Of All Things Catie

Dear Cate Shalom,

Today you are adding another year to your age, and as much as I’d like to freeze frame each adorable stage, the reality is that you are now 7 years old. It hardly seems possible that nearly 8 years ago I was standing shell-shocked with a baby on my hip and a pregnancy test in my hand. But here you are celebrating on this one calendar square both your last day of first grade and your first day of being seven. (Too bad you had that s’mores overdose and threw up last night or this day would be a whole lot more fun!)

This past year has been wonderfully, typically Cate – full of giggles and good humor with just a touch of stubbornness thrown in for good measure. This year you learned how to read and how to make scrambled eggs. You fell in love with your favorite subject, math, and your favorite friend, Claire. Most cunningly you developed the fine art of manipulation in which you push your sister until she yells some mean name at you, resulting in one parent or the other telling Sissy to let you have (fill in the blank) – which was your clever goal all along. You love all things food – growing veggies, cooking together, and trying all things adventuresome. You love tuna fish, sushi, and the fancy turkey sandwiches from our favorite coffee shop with cranberries and sprouts. When I ordered that one for the first time, you drew a diagram of it with labels in my notebooks so that we could make it again when we got home! Most of all you love going on “Daddy-Daughter dates” to all the local bakeries in search of the perfect donut.

This year you finally got those drum lessons you’ve been planning since you were three. The first thing you said about your teacher, Lacey, was that “she has such SPARKELY eyes!” As soon as you got home from your first lesson you played the drums for Monkfish Abbey while wearing the Esmeralda costume Rosie gave you, complete with a hip scarf trimmed in gold coins. This Summer you’ve been giving the neighborhood free drum concerts while you practice every night on my bedroom balcony – usually while wearing a rainbow striped poncho and your purple-and-raspberry beanie. Our musician neighbor David says you are a perfect beatnik drummer. (Right on!)

As a six year old you took on some big responsibilities like: watering your own lettuce patch in the back garden, walking Neela and Sam’s dog Merlin while they were away, and feeding Samson each night. I feel very proud of you! I hope you feel proud of yourself too!

My fondest memory of you this year is our “4 minute cuddle” that we have each morning, just you and me! (I like how you’ve managed to bump it up from the 3 minute cuddle we used to have!) I love your infectious laugh that often rings through the house. I adore it that your birthday party this year is “pirates and tea sandwiches;” that you went all by yourself with Daddy to see Great Grandma in California; and that any time I say “I don’t know how to make that, Catie” you just grab scissors and tape and make it yourself. I even love it that you so often “get distwacked” in the morning! (Once, when Souren asked what distracts you so much in the morning, I said, “Oh, anything!” Then I went upstairs to find that you still weren’t dressed because you were carefully walking around the outline of the Hello Kitty on your beach towel. I’m glad you’ve got your priorities straight!)

You kiddo, are really great! I’m so glad you came to us as a surprise to fill up our lives with laughs and wonder. Here’s to wearing out another year’s worth of brown boots!

Love, Momma

Posted in Magpie Mama
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