Aloha Baby

Wanting to eat the sand

We've been in another world this past week. To go from cold, rainy Seattle to sunny, warm Maui... it felt like paradise, and was verrry tough to return home. At least we have the holidays to look forward to. I've also been thinking of making some soups lately, and we have some fun things happening over the next couple weeks. See, we don't need Maui. (bah! I am soooo missing Maui)

My favorite picture

Considering how much Van loves the bath, it was no surprise that he also loved a swimming pool. He's a water baby, just like his daddy. But while Tim and I took turns going in the ocean, we didn't get that adventurous with Van (he seemed content enough trying to eat the sand). The current seemed really strong, even for me to simply keep balance. Next trip, Van can dip his little toes in the salt water. As a matter of fact, Tim can't wait to teach Van how to boogie board. And he already has plans for the two of them to take surf lessons together. Guess we'll be going back in the future - yay!

Water baby

Poolside

Boogie-boarding daddy

As I mentioned before, Van started to crawl the day before we left. He became a crawling expert while we were there (thank goodness our hotel room was pretty baby friendly!), but has had to relearn his skills since returning home... slippery hardwood floors are much more difficult vs. plush carpet. It took him very little time to start motoring again. I'm so proud.

So much fun stuff to explore in Hawaii!

Lunch with our feet in the sand

Kaanapali beach

And... drum roll for this one... Van slept through the night IN HIS CRIB while on vacation. I don't know if he was so exhausted each day, loving the warm ocean air, or just preferred his rented super soft crib mattress, but he didn't have his usual 1am wake-up. I willed it so hard to continue once we returned home, and so far it's mostly worked! Fingers crossed that the little munchkin starts to love long nights of sleep, like I do (or did, back in the day, which I can barely remember these days).

We ate well, relaxed a lot and enjoyed our family. Thank you Maui!