Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, too!

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When my girls were little, they loved to hear the adventures of that rolly-polly bear, named Pooh.  Winnie the Pooh and Piglet were two of the favorite characters, while Owl, Rabbit, Tigger, Kanga, Roo and Eyeore followed close behind.

When Courtney, my second daughter, was born 31 years ago, today, she was given a small Pooh bear.  Somewhere along the line, I began calling her, Courtney-Roo or Roo for short.  It's one of those terms of endearment that parents create because something touches them about their child.  

As I sit here writing, I can't believe 31 years have past since she came into our lives.  This is more years than I was old at the time!  From the first day, she was an enjoyer.  Give her an old box and she was captain of her own ship, a fairy princess in a castle, Old Mother Hubbard with all her children or any number of other characters in her repertoire of make believe.

Courtney and Gwendolyn, her older sister, would play for hours together, creating stories, lip sinking to oldies, producing puppet shows and such.  Their imagination always astounded me.  When their two younger sisters came along, they were their own theater troupe!  What fun it was to watch them act out characters in a book.

Now, Courtney is the mother of three.  Her little ones are doing the acting.  In fact, her oldest, my granddaughter, Addie, just starred in her first production as "Glitter" the fairy in Midsummer's Night Dream.  Yes, she is doing Shakespeare at five years old - with "talking" part, to boot!

Addie in Her Acting Debut

Back when the girls were appearing in their school productions, dance recitals or concerts, they would take bets from their friends as to how long it would take me to begin to cry. (I learned about this by accident one day.) At the time that I found out about it, I told them they would understand when they were mothers.  Of course, they laughed at me, not thinking they could ever be so sentimental.

As Addie performed her fairy dance, Courtney was grateful for her sunglasses.  They hid the fact that she was all teary-eyed over seeing her little one on stage enjoying herself so much.

Generations of women in our family have found joy on stage, be it singing, acting, or dancing.  As they say in Winnie the Pooh, "It's Tigger-ific!"

Namasté!