7mm in two weeks-yes that is fast growth.

3. Isn't his head already big enough?
Can a head be too big? We don't think so. We love how the helmet makes it look even bigger!

4. Is this a bike helmet? (asked by a young girl at the playground recently)
While we do not doubt that William is on the cusp of learning to ride a bike (along with sitting up, crawling, eating solid food, and reading Shakespeare), this is not actually intended for bike riding. We might try that out sometime soon, though.

5. Why doesn't Isaac get one?
Isaac wonders this, too and has already put in a request for his own helmet. We are thinking about it and checking the insurance policy.

6. Is William preparing to be a hockey player?
He is thinking about it, though his mother is opposed (hockey is too violent and we don't want him to learn how to hit things with sticks. His older brother is working on mastering that skill right now.). He is a big Bruins fan and wanted to have a very special piece of paraphernalia.

7. What is the helmet for?
Turns out that he has a very flat head and this is to help it become nice and curvy. The doctors suspect that he had tight neck muscles coming out of the womb and did not move his head much as a little baby. Since he has to sleep on his back and has a rather large head, this led to some flattening out and widening around the edges. So, the helmet is purely cosmetic. I think that it is one of those things that we are doing so our teenage son does not hate us. Maybe this is why kids go through braces? (I wouldn't know, since my parents decided that they were done with paying for braces and going through the agony by the time I was old enough. Not a bad benefit of being the youngest.).

So here is a before-helmet shot of the head. We will post the progress on the curving out process (if I remember and it is really awesome-looking, which it had better be). The helmet basically forces all of his head growth to be in the back, rather than the sides. So, the faster he grows, the sooner the helmet goes bye-bye. Hurrah!