Tea Time

These are pictures from Maya's first official tea party. This is not the first time she played with her tea set, but it is the first time she put out her blanket, had stuffed guests, and successfully put together the tea party without any help from anyone.

Thanks to her months-long obsession with Goldilocks, tea was served first thing in the morning along with a bowl of porridge.

The tea and porridge were just right.

Not Yet Mantel Worthy

We found ourselves in an awkward situation this week when a request for a family photo was sent home with Maya from school. We don't have one. At least not one that's less than two years old. Sad, yes, but you just get busy and sometimes you would rather throw yourself into a shark tank then sit down with your best vacant smile. One. More. Time.

So we decided to take a bunch of pictures and hope that at least one turns out good enough that we can stand the idea of it hanging in her classroom all year. I tried taking a few candids of Maya but she always noticed and insisted on mugging for the camera. I guess she was giving me fair warning that this was going to take a while:


Gone are the days when I used to care about hair, makeup, and what I was wearing. Now I just want a picture that doesn't make people wonder if my kid has issues:

We called it a day on this one:

Back to School

Last week Maya went back to school and never has a child been so thrilled. She started asking to go to school a few weeks ago and would get so excited every time we drove past. So I started to get my hopes up about this year; that maybe, just maybe, she would not be the class mute. When we went in to meet her teachers and check out her room, she clung to me like never before. This year her best-friend-in-the-whole-world will not be in the same class and it was her teachers from last year who made the change in hopes of forcing her to talk instead of relying on someone else. I think they may have grown tired of the whole mute thing.

Thankfully, her new teachers are looking at Maya as a challenge. I told them about how shy she is and how she is potty trained (well technically, it's good enough for school, shut up) and that she sometimes needs a REALLY LONG TIME to adjust to people. And they just said, OK. By the end of the first day she had told them when she had to go to the bathroom and made several verbal requests thanks to a helpful nudge from her teachers. I'm so happy she has people around her that want to help her feel at ease. It's not easy being the shy kid.