Coneheads. 1-4-12

Poor little conehead baby. Poor. little. conehead. baby. An Elizabethan beauty with a long forehead. What will become of her? Little Boop wedged in my pelvis for all this time. Deformed? A deformation happens when something is already formed, but applied pressure causes a change in shape. And in the case of babies' heads, if pressure changes the shape, pressure can often change it back. Little Boop wearing an awful helmet, I guess.

Of course, I could take my great grandmother's approach with my grandma. My great aunt, R, my grandma's youngest sister, told the story the best, and my grandma hated it. Actually, aunt R did it to tease my grandma, both about the injury and about her middle name. Mind you, my aunt R was in her 50's the first time I heard her tell the story. And my great aunt, M, grandma’s middle sister, also tells the same story with a bit less enthusiasm and embellishment but with more giggles.

The story would go something like this:
R: "Murray Doodle! Murray Doodle!" Grandma: "Grrrr!" <off she runs, trying to get away, but R would inevitably catch her> R: "Do you remember what happened to you? Momma told us what happened to you. She was carrying you on her horse, riding along. But she dropped you. She dropped you on your head! And you were <claps her hands loudly> FLAT AS A FLITTER! Flat as a flitter, that's what Momma said. And Momma molded it back <as she gestured like someone forming a head from modeling clay and stuck her tongue out to the side like someone deep in concentration>."

Poor Grandma. She was born with a cleft palate, and then the unfortunate accident falling from the horse as a baby, and then growing up in that wacky family. That's not to say that she didn't create a few problems of her own accord, I guess. But she did alright in spite of it in the end. And so it will be with Boop. Fortunately, today, we have a few more options than me trying to mold a little Boop head with my hands…