Smarty's Latest Adventures

The past few months have been a season of growth for Smarty. Well, actually he's growing all the time. It's just that his progress has been obvious during the last six months or so.

Smarty has been working with speech therapists since he was fifteen months old. From the beginning, I've been amazed at his determination and work ethic. And last spring it finally paid off for him. He officially tested out of speech therapy! He's now speaking on his peer level!

I didn't realize what that meant until we went to Kindergarten Roundup last April. The elementary school speech therapist got up to introduce herself. And I started thinking about all the effort and the hours we've spent working at Smarty's speech, I remember so many small victories along the road, and I remember how slow progress was when we first started.

In fact I remember many an anxious moment spent wondering if he would ever learn to speak at all and concocting contingency plans for how to cope if he never did. Which seems so ridiculous now. Occasionally I even wish we could go back to the quieter days for a minute or two! ;)

I looked up at the speech therapist and thought, I'm never going to get to know this woman. We probably won't need her help, because we made it! In that moment I finally understood how far we've come. Thanks to Smarty's amazing attitude, we accomplished a pretty huge goal. I think I'm as proud of this as anything I have ever done in my life.

So like the dork I am, I commenced with blubbering all through the rest of Kindergarten Roundup. All my cute friends were hugging me and consoling me and talking about how hard it is to send your little one off to school. I didn't say anything 'cuz I hate making long explanations, but I giggled to myself and thought, I had that moment several years ago when my teeny three-year-old climbed on a big, yellow bus to go to pre-school!


Shortly after Kindergarten Roundup Smarty graduated from preschool.

Here are some of our most favorite people in the world. We owe them a debt of gratitude that we can never repay. Especially since they will be working with Sweety this fall.

Maria Berg. Smarty's speech therapist

Jill VonBon and her hubby, Tim

Rachelle Greenwell

Ellen Deamer

He also graduated from our local Co-op preschool where moms take turns hosting and teaching. We did this one just for fun and to have some social interaction with some of the kids he will go to elementary with.

We were going to hold our ceremony outside. An unexpected rain-shower forced us to seek shelter in Grandpa and Grandma Bardwell's church.

After that we launched into a summer of physical education. Smarty started off by running in the annual Kids K at the Ogden Marathon in May. Then he participated in our local Start Smart baseball program with Sherrie Burrows. Basically the kids just rotate through stations where the coaches use ingenious methods to help them learn the different skills involved in playing baseball.

If you ever see Smarty, be sure to ask him to do the "step and squish" for throwing and batting. It's too cute!

Smarty with his adorable cousin who also did Start Smart

Getting ready to blast one... or hopefully to connect with the ball at all.


Comin' home!

Smarty had so much fun with Start Smart he went ahead and played some Little League too! I don't know if there is anything quite as entertaining as five-year-olds playing baseball! Good times...

Smarty and his cousin. Their team was call the Golden Dragons due to their shirt color.

Smarty's cousin is a natural athlete. She played beautifully and effortlessly.

When that ended, Smarty's grandma decided to fund a few tumbling lessons for Smarty's birthday (which is actually next fall). He just loves it! I think the trampoline is his favorite, but he really likes it all.

Physical coordination has not been a strong point for Smarty in the past, so we're glad he's had lots of practice this summer. He's has learned so much about his body through these invaluable experiences. He's far more coordinated and strong then ever before.

We, his parents, are just busting our buttons these days over all of his fantastic growth! Love you kid!