Touch-me-not

In the mornings, Maya comes upstairs to the flat roof with me to hang Lily's nappies up in the sun where they dry really quickly. She likes to hand me the pegs and walk along the piping, looking out over the Bangalore skyline.

This afternoon, I was a bit tired and grumpy, Maya was a bit tired and grumpy and Lily, who had barely left the house all day was getting cabin fever and hence was also grumpy. By about quarter to five we managed to get ourselves out to the park over the road where the girls fought over the scooter and picked leaves and flowers. I know I've mentioned touch-me-nots before, the delicate little leaves that close up when you touch them. The really are a marvel and Maya loves stroking their delicate little spine, watching it shyly close in on itself. In fact, you don't have to even touch it, you just go near and the leaves start quivering and recoiling. Watching Maya stroke leaf after leaf, I mused how she was not so dissimilar: on her own turf and on her own terms, she is a confident, forthright little girl. But if people invade her space or touch her when she is not comfortable with them, she literally closes up; shuts down. The same goes for friends - with one or two others she is fine but more than that and she would rather be on her own.

For the first week back at school, the teachers told us that Maya was quite withdrawn and they're still not having any luck encouraging her to participate in the running. This is all sounding very serious and I don't mean it to. I'm not worried about her as I know Maya and know that yes, she is a little shy, but she is a happy and balanced child. My wonderful primary teacher who I was recently re-united with commented that as a little girl I was 'painfully shy' and it's not as though I have a problem with that now. I got a book from the library the other day (yes, the library that I was perhaps unfairly moaning about) called 'I'm feeling shy', all about situations where children feel shy. Maya actually really likes it and has asked me to read it to her several times. I can virtually see the cogs turning in her head as I read it to her. There's an awful lot going on up there.

Maya's going to be an independent little lady, that's for sure. But it's been amazing to watch her character grow and develop whilst we've been in India as well as hear her vocabulary explode which of course enables her to express herself better.