This is me at one or two, but not three:

There are a lot of feet in this picture. It’s warm, but my parents are wearing jeans. Mom favoured flip flops for herself, but outfitted me with solid sandals that must have been exercises in patience to buckle. The decor at my grandparents place is full of brown, caramel and orange tones.

Sight-seeing, mom outfitted me in a bonnet. Her mauve stripes and my dotted onesie go together nicely.

Here, a hat, and perfect tresses, a pretty colour combination of white and yellow and pink.

It’s funny how viscerally I remember some clothes… This jacket was a comfortably-soft cotton middle-season jacket, with buckles that were decorative and a little fussy.

Here, I’m 5 and my brother has entered the scene. I have solid pink sandals and a red purse with a cat on it. The purse is used to transport Nuggles, my tiny stuffed bunny whose nose I would stroke falling asleep in bed. The beige bag is a diaper bag that I’m helpfully carrying.

Mom is painting the apartment closet and wishing for a house - and her face is pretty and youthful. I’m wearing a turtleneck. Mom was fond of using turtlenecks under sweaters. This style soaked into me and even when I tried wringing it out, this turtlenecks, turtlenecks, turtlenecks everywhere, it came back this year…. I’ve embraced their cozy-neck feeling and face-framing look.

Mostly, when looking at pictures from my youth, I notice mom’s attention to detail and her pursuit of aesthetically-pleasing portraits. That Pa was able to catch her at it probably earned him a chiding remark, and this spontaneous pose makes me smile. Mom liked pictures that were posed. I’m not sure if now, my pursuit of spontaneous moments is something from my dad, something that is generational, or something in reaction to all the posed moments of my childhood.