Please can I carry you?

Sometimes I have visions of Maya as a strapping twenty year old girl out for a walk with her family, and then suddenly it all getting too much and asking to be carried. So Andy, or me, or Lily even have to then haul her on to our back or over our shoulder and stagger on so Maya can have her rest. Because the thing is, you see, that Maya has always been carried, as the photos I've included above will attest. We are sling people. We love slings. But yes, Maya has got very, very used to it. She hasn't quite got the hang of who's doing the carrying though and who's being carried as the way she asks to be carried is 'Please can I carry you? Please? Please?' We point out that this would be lovely but we may be a bit too heavy for her, but hey, it's all just irrelevant semantics to her and before we know it, she's hurled herself on to Andy's back and is demanding her chariot.

Now I'm not saying that, like other little people, Maya's not a good walker. When she's in the right mood. But when she has the choice between using her own little legs and slinging it, she'll always go for the latter. She knows this is nigh on impossible when I'm already carrying Lily (I know someone that used to carry one child on her front and another on her back but she is superwoman and I am not) so doesn't ask, but if we're all out and about, I know for Indian people who simply carry their kids in their arms, we are a sight to behold.

The last picture in this sequence was taken yesterday morning as Maya's daddy takes her to school on his back every morning. She is wearing her favourite Indian outfit and has her bag on her back. Andy says she sings all the way and the pair of them attract so much attention on the twenty minute journey that they actually stop traffic. Priceless.