Nature? In Southern Michigan?

I am proud to announce that we have found a bit of nature in Southern Michigan! On Sunday the four of us drove out to the very cute town of Grand Ledge and spent a good portion of the day playing and hiking in the park there. It actually was quite beautiful. I guess over the years the river has worn away at the limestone in the area making these really beautiful ledges, hence Grand Ledge. The hike that we went on also passed by a steel bridge built in the late 1800's. Good stuff.

We have also come to the conclusion that our boy is definitely at his happiest when he is outdoors. He loves the sun, sand, dirt, pine cones, and trees more than his blankie I think. Well, maybe not that much! In less than a week we will be leaving for Northern California again so he will get his fill of the outdoors there. We can't wait to go!!!

Summer

Happy Summer everybody. After completing this last semester I was so excited to be entering into I time I thought would be relaxing and full of free time. Ha! The summer started off with a bang. To make some extra money I taught a two week class on Forensic Science as a part of this really neat summer program offered by our local public school district. I taught two classes a day to a wild group of 13 year olds who all were very interested in forensics but unfortunately were all a little too excited! I was surprised to learn that many of the parents of these 13 year-olds let them drink energy drinks in the morning. Now that's a great idea! Get them incredibly hyper for the three hours they are in class so they completely crash by the time the parents come pick them up. Anyway, we covered everything from fingerprints to forensic chemistry. We took a vote at the end of the class and forensic anthropology was unanimously voted coolest type of forensics.

I have also been working this summer on a project (that will hopefully get me published) and trying desperately to get my thesis off the ground. Several months ago I developed an interest in teeth and the many different ways in which teeth are useful in forensic investigations. One of the most useful techniques used to determine the age of a subadult is the growth and development of teeth. If the subadult has some sort of pathology or disease, however, the accuracy of the age estimate will be affected. This is what I plan to look at in my thesis. More specifically, I will be looking at the affects of cerebral palsy on the growth and development of teeth. Hopefully everything works out and I will be able to collect enough resources to get this thing off the ground.

Connor has been growing by leaps and bounds! He's 25 lbs now and climbs everything! He loves music and is already trying to sing along. His favorite song is "Old McDonald" and he loves to say tweet-tweet and meow-meow at the appropriate times. His vocabulary has expanded to include dog and well (his version of Noel, who is visiting right now by the way). He is also climbing stairs now. He's not quite tall enough yet to actually walk up the stairs but he is certainly a good climber.

Well that's probably enough for now. I will leave you with some pictures taken recently during our hot hot days and the Fourth of July. (These are for you Grandma!!! Noel told me you were waiting anxiously for some new pictures of Connor.)