Will this day never end?

Today, or at least seven hours of it, was spent at Phoenix Children's -- Michele and I are wiped out, Max however is his usual energetic self. I wish we could figure out where this kid’s batteries are so we could rip them out for a few hours.

Last December when we were at Johns Hopkins Max's geneticist had a head MRI done because Max's connective tissue disorder could possibly have some neurological effects. The doctor suggested we have Max evaluated "just to be sure" we aren't missing something, so today after waiting 11 months we finally got in to neuro here. They spent a total of about six hours doing a one on one evaluation which included testing both right brain and left brain processing. Max actually had a blast, he thought it was fun to answer all these questions and give his opinions and reasoning process on any number of topics from politics to the environment to the hot-topic of the Red-Sox/Yankee feud (the doctor’s office was full of Red-Sox memorabilia which upon arrival almost caused Max to run out and refuse to go back in). As is his usual style he charmed everyone, the intern almost wanted to take him home with her and the doctor actually thanked us for sharing Max with him. The first thing that came to mind when they told us this was, “Who is this person you speak of and what have you done with my son?”

Preliminary results of the evaluation show that Max is way, way above average in his language skill (little news there), has an incredibly mature thought and reasoning process and has surpassed his peers in most academic areas. For the record Max has inherited ALL of these qualities from his mother! BTW, if you’re interested in knowing what this child prodigy is doing as I write this the answer is obvious: he’s glued to the TV watching Sponge Bob…..ah, the inner workings of a great mind!

And now for a few words of wisdom from Max: on the way home from the hospital Max starting asking about how many days he was in the PICU when he was born. I told him we couldn’t measure his PICU stay in days but rather months. We then had our typical conversation where he asks me if he was cute when he was in the PICU, the pre-Max me would have NEVER seen cute in a baby with more tubes coming out of him then limbs, but the post-Max me answered, “Yes, very cute.” After much thought Max then asked how/when was he “BATH-e-matized” if he was still in the hospital for 8 months, because he learned at catechism that it is very important to be “BATH-e-matized”. Now I feel the need to point out that this comment came from the same child who when told he was going to start catechism and preparing for sacraments said, “I’m not dead yet so I don’t need God right now.” Try to explain to Max that once you’re dead it might just be too late to start a relationship with God….