Preparing for a whale watching trip!

aloha!

Early this month we took a trip to Hawaii for my cousin's wedding. We spent a week in terrific weather hanging out with family and friends and generally having a super relaxing time and eating a ton. What more could a person want?

	We rented a house in Kailua, which is on the windward side of Oahu (it's about 30 minutes from Honolulu, on the leeward side). The windward side is WAY better! Breezy all the time! Never hot! Brilliant!
	The house was a jewel, with a beautiful little swimming pool and a huge kitchen with a wonderful sink. We spent a lot of time in and around each (well, not in the sink).
	We grilled, too. Delicious!
	We went to the botanical garden and ran and drove around. It was beautiful!
	Except for this - a disgustingly ugly tropical flower!
	We went on a super muddy hike (didn't make it to the end) where we found that some of us really didn't have the right footwear (like me) and that Charli doesn't like to get dirty (hope we've broken her of that).
	We introduced Charli to shave ice. She likes it (duh)!
	We went to some beaches.
	We had a picnic with 40 or 50 of Mom's relatives (not that you can tell from this picture).
	We went to the north shore and saw sea turtles.
	We hung out at my uncle's house and Charli fed the fish very fast.
	We went to my cousin Cecily's wedding and it was lovely and fun and we had a great time!
	Charli wore some more wedding finery, of course.
	She also participated in her first chicken dance. :)
	We had The. Best. Malasadas. Ever! Agnes' Portuguese Bakery is the bomb! They make their malasadas when you order them! Way better than Leonard's!
	Then we had to come home. We picked Charli up from the checked baggage and headed for BART and cold, foggy San Francisco.

Card v. Giants

Charli and I took a tour of the stadium, Charli was a big fan of the
cable car!

Farmers market bliss...

she did it! she did it!

As I've said, we've been pretty relaxed about Charli's potty training. She's pretty good at home, and getting better at Nina's, but we still put on diapers when we're going out. Clearly that's the next step - and it's on me and Brian, not on Charli. We have to take the potty with us, and sit with her while she uses it, bla bla bla. But at home, we just try to use undas, and Charli is pretty good at almost going by herself - she can pull down her undas, or pullups, or take off her diaper, she occasionally needs help with her pants, when they have buttons instead of snaps. However, she has not been willing to make kacki in the potty. She did it once a few weeks ago, and then cried and cried after it, I don't know why. I was very happy and gave her a goody, but she still really didn't like it. Since then, she has always wanted to put a diaper on when she wants to make kacki, and I do it because I'd rather have her kacki in a diaper than hold it in.

Just now, Charli was running around nekkid and she went to the bathroom by herself and Brian and I were doing our things and the next thing we hear is "I made kacki in the toilet!", and she did! All by herself! What a great kid! Goodies galore!

In other news, I am doing the master cleanse again, and Charli has started calling us 'Mom' and 'Dad' occasionally, rather than 'Mommy' and 'Daddy'. My cousin posted on Facebook about her daughter doing that (she's 4 months older than Charli), and how much older it made her seem, and how sad that was. I couldn't relate at the time, but now I can. *sniff*

you don't need pants for the victory dance

In a modest effort to get back to the potty training, we've been letting Charli run around without pants on while at home (we still put on a diaper when we're going out). Mostly anyway - we occasionally resort to the pull-ups at home, but she really seems to do best with nothing. She has more accidents even if she's just wearing underwear. But overall, she's been doing great - today she started running to the bathroom on her own!

all worthwhile

Today I was lying on the floor in the living room, and Charli came and laid down next to me and put her head on my arm. "Mommy?" she said. "Charli?" I said. "I love you," she said. And then my heart blew up.