Fun with Sandi

Sandi and Mannix came to help us out and meet Alex last week. We kept Sandi busy, busy, busy! Thanks to her, Anna's 4-H demo happened, peaches were canned, and the baby clothes were sorted. It was fun to see how much Mannix had grown. He's quite a cute and happy guy. The peaches in the background of the photo were chosen on purpose--beauties!

Short Hair

I love my haircut! I debated for months if I should get another perm or get my hair chopped off. Spencer voted on a new look, so I had my friend Angie cut it last week. I love it! The kids were very lukewarm about it, but then they always have to adjust to Mom looking different. So, for the benefit of my sisters--here's a photo of me and my new 'do.

Spencer in the spotlight

In the last 6 months, Spencer has received two big awards. I finally got pictures of him to show them off! The first was a college award. He was selected by his department to get the distinguished faculty award for 2006-2007. Then, this fall the university awarded him the Young Scholars Award. Go Spencer!

Kindergarten!

Adam is enjoying being a Kindergartner. He loves his teacher and loves being at school with his big sister. He already has his eye on a girl--Kate. He likes playing with her at recess and says that she is "cute."

That's A Pass!

"That's a pass!" Those were the best words that Alex and I have ever heard. Today his right ear passed the hearing test. Alex failed hearing tests in the hospital and also the re-screening at 3 weeks. In fact, his flat-line response in both ears at the 3 week test made the audiologist sound quite concerned--which threw me into a panic. I spent several days crying and then some time on the computer looking up whatever I could find about hearing loss. It was very reassuring to learn of the miracles of cochlear implants. However, it is still such a huge relief to know that we won't have to go down that road. The audiologist believes that the problem resulted from amniotic fluid or wax (from the waxy coating that newborns have) that needed to dry out. The left ear showed some slight improvement today, so we are assuming that it just needs more time to dry out. We will have another screening in two weeks. Yeah Alex!