A Go Get 'em Girl

• While she is still practicing, Aolani is learning to combine waving and saying, "Buh-Bye." It is so adorable to watch her hold her hand out straight and rotate her wrists slowly. She looks at her hand intently and pensively as she solves this huge mystery ;) Hopefully, I can record it.
• Her sixth tooth came last week.
• Solid food update: We offer her some very nonchalantly every now and then to no avail. Her gag reflex has not disappeared yet, so solids (no matter how liquidy) still make her choke and spit up. No worries though; she'll eat when she is ready :)
• "I need a bath buddy."

• My left foot is generally much better. The pain is still gone, and the foot naturally points outward to 11:30. Not perfectly straight but good enough!
• As Aolani's personality is revealed more each day, here are five adjectives we would use: aggressive (in the physical, violent sense), bright (cheery), loud (vocal), curious (active), and excitable. If you saw an isolated five minutes of her day, you would find her screaming, smiling, and clapping. She is a happy, extroverted baby -- not calm, quiet, or mild.
• Yesterday, she had a "playdate" with a boy who is about three months younger than her. Despite that, his head was bigger than hers, and he weighed more than her. No matter, this baby girl can hold her own. One time, she crawled up on him, put the strangle hold on him, bounced up and down, and screamed at him in excitement. Made him cry. "Get her off of me!" Not sure if we'll be invited back after that incident ;)

Practicing her stand

• Verse to memorize this week: Ephesians 5:20 ~ ...giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Her Eyes Smile

I could not wait to get a good closeup shot of Aolani's smile that revealed her two adorable bottom teeth for all to see!

Happy "Beeing" Me

So says Aolani's Sunday dress ;)

Daddy is "knee-slapping" funny!

Funny, how it is used to be near impossible trying to catch her smile on camera and now it's hard not to!

Choco-Cherry Love

Although that happens to be Ricky's favorite DQ blizzard, it has also become Aolani's nickname. Seriously, I can't decide if she is the most beautiful baby there ever was or the happiest baby there ever was... wait. I don't have to decide. I'm the Mommy. She's BOTH!

Aolani is either smiling or laughing [almost] ALL THE TIME (around us anyways; she's a little shy around others)! Here's a glimpse of her this past weekend.

She sleeps, too ;)

"They" say that there are several ways to decrease the chance of a baby getting colic -- breastfeeding, wearing your baby via baby-carrier, co-sleeping, skin-on-skin contact -- and so we do/did them all. I guess something worked?!

Here is a good, short video of her laughing (for hearing not really seeing):

Aolani's Baptismal Event

I cannot tell you how happy she was yesterday! Seriously.

She never made a peep during the whole service. (I think she was basking in the attention!)

This outfit was a hand-me-down from her cousin.

It just happened to be yellow -- Mommy's favorite color.

Okay. By now you are probably wondering why she is so happy in all these shots. We don't know exactly. What we do know is that Grandma Oliver started making silly sounds and Aolani started giggling and smiling for the rest of the shoot. AND... I got a little bit of her laugh recorded:

Happy Days

You will not believe what I (finally) managed to capture...


We are so spoiled - getting to see and enjoy her everyday!

Camera Shy

It is so hard to get a picture of her smiling! Every time I whip the camera out, she just stares at it with a straight face. And if we try to hide it, direct her attention elsewhere and make her smile, it is near impossible to capture the exact moment. We've tried numerous times, and the flash is either a nanosecond too early or late. So, the smile is either creeping up or fading away. Ahhh! Anyway, this profile shot of her smiling was actually taken at a distance of her playing with Grandma Oliver. But, the smile is there! We zoomed, cropped and voila! My next goal is to get one head-on...