Maya recently turned SIX on October 4th!!
I’m kind of in denial about it…
What I’m NOT in denial about is the fact that I am constantly in awe of the little person she is becoming, and I am BEYOND proud that she is not only my flesh and blood, but SO thankful that I get to hang out with her on the daily, and that she choses to hang out with ME!!
So, Maya, just know… You are beyond loved.
And this year…
You still ABSOLUTELY know what you want and cannot be swayed. A common comment from teachers, yet they always say it with a smile on their face vs a look of concern. 🙂
You LOVE to sing. Anytime. Anywhere. I finally put you in two separate weeklong singing/performance camps this summer, and low and behold you had a solo!! Not once but twice!! Yet, you kept it a SECRET, so we were totally surprised come performance time at the end of the camp!! Good thing your mama always has her camera and phone ready!!
You are still hands down one of the funniest human beings I know. Always ready with a joke, and an attempt to make people laugh! The fact that YOU laugh hysterically is your fail safe! 😉
You LOVE dogs. Anywhere we go, you want to stop and ask “Can I pet your dog?!!” You are SO good with them. You know to hold out your hand for them to sniff, and then your second question always is “Do you have any treats for them?!” Even without treats, all dogs love you. I constantly hear “Oh, they usually don’t like kids!” But they always love you. You’ve even talked about wanting to start a dog walking business when you get older!
Tonight (as luck might have it, to be fresh in my mind!!) as I was making dinner with you standing next to me on your stool, you said.
“We are a lucky family.” I agreed, but then asked what you meant by that, and you said.
“Well, we have healthy food that tastes good (I was making a salad, which you love). And we have a really nice home. And, we’re just lucky!”
The fact that you just pop those things out randomly? I wish I wrote more of those things down!! But…I couldn’t agree with you more, Peanut! And I couldn’t be luckier to have YOU as a daughter!!!
LOVE YOU!!!
I really wanted to surprise Maya with balloons when she got out of school, and a few other little gifts from the dollar store to add to the few things we had gotten her.
As an fyi, if you have a dollar store near you-most cities do (they have different names)!! They have mylar balloons for $1! Even ones with sayings! I was SHOCKED once when I went to get a last minute gift/balloon at just HOW EXPENSIVE balloons can be, so I vowed to go to the dollar store after that! Oh, and one of her favorite gifts? A plastic microphone that really echo’s her voice when she sings!!! For those in the Seattle area…yay Dollar Tree!!
All that said…
Things have been a little rough this past month, with Maya starting kindergarten, and my workload starting to increase. She’s not been her usual happy go lucky self. Especially at school and with the new kids she’s met. And to say that I’ve been an overthinking/overstressing hot mess about that is a pretty big understatement…
Thankfully, I’ve had a few really good talks with her teacher (who I love!), and what I’ve discovered is that I need to just step back and let Maya be Maya. She truly has a better head on her shoulders than I do, and the way she looks at life, is WAY beyond her years. I literally learn from HER every single day.
Right after this next image, she saw a woman sitting on a bench by herself. Granted she had headphones on and probably just wanted to chill.
Maya said… “Can I go say ‘hi’ to her? She looks like she’s kind of left out…”
Oddly enough, I actually took a video of it, NOT knowing that was what she was going to do. I mainly had wanted to get a video of her running with the balloons. But THAT is her. SO freaking kind and sweet.
Ok, note to self. Balloons are NOT the best prop! They always seem like a good idea, but getting them in the frame and YOU? Not so much.
Unless they randomly get blown towards you. Thank you wind!
Yeah…balloons, cropped out, because…I’d rather have US!
Then…as we were leaving a woman came by with her dog (immediate magnet for Maya!) and a camera. She said she was there to practice taking pictures of her dog, and asked what we were doing. We told her we were taking pics for Maya’s birthday.
Then Maya asked if she wanted to take pictures of her! hahaha. Of course she won’t “pose” for me, but a stranger? She was ON!
I was DYING! Are you kidding me??!
These next two….LOVE!
On me…
Haha. Her face! But honestly, I’m so impressed with her balance! In clogs, no less!!
On me…
I just wanted to post this, because it looks like I actually have boobies here!
Her face when I said let’s dance together!!
Oh, and then she said
I’m going to call it a tie!
But these next ones…
LOVE!
There’s something about clogs on her feet! She just wants to dance! I used to be worried about her twisting her ankle, but nope! She just keeps dancing away!
That tongue and pointed fingers!!
Oh, and my dad happened upon us once again on his evening walk.
And of course she talked him into an airpalne!
I can’t even begin with this…hahaha. Maya’s hair! Seriously…how did I fix that??!
And…see that remote in Maya’s hand? Yup, I gave it to her and SHE took these pics! 🙂
And then we switched back to the remote timer…
LOVE these next two!!
I think she was trying to catch a bug haha.
Striking a pose…as per usual.
She seriously KILLS ME!!
Aren’t these the COOLEST FLOWERS?!! I found out that they are called the
The woman who owns the house happened to come by, and she said Maya could have one!
I can’t even…
On me…
Creative crop, or I laughed my way out of the frame…hmmm, you decide!
SO excited to wear booties and a jacket again!!! It’s been chilly in the mornings and evenings, but still 70ish in the afternoon.
I’ve worn this jacket a lot, but I’ve never done a close up of all the cool distressing.
I had originally wanted to get the sun behind us, but it set too quickly. Her facet tho!!
I’m a total sucker for an interesting twist on a plain t, and this asymmetrical hem totally hooked me!
I’ve REALLY been wanting to do more golden hour shoots with Maya, but she’s not feeling it. SO…the best I can manage is to take her out in front of our house and play with the sun flare there.
My face haha.
The Huz and Maya had been walking Max, but came home just then…
Ok, this looks totally magical, but in reality, it’s BUGS!! And me not remembering where the focus stand was, so I kept moving around in hopes of getting it right. We are totally blurry here, but I love it!
And then I wanted to play around with the sun flare. It can be tricky, but love this one!
Can’t decide if I like it better converted to B&W or not…LOVE this next one!
Taken minutes apart, but the camera wasn’t in the sun for this next one….
I never have her hair all down. Wow, she has a lot.
And that laugh? I DIE!
THIS would be why I don’t let her wear her hair all down haha.
On me…
Yup….this is so Maya.
And, are you KIDDING ME?!!!
DYING!!!!
Seriously…take me back!!!
Again, this isn’t an outtake. I just loved it but it was taken before we went to dinner and is totally out of order. Those sun glasses tho… 🙂
Again, not so much an outtake, but an image I wanted to post to show what was behind us. SO pretty! And of course, Maya just running in circles…
AND…another non outtake, but didn’t know where to put it. The center of our hotel was SO pretty!! Pretty sure Maya wasn’t supposed to be standing in that fountain though…
Nope, not awkward. OMG, and I just now noticed my remote on the top of the fence post! Oh well. Too lazy to remove that now!
He’s a good sport 🙂
LOOOOOVE these next two of us!!
We took a walk one day to Lost Lake, and it was SO pretty. But kind of eery with all the smoke! AND…after being outside for a few hours, we were both feeling the effects of the smoke. Kind of sad, but also nice to lay in our hotel room reading-aka HEAVEN!
Nope, no filter!!
From our first night out… (iPhone)
The Huz is like….Um….
And then…
LOVE this back!!
And But….love her more!
But they came right back on for a dance off!
Oh, and the side details of these super comfy clogs?
and then I decided to tie the back of this tee for a more fitted look…
I can’t even!
Seriously, so cute with the tied back right??!!
I can’t even…I LOVE capturing the way we look at each other!!
My dad goes for a walk in the evening, and we see him when we are out playing after dinner.
And sometimes she grabs the remote and starts shooting a kazillion pictures.
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