Rhythm pulses through her veins. Melodies fill her brain. Her days are filled with music and dancing. A day without dancing isn’t a day worth living as far as she is concerned. She is a musical soul.

Dancing to her favorite Dragon song

There isn’t any one type of music that she gravitates towards, although a good beat does seems to help. The only requirement for making the list is that the song speaks to her and makes her want to dance. If she can’t not dance to a song it will become an instant favorite and very quickly makes its way onto her iPod. Her favorites range from Gwen Stefani’s The Sweet Escape, to Adele’s Rolling in the Deep, to Forbidden Friendship from the How to Train Your Dragon Soundtrack, to OneRepublic’s All the Right Moves, to Led Zeppelin’s Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, to Eminem’s Like Toy Soldiers.

Her musical tastes are beautifully eclectic. And, there is just no swaying her opinion, no matter how hard her daddy tries You can’t convince her she doesn’t like a song once she has developed a taste for it and you can’t convince her that she likes a song that hasn’t spoken to her. She usually knows the very first time she hears a song whether it is a keeper or not. There is no telling what her next favorite is going to be either, she will hear a song on the radio or in a movie or something, it makes her want to dance and is an instant new favorite.

I love her love for music. I love how she sings to her self a random times throughout the day and will just start dancing to some tune playing in her head. I’m pretty sure there is always a song playing in her head.

Maya has been dying for Anna to be old enough to actually play with her. Every day she talks about how much fun it will be when Anna is a “bigger baby” and can play with her princesses with her. Seriously, when that does happen, my heart, oh my heart, it will melt completely.

Until Anna is that “bigger baby” Maya is making do with playing with her the best way she can. Which, either involves just playing beside her and pretending Anna is involved or reading to Anna or playing with Anna’s baby toys with her. It is adorable to watch them interact. Anna adores her sister, and smiles whenever she sees her. Giggles and squeals abound when the two of them really get going.

The other day I put Anna in the doorway jumper for a few minutes to give her a little something different to do. Maya decided that it was time that Anna learned all about the world of dress up. When I said Anna may be too young to play dress up her response was “Mom, Anna isn’t too young, she’s just the right size”. How could I deny her the fun of dressing up her sister in tiaras, fairy wings and princess trucker hats with a response like that

I’m not too sure Anna enjoyed herself as much as Maya had hoped, but Maya sure did have fun. Oh the fun these two are going to have together.

Dear Maya,

Happy Birthday baby girl! You are 4 years old today. 4 YEARS OLD! How did that happen? How did you go, in what feels like overnight, from this squirmy, tiny little baby who made me a Mom for the very first time, to this opinionated, intelligent, full of life 4 year old?

You have changed so much in the past year. You have really grown up a lot this year. When you turned 3 you still seemed like a little little girl, you still seemed so young. I can’t say that about you today. You are so much more grown up, so much older and wiser. You are “big girl” as you like to remind us and I can glimpse the passionate, intelligent woman you will one day become.

You did a lot in this year since you turned three.

We traveled to Australia for 3 months. You LOVED it there and did a lot of growing up while we were down under.

You came home from Australia and became a big sister. You truly love this new role of yours and adore your baby sister. I love watching the two of you interact and try to imagine the bond you will have when you grow up.

And, maybe the biggest thing of all, you started school. August 18^th found you walking through the threshold of your first little classroom and you have loved every moment you’ve spent in school so far. Preschool has done so much to bring you out of your shell and you have really blossomed.

All of these changes and adventures this year have changed you and impacted you in different and unique ways. They have helped mold the girl you are today on your 4^th birthday.

Maya, at 4 years old, you are a barrel of laughs constantly trying to entertain us. You love being the center of attention, especially when people are laughing at your antics or clapping for your little “performances”. You are beautiful and passionate. You are full of energy and life, you are on the go from the moment you get up until the moment you go to bed at night. You are so in tune with music and movement and spend much of your day singing and dancing. You are intelligent and curious. You are opinionated and like to push my buttons (sometimes it makes me scared of what the teenage years will be like). You are 100% girl and love to live in a fairy tale world filled with princesses, ponies and everything pink. You are emotional and sweet (when you want to be ). You are you and we love every bit of you, even when you are driving us crazy.

There is so much you love in life. You love reading and always try to get an extra book read to you at bedtime even though we already read 3 every night. You love coloring and creating art projects. Some days you’ll sit for hours and just color and color. You’ve started writing letters too and can write your own name.  You are so imaginative and spend many hours each day creating little worlds of adventure for your princess dolls, your my little ponies and your strawberry shortcake dolls. You love to include Mommy and Daddy in your play and even sometimes the cats, especially when it comes to dress up play. You love talking to, playing with, reading to and laughing with your baby sister. You love music and dancing.

I love you sweet Maya. I love that I get to have you in my life and I get the privilege of being your Mom. Happy Birthday, I hope it was everything you dreamed it would be. I love you to pieces baby girl.

Tomorrow is Maya’s birthday, she’s about to turn…are you ready for it…4 YEARS OLD!! I know, I can’t believe it myself

To celebrate this big event we had a little party at our house this past weekend. Maya got to invite a bunch of her favorite little people (and big people) for some pizza, cupcakes, and fun. Our house was filled with our friends and their littles. Everyone had a wonderful time, most especially the birthday girl.

Sadly, between having Anna attached to me, napping in the Moby, for most of the party, trying to be a good hostess and managing the birthday girl I didn’t take many pictures. I got a few before the party started of the decorations and had big plans to get some good photos of Maya’s party this year because last year I felt like I didn’t get enough pictures. It didn’t pan out and I ended up with fewer pictures than last year. I think maybe next year I need to designation one of the guests as “party photographer” and hand off my camera to them. Oh well, at least we all had fun.

From the day after Halloween last year (maybe even before that) Maya has been adamant that she wanted to be “swimming” Ariel for Halloween this year. And by “swimming” she of course meant Ariel in her mermaid form. She has been so anxious for this day to finally arrive so she could put on her costume and go trick or treating. I think today felt like a pretty long day to her as she waited and waited (as patiently as she could) for evening to roll around.

This year we headed over to our friends Nick and Erin’s house to go trick or treating with them. Maya enjoyed having a few little friends to enjoy the whole experience with.

She ended up with a pretty good little pumpkin full of candy. I know she is already dreaming about next Halloween

Next year we’ll have two little munchkins running around the neighborhood. This year Anna wasn’t all that impressed with getting dressed up. Although, she did enjoy the snuggly little ride around the neighborhood in the ERGO!


I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween and your kiddos enjoyed the trick or treating experience as much as Maya did.

In a couple of weeks Maya will be going on her very first field trip. Her little preschool class is taking a trip to the pumpkin patch. They get to ride on a bus and everything!

At her school the teacher to child ratio is great. There are 9 kids in her class and 3 teachers. Two of the classes are pairing up for the trip so there will be 18 kids and 6 teachers plus one of the assistant principals is tagging along and the OT that works with one of the kids in Maya’s class. So, given that so many adults will be there they didn’t ask for parent volunteers to be extra eyes. Parents are, however, invited to tag along if they want.

I want to, I would love to be part of this little experience. But. Ya, there’s a but. But, I’m worried that my being there will mean that Maya’s experience isn’t as a great as it could be. You see, Maya is very shy. When we had our parent/teacher conference a few weeks ago it was one of the topics we discussed. I wasn’t surprised that her teacher had noticed it, since we witness it every time we are out with friends, or Maya encounters strangers and even acquaintances while we are out and about.  She is super shy around other people and it takes time for her to warm up and talk to people. Her teacher has mentioned that she is starting to see her come out of her shell, she is starting to communicate with her friends and the teachers more and more. So, I’m worried that my being there with her on the field trip will limit her, that she will use me as a shield and won’t be as open, as talkative, as adventurous.

As much as I want to go, to be part of this little adventure with her, I’m leaning towards sitting this one out. I haven’t made a firm decision yet, but I want her to have the best first field trip experience possible and if that means I have to sit this one out than that is what I will do.

Any of you other mommas of shy kiddos had a similar experience? Any advice for me?

Maya has started calling me “Mom”. Just mom, not mama or mommy, just mom. I don’t think I’m ready to be just “mom”. But, if there is one thing I’ve learned in my almost 4 years as a parent it’s that it isn’t about what I’m ready for, it’s all about what she is ready for.

When did she become a full blown kid?

I remember those early days of talking when I couldn’t wait for Maya to say “mama”, and then for her to say it and know she was referring to me. It was music to my ears. Then she made the transition to using “mommy” and I loved it, it made me feel so special to have this sweet little girl calling me “mommy”.

This transition to “mom” feels different. It feels like a reminder that she isn’t a baby or a toddler anymore, she is a kid. The other morning she came in the bathroom while I was having a shower and said “Hey, Mom, where’s Dad?” It was like a completely different child had walked into the bathroom. I was so used to having her say “Mommy, where is dada?” that I was taken aback for a moment. Who dropped this 13 year old off at my house and what did they do with my not quite 4 year old!

I think it is going to take a little getting used to, this new title of mine. In the meantime I’ll relish in those moments when “mommy” or “mama” still slip back into her vocabulary because I’m not ready to me just “mom” quite yet.

I can’t tell you how happy I am to be able to say that Maya loves school. Given her propensity to shyness and her antics last winter when I tried to send her into her gymnastics class alone, I was really worried that it would take her some time, perhaps even a lot of time, to adjust to going to school. Deep down I knew she would love it once she got adjusted, but I didn’t know what to expect from her at first.

We are in week number 3 of the school year and Maya is just in love with going to school. When she gets up in the morning she always asks if she “gets to go to school this day?” Other than a few tears, that according to her teacher only lasted a couple of minutes, on her first day of school drop off has been a breeze. Thursday when I dropped her off she barely said goodbye before running into her class room. It is going better than I even could have hoped. I never imagined that on her 3rd day of school she’d already be at the running into class with barely a look back stage, I love it.

She is getting so much out of it too. Every Tuesday and Thursday when I pick her up from school at lunchtime she is full of stories about all the things she did in class that day. She sings the songs they have been learning in class all day long. She talks about her new little friends and all the things they played with. She adores her teachers. She is so proud of her little art projects at the end of the day. Not to mention that she is constantly playing school at home now too, either with Lorne and I or her dolls as her “students”.

The smiles on her face when I drop her off and the bigger smiles on her face when I pick her up just melt my heart.

Today was a big day for Maya, it was her first day of preschool.

She has been filled with excitement and nerves about the whole idea of starting school for weeks. Most days she went back and forth between liking the idea of starting school and kind of wanting to go and saying she didn’t like school and just wanted to stay home with me. We spent a lot of time talking about what she could expect and really talking up how much fun she would have. As the big day drew closer we took her out to pick out a first day of school outfit and a new backpack. It all helped to increase the excitement and decrease the nerves.

This morning at drop off I could sense her nerves and was a bit worried about how the drop off would go. She cried, as I expected, but I stayed positive and said my good byes. Her teacher did a great job of diverting her attention and I walked out the door. When I went back to pick her up a few hours later she was all smiles and full of stories about what she did. Ms. Melinda said she stopped crying pretty much right after I left and had a great day.

I’m so proud of her. Her first day of school was a huge success and she can’t wait to go back and do it all over again next week.

Maya has been in need of a hair cut for a while, since we got back from Australia really. I’ve been putting it off mostly because I wanted to have her hair cut just before school started, but also partly because we’ve been too busy. The other day we were at the mall to pick up a few back to school things for Maya and walked by this really cute looking little girls salon. Maya’s eyes lite up and she immediately said “I want to get my hair cut there sometime!”

So, off we went today, back to the mall to visit the little girls salon/spa, to get Maya’s hair cut. The place was so cute. Everything is covered in glitter and sparkles. The women who work there are so good with kids and they really know how to treat a girl like a princess.  Between the sparkly purple chair, the pink princess smock, and sparkly rainbow scissors the hairdresser used, Maya was in heaven. The hairdresser trimmed Maya’s hair and then put it up in a cute little up-do for her, sprayed some glitter in her hair and used sparkles to paint hearts and stars on her cheeks. She walked out of the salon thoroughly pleased with the experience and looking like a perfect pampered princess.

She’s already asking if she can go back and get her hair cut again tomorrow! I may have inadvertently created a spa girl