22 in 2022!

Susanna is 22! Here's what she was like as a little girl.

After having 5 boys, I was pretty excited to have a baby girl. In Susanna's baby book, I wrote that she was a very popular baby at church and she would let people hold her without complaining. She was friendly to people at church and would give them hugs when she was older. We all loved her dimples. When she was almost two she would say, "Susanna cute!" She got told that a lot. We called her hair bows and ribbons "cute-cutes". She would call ponytails, "tails" and enjoyed getting her hair done especially getting it curled.

When she was about 3 and a half years, she was lying on the floor while I helped someone practice the piano. I told her, "Susanna, go get dressed and do your job," (even though she didn't really have a job.) She responded indignantly, "Mom, I don't have a job! I'm a girl and girls don't have jobs!"

Susanna loved her stuffed animals who were all girls. She told me, "My poodle is taking a nice nappie because she's a tired girl, Mama." She loved reading books that featured girls and always wanted to know which characters were girls so sometimes I would have to change the gender of one of the animal characters if there weren't any girls. She loved reading Angelina Ballerina books until we were totally sick of them.

Our brown-eyed Susanna

When she turned two, she started to become more difficult and strong-willed. She started running away at the store and I lost her at the store more than once. She especially hated it when I left without her and would try to follow me, including going out to 800 North without Scott knowing. Later when Grandma was watching her and took away some lip gloss that Susanna found, she ran a couple of blocks away until someone fortunately recognized her as a Hansen relative and brought her back tgo my mother's house. When I came back after leaving her home, she would tell me, "I lost you!"

On Orcas Island in Puget Sound

Susanna and Talmage were good buddies as soon as Talmage was old enough to play along. Susanna enjoyed his willingness to go along with her games. They would make blanket forts. They would also play pretend games and once set up a "library" in Susanna's bedroom which they invited people to come visit.

A 4-generation pic

With her "boing-boing" curls

With her friend Sage Gurney

Once Sage invited Susanna to a princess party. Susanna was so excited with how magical the invitation looked and could hardly believe it was really going to happen. But it really did happen!

These were Susanna's blankies. She especially loved the one in front which was in threads by the time she was done with it. I think she put that headband in her hair that day.

When we were trying to sell our house, Susanna was 2 1/2 and tried to change her own stinky diaper, making a giant mess. So that inspired potty-training which she managed pretty well. She loved playing in the sink when I was working in the kitchen, getting water all over the floor.

Turning 3

Eating popsicles with her cousin Felicity whom she loved playing with when they came to visit

Halloween 2003. You can't really see Susanna's costume but she's wearing a ballerina dress with a crown and wings making her a fairy princess ballerina. Everett was sick that Halloween and looks pretty miserable--I don't think he went trick or treating to more than a couple of houses that night. And check out Garrett's homemade Viking hat!

Susanna looked up to Everett and liked to play with him, but when he teased her too much, she fought back with her teeth.

A giant zucchini from our garden

Susanna's birthday was my chance to buy all the girl toys I couldn't buy the rest of the year for her 6 brothers. And she loved them--the dollhouse, the play dishes, My Little Pony, the princess dress, etc.