My Sweet Suzy. She continues to be full of life and love. I am still just in awe at how kind and sweet she is. She is always offering her little friends water and will always give someone else the first taste of a treat. It is absolutely adorable and heartwarming. I have no idea how she became so hospitable. I'm not much of a hostess. She must get that from her Daddy. She is full of language now and surprises me often. I've been trying to get some things on tape lately, like how she pronounces things like "Your
Welpomb". I interviewed her earlier and she was so funny. She wants to grow up and be a mommy to nine kids. She's gonna have a pink ban (van) and an RV and live in Indiana. Some days she wants to be an author or illustrator. Other days she wants to be a doctor or teacher. She usually says she wants between 2 kids (named Andy and Suzy) and nine. She wants to marry her Daddy and have lots of dogs. She is constantly "on the go". We have lots of weird rules at our house and one is that she can eat a Kids Cuisine when we have babysitters. So, she thinks she is now old enough to babysit Andy and that Rob and I really need more date nights.
She amazes me with how much she loves and includes Andy. Some evenings or weekends Rob or I will try and get some one on one time with her and she always wants to include Andy. She talks about not wanting him to feel left out. If we leave her in a room alone to do something, she will sometimes shout out, "I'm so lonely!" The other day I got out of the shower to find this pile of books. I saw two little buns running out the door. I laughed inside. Later, Suzy came to find me and says, (I wrote it down immediately since I couldn't believe all the words she actually used) "We were making a mess of these books... I said 'quick, let's get out of here...we were getting into
mischief." I laughed and told her how absolutely adorable I think she is.
We play little games like "I love you the most" and catch my kisses. She is becoming much more affectionate and I'm loving it. She has finished up her first year of preschool at Hope Presbyterian Church. She really loved it. I made a little book for her teachers and she really liked going over the pictures and memories with me. It was adorable. She had her last day of school program the other day and it was sweet. I had to do a little "Get over it Mommy" talk about her dress, but it was really no big deal. I had asked Rob to get her dressed and stressed to pick out a "Bright" dress. I wanted to take lots of photos and I'm noticing how I like bold colors on her in photos. She came down with this out-dated Goodwill looking yellow faded thing.
Hmmm... I think I actually did buy it at Goodwill.... She was very proud of her "light" dress. I tried to convince her to change but realized she was very proud of herself and a meltdown would be involved. So, I breathed in, breathed out, and moved on. Nearly killed me. ;) So, to make myself feel better - while she was at school I promptly went through her clothes and pitched anything I don't want to
photograph her in. Tee
hee hee.
It really doesn't matter what she wears. She'll always be the cutest kid up there in my eyes.
Andy is one of her biggest fans.
Pawpap is another huge fan. He thought she was absolutely stunning.
I've turned my front room into a therapy gym. I still can't believe Rob let me hang hooks from the ceiling. We really are the coolest parents - ever. I even put hooks in the walls so we can hang sheets for volleyball or play forts. It's been
soooo much fun!
Suzy loves the swings.
She's also been doing a listening program to help with her auditory processing. Her language has skyrocketed and she is much less
volatile.
Suzy's fine motor skill continue to stun even me. Here she is making a circle.
And coloring - in - the - lines. Amazing.
This, however, blew my socks off. Until this very drawing, Suzy has never drawn anything. Most kids will scribble and give you elaborate stories about how it is an entire scene. I would ask Suzy, "tell me about this" and she would say, "It's a blue line, etc." Very concrete. So, I was stunned when I drew a circle and she asked me to draw lips. I did the white, she did the rest. Simply Amazing for three years old.
This Suzy's hair is even curly and she has fingers and toes.
She also loves to cut. Sometimes with my therapy scissors, and sometimes with just
regualar ol'
Fiskars. (Ahem - fellow mommies... USE
FISKARS...!!! Don't hold your kids back with child safety or plastic scissors.... - sorry I'm getting all OT on you...)
This is one of my favorite recent crafts she did in our preschool co-op with Miss Debbie. So fun!
And finally, Suzy loves her daddy. She adores him. I love it.
Here's the first night with the flimsy Trick-a-ma-stick. Suzy is going 1. Under the Trick-a-ma-stick 2. with Mother's new dress 3. on her belly.
Here she's going over with the rake on her head.
If you are looking for some summer fun, I highly recommend it!
She amazes me with how much she loves and includes Andy. Some evenings or weekends Rob or I will try and get some one on one time with her and she always wants to include Andy. She talks about not wanting him to feel left out. If we leave her in a room alone to do something, she will sometimes shout out, "I'm so lonely!" The other day I got out of the shower to find this pile of books. I saw two little buns running out the door. I laughed inside. Later, Suzy came to find me and says, (I wrote it down immediately since I couldn't believe all the words she actually used) "We were making a mess of these books... I said 'quick, let's get out of here...we were getting into mischief." I laughed and told her how absolutely adorable I think she is. 
We play little games like "I love you the most" and catch my kisses. She is becoming much more affectionate and I'm loving it. She has finished up her first year of preschool at Hope Presbyterian Church. She really loved it. I made a little book for her teachers and she really liked going over the pictures and memories with me. It was adorable. She had her last day of school program the other day and it was sweet. I had to do a little "Get over it Mommy" talk about her dress, but it was really no big deal. I had asked Rob to get her dressed and stressed to pick out a "Bright" dress. I wanted to take lots of photos and I'm noticing how I like bold colors on her in photos. She came down with this out-dated Goodwill looking yellow faded thing. Hmmm... I think I actually did buy it at Goodwill.... She was very proud of her "light" dress. I tried to convince her to change but realized she was very proud of herself and a meltdown would be involved. So, I breathed in, breathed out, and moved on. Nearly killed me. ;) So, to make myself feel better - while she was at school I promptly went through her clothes and pitched anything I don't want to photograph her in. Tee hee hee. 
It really doesn't matter what she wears. She'll always be the cutest kid up there in my eyes. 
Andy is one of her biggest fans.
Pawpap is another huge fan. He thought she was absolutely stunning.
I've turned my front room into a therapy gym. I still can't believe Rob let me hang hooks from the ceiling. We really are the coolest parents - ever. I even put hooks in the walls so we can hang sheets for volleyball or play forts. It's been soooo much fun!
Suzy loves the swings.
She's also been doing a listening program to help with her auditory processing. Her language has skyrocketed and she is much less volatile.
Suzy's fine motor skill continue to stun even me. Here she is making a circle.
And coloring - in - the - lines. Amazing.
This, however, blew my socks off. Until this very drawing, Suzy has never drawn anything. Most kids will scribble and give you elaborate stories about how it is an entire scene. I would ask Suzy, "tell me about this" and she would say, "It's a blue line, etc." Very concrete. So, I was stunned when I drew a circle and she asked me to draw lips. I did the white, she did the rest. Simply Amazing for three years old.
This Suzy's hair is even curly and she has fingers and toes.
She also loves to cut. Sometimes with my therapy scissors, and sometimes with just regualar ol' Fiskars. (Ahem - fellow mommies... USE FISKARS...!!! Don't hold your kids back with child safety or plastic scissors.... - sorry I'm getting all OT on you...)
This is one of my favorite recent crafts she did in our preschool co-op with Miss Debbie. So fun!
And finally, Suzy loves her daddy. She adores him. I love it.
He is starting to stand independently and look around like, "what next?" He tried to hold my hands at the Y pool today and take some steps. I knocked him down promplty. He's not allowed to take his first steps while I'm in England. ;) Soon, buddy. Just hang in there.
Like I mentioned, He's into EVERYTHING. Loves toilet paper and dropping things in the toilet. I forsee some fun blogposts around this later. Until then, we have to be careful to keep the lid down. It's weird. Suzy was never like this. We hardly babyproofed at all for her.
He still LOVES his dominos. 
I've decided to make his birthday theme this year "Fats Domino". How fun will that be? It should be easy to do a domino cake. I like oldies music and he loves to dance. It should be a lot of fun. I was teasing Rob that I should make his personal little domino cake the dirty diaper (blank on both sides with the black line in the middle). He didn't think many people would get it. Suzy, however, overheard and is pretty insistant that she get the dirty diaper one. Goof ball. How can you not think of Fats Domino with this photo? If I do invitations, I'll use this shot.
Love you, little man. I can not believe you will be a year old so soon...
I love how my kids are becoming such good "buddies". Andy wakes up from every nap looking for "oooeee!"
This is a little game Suzy likes to call "bump" It's pretty simple to see how it got its name. Both kids love it.
After nap (and the required nudeness party that we host almost every afternoon) we decided to make some home made pretzels. Pioneer Woman had the recipe and they looked oh, so good... Suzy loves to cook with me and Andy is starting to get interested.
I started with twists and braids and well.... as you can see we had to modify and do simple rings. Why can't I escape poop at my house? Seriously....
The verdict?
A definite make again recipe.
As for my gift, it needs a little explanation. And, what would a Marti blog post be without a big narrative? I really wanted a cordless drill. But, Rob convinced me to get him one for Father's Day since they may be on sale. Sure, whatever. The day before I had to attend some CME to keep my OT license current. I didn't realize I was up for renewal until literally a months notice. So, yes, I crammed two years worth of continuing ed into two weeks. CRAZY. I didn't have a ton of options to be choosy. So, I went to an Interactive Metronome course here in Austin. Yet another certification that I will barely ever use.... (Did you know I am now certified in Massage Therapy, Athletic Training, Advanced Rescue/Search and Recovery SCUBA, Ineractive Metronome, and of course CPR and First Aide? It's weird. I'll never use any of them. But, I guess it makes me a good candidate for the "Who do you want to be stuck with on an island" question....) IM is an interesting modality and has some good research, but it was crazy how expensive the software was. I kept thinking,... surely I could duplicate this. So, I did. I believe the Wii RockBand could be every bit as beneficial as their $3,000 computer simulator. And, a heck of a lot more fun. I may even get ambitious and do some research studies on it soon. Who knows. Until then, Marti Smith Seminars, Inc. purchased the Rock Band 2 game and Dance Dance Revolution for our Wii. Sure, it's a business expense. I love this thing. I really do. I really liked the Wii fit we got for Chirstmas, and this thing is even better. Rob is addicted and it's a blast to watch. 
The kids like it as well.
Even Deb and Bruce got in on the action this past weekend.
What a Happy Mother's Day, indeed. Thanks, sweet Rob, Suzy, and Andy. :)
