Or, subscribe via email
Supporting
Tomorrow I am hosting a little play date for a new friend that Maya made recently. This little girl lives in our neighborhood (her first new friend that lives close by) and will be starting kindergarten with Maya in the fall (hopefully in the same class). Tomorrow she and her mom are coming over for lunch a little play date. It is the start of new friendships, for Maya and for me. Maya played at her house for a few hours on Sunday and the girls had a wonderful time. It is nice to see her bonding with new people.
We all still miss our friends in St. Louis dearly. Maya still talks pretty much daily about her best pal, Claire. But, these new little friendships she is forming are helping her. They are helping her adjust to life here in Seattle. They are helping her settle in and enjoy herself. Kindergarten is going to be a big step for her, it is going to be a big change. I’m glad she has someone to experience that with now.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I’m looking forward to watching Maya and her new little friend play and giggle and be little girls together. It should be a great afternoon.
Maya has been asking for a big girl 2-wheel bike for ages now. Our plan was to get her one this summer and then we decided to move to Seattle so it was put on hold for a bit. We told her she could get one once we got here and settled in. Well a couple of weeks ago her wishes for a new bike finally came true and the beloved UPS driver delivered a big box just for Maya. She was so, so excited.
I had to make a tool run and a bike helmet run so she could ride it right away as the bike got here before all our stuff arrived from St. Louis. Lorne managed to get the bike put together with the “help” of two little girls and lots of princesses 
Maya has been loving her new bike and riding it all over the parking lot of our apartment complex and on the trails that run through our community. She is still pretty cautious but getting better every time she rides it. I’m sure before we know it, it’ll be time to remove those training wheels.
Anna is a bit envious of her sister’s new wheels 
Maya is extremely shy and nervous, she has been since birth. Even as a baby she was painfully shy around people, even those she saw regularly, and she had a very nervous personality. I’m sure you all remember the debacle that was our first attempt at gymnastics a couple of years ago. So, when she started preschool last year I was understandably nervous about how it would go. But I ended up not having anything to worry about, she did great.
Thanks to an amazing preschool teacher that really did a great job of helping Maya come out of her shell I felt like we took two giant steps forward in tackling her shyness. She was open to playing with new kids at the playground. She took gymnastics and dance without any trouble. Her summer camps went really well (most of them anyway). I could still see glimpses of that super shy little girl that started the school year, but mostly she was gone. And then we moved…
We are in the second week of school and instead of things improving they seem to be getting worse. She was scared and nervous her first day but did really well at drop off, she didn’t even cry. On her second day she cried at drop off but still ended up having a great day. Yesterday at drop off she threw a fit and clung to me crying. Her teacher was able to calm her down and I was able to leave, but when I came to pick her up she said she didn’t play or do anything all morning she just stood with her teacher. It is definitely beginning to feel like we have taken two steps backwards. The strides we made last year are all but gone.
I know it is still early in the school year so there is still hope. I know a lot of what is going on with her stems from the move and leaving her friends, her school, her home, all that was comfortable to her. I hope that as time passes she’ll make a friend or two in class and things will get easier for her and she’ll gain back some of the confidence she worked so hard for last year. Her teachers at her new school are wonderful and are working hard to help Maya feel comfortable at school and I really appreciate that.
We’ll just keep talking to her, encouraging her and working on getting her to come out of her shell a bit. She loved school so much last year, I hope she gets to that point at this new school too. Looking forward to taking those two giant steps forward with her again, hopefully sooner rather than later.
There are a few toys, among the many that fill our family room, that I can steadfastly say were good investments. Toys that have entertained Maya for years. Old favorites that are still played with. Toys that may collect dust for a while, all but forgotten, but are always returned too eventually. The two that first come to mind are her dollhouse that she got for Christmas when she was 2 and this little Fisher Price tea set that was one of her first non-baby toys. They are the toys that through the years have been played with most, loved most and are returned too often, even now as she is so quickly growing up.
I love watching her play with them. I love watching her imagination at work as her dolls, princesses, or ponies use the dollhouse. I love drinking tea and eating cupcakes with her when she puts on a little tea party with her tea set. And now, I get to watch a whole new person explore these old favorites. Anna has taken a liking to both the dollhouse and the tea set. It is no surprise that these toys are among her favorites since she loves to do whatever her big sister is doing and she has been treated to tea and cakes from very early on her life
The best is when I get to watch them play with them together.
By the time Anna outgrows these toys they will have been loved and played with for a long, long time. They will be well worn I’m sure. I’ll tuck them away somewhere so that one day when my girls have kids of their own I may get the chance to watch a whole new generation play with these toys that have already been so loved.
Yesterday our tiny dancer got to show off her mad dancing skills at the end of the year “Show Day” at the Little Gym. For the last 6 months she has thoroughly enjoyed going to dance class every week. She as loved learning tap, ballet and gymnastics with a fun group of girls and her awesome teachers. The class was perfect for her. It let her experience a dance class but still get to do gymnastics, which she loves.
Each week I would sit and watch this bitty little 3 and 4 year olds dancing, twirling, tapping and pirouetting their way across the dance studio floor. I’d watch them tumble, balance and flip on the gymnastics equipment and couldn’t help but smile. There truly isn’t anything cuter than a room full of little girls in tutus enjoying themselves so completely.
Show Day was their chance to show off for their moms, dads, siblings and grandparents all the skills they had learned. They did a little tap routine, a ballet routine and then showed off a few skills on the gym equipment. My heart swelled as the girls filed into the room looking adorable in their matching tutus and looking so proud of themselves. Having watched them practice and practice these routines every week it was so fun to watch it all come together. They did an amazing job.
Getting ready for the show to start.
First up, the tap routine.
Next up, the ballet routine.
And finally, the gymnastics routines. First tumbling, then balance beam.
She was very proud of herself, and deservedly so, she did an awesome job. As we were leaving she said “Mom, I want to do dance class again, I love it!”
Our Proud Dancer.