I know it’s Mother’s Day, but this is a post about Susanna. It starts after breakfast (the wonderful Mother’s Day breakfast that Scott made).
Susanna announced that she had a plan. “1. Get down my family (family = playmobile dollhouse toys); 2. Play with my family; 3. Put my family away; 4. Get ready for church.” Usually it is very difficult to change plans around here, but upon hearing that she was going to be a reverence child in church, she had no problem dropping everything to get on her Sunday clothes. On the way to church she announced that she was going to shush everyone she saw and then folded her arms and whispered the rest of the drive. When we arrived she marched right up to the front of the chapel and stood there reverently for a minute or two minutes (leaving 10 minutes before the meeting started). During this time, the bishop tried to shake her hands, but she refused to unfold her arms so he never got the chance, and every time someone came within twenty feet of her she loudly whispered “I’m Susanna.” Later, after the meeting had begun, while the bishop was reading her answers to a questionnaire, she very loudly began whispering “Mom: I’m hot!” I tried to tell her she could take her sweater off, but she didn’t seem to understand, and the whole thing ended with the entire bishopric and all the speakers trying to get her attention to tell her she was done and could go sit with us now. It was great, and we are very proud of our little reference child.
Here are the answers to her questionnaire:
Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: A Primary Teacher
Q: What is your favorite scripture story?
A: The story of baby Jesus (we were not at all surprised)
Q: What do you do well?
A: Coloring
Q: What makes you happy?
A: When my baby brother plays with me
Q: If you could have anything for dinner, what would it be?
A: Bananas
And here is her Mother’s Day gift to me:
It is a picture of Susanna sleeping on the airbag after a car accident. (“This air bag is an airbag pillow, which means it is soft,” she tells me.) Sorry I didn’t get a picture of it in the first few moments before it got wrinkled.
I am so lucky to be a mother to my spirited little girl.
The ponds in the natural area have filled up and the grass is getting long. Soon the cotton trees will go to seed and gnats will fill the night air. Summer is coming. My kids and and I took our well beaten path around the Union Bay loop to drink in the abundant sun. The resident eagles were out, flying high overhead. Susanna said yes, she saw them, but I don’t know. She always says yes. I think she saw the heron, and I know she saw the bullfrog. We noticed that his throat beat together. Seattle summers are perfect, and we’ll have to visit our natural area many times before this one ends. Because by the time the blackberries are gone, we will be too. 
