At 15 months old, Grayson is five months post-op.  He's changing every month and, in our biased opinion, only getting cuter.  He no longer has a perfectly round basketball-like shape to his head, but at the same time it's nowhere near the shape it was when he had trig.  The plastic surgeon said Grayson's forehead may always be just a tiny bit smaller than average, because he was a metopic kid.  We're watching it to make sure it's growing proportionally with the rest of his head, but so far it still looks great to us. In fact, the perfectly round head was a little weird, kind of like an orange on a toothpick (for you fellow Mike Meyers fans).


One side effect of the surgery is a much larger head!  Hats that were too big for him to wear previously are now much too small.  We generally have to buy a "youth" size, instead of toddler, or even an adult size and cinch the back all the way down.  According to growth charts, his head is now in the 75th percentile!

One thing we were concerned about since his surgery was his eyes.  His right eye, the one that experienced the most trauma during surgery (it wouldn't shut right after surgery and then a few weeks later almost shut completely) seemed to be a bit smaller than his left eye.  Especially when he was tired.  Josh also thought maybe the eye itself was having difficulties tracking.  Just to be sure we took him to see a pediatric opthamologist.  She was absolutely wonderful with him, and after a check-up assured us his vision was fine and what his eye was doing was a normal thing for toddlers, and something he should grow out of.

Around six months post-op, Grayson went back to Seattle Children's for a checkup.  Josh had the job of flying out and back with him this time, and without the infection in his head the flights were a much better experience for him.  The surgeons said he was looking great, and the bone was growing back appropriately.  The plastic surgeon said we should start to notice his hardware dissolving between now and a year post-op.  He said it's perfectly normal for certain parts of his head to swell up and get a bit lumpy as they're dissolving, and just to be prepared for that.  I don't care if he turns purple, I'm just so grateful he doesn't need any additional surgeries to remove hardware since they use lactic acid screws and plates now.  I've said this before, but I cannot say enough amazing things about Seattle Children's or our doctors there.  We've had nothing but great experiences at the cranio clinic there, and I wish every cranio kid had an opportunity to receive such quality care and compassion.