Summertime!

The end of the school year came so quickly. Sheniah has had a wonderful year in 6th grade. Her grades have been great and she has made some new friends and had a great year. She decided to participate in the talent show. She sang "Love Song" by Sarah Bareillis. She did such a wonderful job...she has such a beautiful voice. I was so proud of her for participating, for being so brave! And not only did she get up there and do it, but she did so wonderfully! It is nearly impossible to get pictures of her on stage, but I do have the entire performance filmed! Jackie and Maria came to cheer her on, too. It was a lot of fun.

A few short days later was the Awards Ceremony. Sheniah received an award for participating in the spelling bee as well as being a member of the Math 24 group. They competed with many other schools and Sheniah was an alternate for them.

She also received an award for being on the A/B Honor Roll the first 3 semesters of the year (since the last semester wasn't over yet). For this she got a medal! Here she is with her friend Chelsea who also received this award.

And just a few short days later she was off to Grandma's and her daddy's for the summer! She's only been gone less than a week, but I miss her like crazy and can't wait for her to come home!

While she was with mom they went around downtown Grand Junction and took some great pictures of the sculptures done by all the local artists. Sheniah really enjoyed it, and took some great shots. Here she is with a giant buffalo...

and here she is reading with a little girl. Mom said the sculpture was so intricate there were actually words in the book...pretty cool.

Finally, Michael is over 9 months old now! I can't believe he is going to be having a birthday soon! We went to the doctor last week for his 9 month check up. Here are his most recent stats:

Weight: 17# 14oz (20th percentile)

Height: 28 1/2" (20th percentile)

Head: 48 1/2cm (97th percentile!)

So, he's still a little guy with a big head! In all seriousness, though, they are a bit concerned that there may be too much fluid around his brain and that is why his head is so big. However, they are very encouraged because developmentally he is right on track if not advanced. We are just going to be keeping an eye on his development over the next few months and perhaps resort to a catscan around his 1 year check up if there is still any concern.

Otherwise he is a brilliant, beautiful little boy. Although I have tried to see if his head seems unusually large, I just can't see it. He seems so perfect to me, and I think if his head were any smaller he would look disproportionate.

He now has 4 teeth - top center two and bottom center two. The first bottom (left) came in on his 7 month birthday, the second bottom a month later on May 3. The top two came in rapidly after that - the first (left) on May 17th and the last top just a couple of weeks ago on his 9 month birthday!

Here is a big, toothy grin...

As you can see, he enjoys his toys more and more if he is free to stand outside them and play with them freely! He has learned quickly how to sit down gracefully if he feels he is falling...

and although he can get up on all fours and crawl normally, he still prefers the speed of the "Army Crawl"...

I think he is just preparing for the police academy!