Our little girl goes to Hawaii!!

My darling girl, as I near the end of my two week Spring Break, I find myself feeling a little heavy-hearted, a little emotional about how amazing you are and how much you are learning, and so, so, so proud of everything you are.

It's an amazing feeling to have SO much love for someone, and just like at the end of my two week Christmas vacation, your perfectness only makes it that much harder to go back to work, rather than spend every waking minute with you.

Miss Ava, your vocabulary has EXPLODED, and you are copying just about every word we say to you. You are confidently saying about 20 words, and we are starting to notice that you are getting more excited when reading books because you can spot the "ball," "puppy," "bee," and even the "clock" that says "tick-tock" (or ti-ta in your language!). You don't yet say duck, but when you see one, you excitedly say, "quack quack!" You like to pick up things that you find on the floor and say "ditty," or throw them into the garbage.
We love that you are learning the names of everyone in your family; your Nana, Papa, Grampa, Mommy, Daddy, Auntie Kaka, and cousins Kai, Lizzie, and "Austy," think it's pretty cool that you can call them by name. You will even say "Nanny" when you look at pictures of your Mommy's Nanny, and if that doesn't melt my heart, I don't know what will!
You love to play with your Daddy's "popple," "babby," your "ball," and "baby" and you have so much fun with the "bubbles" and "cups" in the bath.
Your Daddy is so proud that Grampa taught you to say "hockey," because we do love to watch our Canucks, and you have always been such a good cheerer when we say "Go Canucks Go!" We also love that you say "apple," and, for now, find it a little bit funny how "apple" comes out. Your kitty Sawyer has a friend that he likes to use as a "comfort toy." Your Gramma and Grampa were babysitting the other night and Grampa told Sawyer to "Get a Room," you must have agreed because you copied JUST what Grampa had said!

You are really starting to learn about the way that things work and you understand what we ask you to do. Your Daddy and I are working really hard at understanding what you are asking of us too! Yesterday morning Daddy went in to get you out of bed, when he put you down, you picked up your pyjamas and put them in your laundry basket and promptly grabbed your "ditty" bottle and took it into the kitchen and tried to reach it up high to drop it into the sink.
This morning you found the Polysporin and pulled up your pant leg where you have your first owie from falling in Hawaii and dabbed the container onto your owie. I have only ever put Polysporin on you once, when on our trip, and I have no idea how you even remembered that's how you were supposed to use it.

Ava, your Gramma thinks that you are only getting funnier as the days go on. She loves it when you wink at her, with your mouth wide open. Your Grampa loves your little head bobble, that seems to mostly mean you are saying no to us, but you also seem to use it a your wave goodbye sometimes too.
You are just talking up a storm, and although sometimes we are sure you are just practicing what it's like to say different sounds, like "abby dabby dabby," most time we are sure that you are speaking in full sentences and that it won't be long before we can understand your sentences. Your Auntie Carrie can't believe how much you are talking and loves the constant jibber jabber!
Your Daddy and I love how you tell us when you are ready for your naps by going into your room, helping yourself to a soother, grabbing your blanket out of your crib, and bringing them back to us for a snuggle. It makes it very easy for us to figure out when you're ready when you lay it out that flatly for us!

Ava Irene, you had the time of our lives in Hawaii, and I word it that way because I am sure that you are going to have more exciting times in your life, ones that you may even remember as you get older! But for us, it was the time of our lives with you, to see you in Hawaii, growing and learning and having so much fun. We loved that you got to spend an entire week with your "Austy" and really now feel that you two are friends, and not just cousins that have been forced together by your mothers! You get so excited when you see each other, even if you had just seen each other a couple of hours earlier.

As much as I just love to write, I know that pictures can tell a far better story than any words I could say, and that may be why I have nearly 300 pictures from our week in Hawaii. Sweet Ava, our first walk to the beach in Waikiki had you in awe of "your" sidewalk water fountain, of the warm ocean water, and of the hoards of people and parrots on the streets!
Your week in Hawaii took you to the crashing waters of the North Shore Beaches, and to the calm lagoon protected from the turbulent waves at Pupukea Beach. It took you to your first luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center, the soft sand and colourful fish of Hanauma Bay,  and to the best view of Honolulu, from Diamond Head. It took you to the Honolulu Zoo where you finally got to see the monkeys, elephants, zebras and giraffes that you have been reading about.  You got to see the monkeys playing and got a little bit scared when we showed you the video of the monkeys yelling and screaming.

Darling girl, we spent the majority of our days in the calm and protected waters of Waikiki Beach. You are so brave and daring when we are at the pool and you will run into the water, pushing ours hands away if we try to help you. But at the beach, you were a little unsure of how to walk on the sand, and not quite sure if you liked it that there was dirty sand in your clear blue sea. For the first few days, you floated happily in your floaty, being pushed by Mommy and Daddy, or simply going where the small waves would take you. You loved to dip your hands in the water and then shove them directly into your mouth to taste the salt of the ocean, and you kicked your legs and splashed your arms just like you do in the tub and at the pool.
Later on into the week you got more brave with the water and would walk in, sometimes up to your shoulders and you liked to sit in the water and splash. You especially liked it on the day when your Daddy rented a paddle board and let you sit on it as he pushed the two of you deeper into the ocean. I think it was a proud moment for your Daddy, to be trying something new right alongside you.

You and your "Austy" became such good friends over the week. You had your first wrestling match that had the two of you rolling around on the floor, mostly with him on top of you and pushing your head into the floor! You laughed and laughed and it only encouraged him. He loves to push his stroller around, at the beach and in the hotel room, and you were the lucky recipient a time or two when you got a free ride around the room. Austen loves to climb onto anything that he get up on, and by the end of the week you had certainly learned a thing or two from him on how to scale up furniture. Thanks Austen!
Ava, you have always been fascinated by how things work. When you were several months old, you liked to play with tupperware containers, figuring out how to get the lid on and off,  and you still like doing that. In Hawaii you had a new stroller to ride around in, with new buckles that you hadn't seen before. When we had free moments where we were just getting up and getting ready, or just winding down, you would lean over on that stroller to practice putting the buckles together. You are such a good thinker Ava, and we already wonder where that will take you.

Our video of the A-Team's trip to Hawaii: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idu8w_Gma5o

Our sweet baby bean, we say it with every post, but really, we say it nearly every day, we just could not love you more than we do.