Closet Gymnast

When I say that Maya is a closet gymnast, I don't mean that she hides her talent. I mean that she literally does gymnastics in our closet. It started a couple of weeks ago when I heard Maya exclaim from the closet, "Wow! That trick so cool!" I investigated and found that she'd pushed the clothes aside on one of the lower hanging rods in our closet. She hung from her arms, walked her feet up the wall, effortlessly swung her legs under and then up over the bar, and shocked her mom with all sorts of tricks. She even performed a couple of different "flipskies", as she called them. At one point, she was hanging from her arms and obviously trying to do some sort of pull-up. She was putting quite a lot of effort into it and grunted, "tummy!...up there!" So, I helped her get her tummy up on the bar, and she proceeded to spin around the bar!



Our three older kids have always been fairly cautious. And really, I wouldn't call Maya a daredevil, but she seems to be very coordinated and limber and she appears to be confident in what her body can do. When Madeline was about 8 years old she took gymnastics. She mostly enjoyed it, but one day after I picked her up, she seemed on the verge of tears. I reminded her that she can't expect to be the best at everything she tries. She sobbed, "It's not that I'm not the best. I'm the WORST!" So, she decided that gymnastics was just not her sport.
As Lyle and I watched Maya perform her closet gymnastics the other day, Lyle commented, "Hmmm. That's got to be genetic."



Walk feet up the wall, get legs in position.....



Make Mom very nervous!




Another picture from that same day. I LOVE the pigtails on Maya! Abby said, "People will know for sure we're sisters with our matching hairstyles!"

And one more pigtail shot. She looked so pretty on Sunday in her Chinese New Year dress.

And one more because she was in a pretty, girly girl mood.

She's definitely not always in a girly girl mood! This is how she'd like to accessorize her Sunday dress--with brother's basketball shoes. Also, notice Abby's backpack on the floor behind her. She LOVES backpacks, especially Abby's! There is a song on one of her favorite videos that's all about backpacks and she sprints to find a backpack whenever the song starts. She so wants to go to school. I put in an application for her to start preschool in the fall. She'll just barely have turned 3, but I know she's ready and she's just giddy about all things related to school. The other day when she was loading up a backpack and pretending to go to school, I couldn't help but think of how limited (and almost non-existent) her educational opportunities would have been had she stayed in China. Such a sad thought. She has an amazing mind and I know she's going to put it to very good use!