Facing It: Haircuts and Life

Noah nearly gave me a heart attack last week. Some little...ahem...monkeys (of the Dedert species) were jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head, really hard. Hard enough that mom came running up the stairs to see if furniture had tipped over only to find Noah on the floor. He was pale, acting strange, and began having panic attacks. We took him to the clinic and were actually relieved it was just a concussion.

The next day I seriously fought the urge to put football helmets on each one, sit them on the couch, and command, "DON'T MOVE!" Evie was very concerned for Noah and kept rubbing his head and kissing him.

As the week went on his headaches started to fade and I decided to tackle the dreaded haircut. Noah's history with the barber is, well, tumultuous to put it gently. But, this time I shamelessly bribed him with a new soccer ball. I nearly fainted when he actually resisted the urge to scream and endured the haircut quietly, hands folded tightly in his laps and eyes squeezed shut. You are awesome, Noah!

Calvin is growing up in the midst of a happy and bustling family. His older brother, Noah, is anxious to show him how to build train tracks, play cars, and all those other things little boys love. Noah is quick to come by and rub his cheek against Calvin's head, "Dats my brudder, I yuv him," he states.

Today was the day.

For the first time since Calvin was born I began to research more about his condition, microcephaly.

I cried the whole time. And really didn’t learn a lot, but it was a step. It’s taken me four months to have the heart to look into his condition. To us he’s just been our child, Calvin, our sweet baby boy. Since birth we have poured out hearts into him, loving him, rubbing his soft cheeks, and snuggling him close. Although we weren't denying his problem it was just too overwhelming to consider all of the possibilities of his condition.

Today I measured his head and found that it has not grown in the past month. The neurologist prepared me for this but I still measured multiple times today, somehow hoping I was wrong. I wasn’t.

I called Darryl between his classes. “Bring him to me and let me love him,” he said. That made me smile and cry at the same time.

So we are beginning to face these things in life, now if only I can be as brave as Noah.