Small wonders

This picture of Catherine and me was taken in February 1997 — she is 10 months here and I am, yes, still wearing shoulder pads and a hairdo that later grew to Rosanne Rosannadanna width. Those are stories for another day.

Terri and Catherine, 1997

In addition to being one of my favorites, this picture represents “before,” before she:

• began to talk incessantly, as soon as she woke
• began to walk on those chubby legs …  and then run
• made tea parties on the coffee table in the living room, her favorite blankie for a tablecloth and all the plastic food from her play kitchen arranged just so
• learned to fold laundry with me (she seems now to forget how … a lot), help me dust and make the bed, pulling the “comfortable” up nice and neat
• learned “The Wheels on the Bus,” how to count to 10 or how to spell her name
• learned to walk “up” the slide, pedal a tricycle, run through the sprinkler, coax a hum snail from its shell
• made her first PB&J, glued her first vat of sequins to a piece of construction paper, read her first book
• made a bunch of girlfriends and spent afternoons giggling, pretending, dressing up and running through the yard
• went through her sea creature, aliens, Egyptian and Titanic phases
• read the entire Magic Treehouse series
• joined the chorus, tried her hand at volleyball, started to keep notebook upon notebook of her handwritten own stories
• put away Hilary Duff, “High School Musical” and Jesse McCartney in favor of Lil Wayne
• began to wear makeup, fuss with her hair and nails, notice boys
• learned to drive, or had enough of her own money that she could treat me to popcorn at a movie, as she did last night when we went together — just us girls — to see “The Great Gatsby“

It was also before I got the privilege of seeing all the above wonders unfold, each its own awe-inspiring milestone in her amazing metamorphosis to independent woman.

And it’s before I had gray hair.

Happy Mother’s Day!