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Mommy & Me

Originally posted Thursday July 19, 2007 12:00 PM EDT

She showed her style sensibility – and an enviably slim waist – by pairing an Eres swimsuit with an Yves Saint Laurent belt. Photo by: INCO / Fame

And she's just warming up. The woman whom pal Roberta Armani (niece of designer Giorgio) calls "an inspiration" and whom close friend Jada Pinkett Smith describes as having a "quiet thunder" is "going to start showing sides of herself no one has seen yet," predicts Hairspray producer Craig Zadan, who has been working with his producing partner Neil Meron to develop a big-screen musical for the actress. Yes, she can sing – and she's taking weekly dance lessons too. During her breakout run on the teen soap Dawson's Creek, "she had a scene where she sang a song from Les Misérables," recalls Meron. "I thought to myself, 'That girl has some chops!' " Adds Zadan: "She is going to surprise a lot of people with what she can do."

Still, it's hard to imagine a role that allows Holmes to shine more than motherhood. Suri "is a beautiful little girl, and I feel so honored to be her mom," the actress told PEOPLE earlier this year. Having earned her stripes following those first months of constant diapering, breastfeeding and "learning to decipher what each cry means," as she told Harper's Bazaar in March, Holmes is now reveling in the next phase – first steps, first words and the discovery of her daughter's emerging personality. "Suri is such an obviously happy baby," says Khouri. "She thinks things are funny, and she likes to be funny. She's a charmer. She's very loving. When you leave, she'll blow kisses. She smiles at everybody. You kind of take a look at her and say, 'They're just doing something right.' "