February 29, 2008

We arrived at Anma and Yeh Yeh's house at about 6 AM!

While we settled in, Papa put on the new Janet Jackson CD, and Gianna, although she was tired, Gigi still got up to dance.

While exploring the family room, Gianna found one of Uncle Ted's cups.

I think all that dancing made her thirsty.

Here she is playing with Papa in the living room.
It's amazing to see her think things out. When she knew she couldn't out run Papa, she hid. I think that's cool.

Gigi also discovered that she could slide on the kitchen floor.

Papa figured that he might as well give Gianna a little break dance lesson...the back spin. I think she's going to need a lot more lessons.

After playing for a while, we all took a nap. When we got up, we headed out to see the sights. Our first stop of the Little Farm at Tilden Park.

Here's Gianna getting to know one of the cows. It's funny that it happened to be a brown cow, like the one in her book called the Noisy Farm.

At this farm, you are allowed to feed the animals celery and lettuce.

Here's Gianna getting up close and personal with a goat. I don't think the goat was supposed to poke his head out through that opening.

This beautiful rooster "cock-a-doodle-doo'd" for Gigi.

Gigi saw ducks, geese, turkeys, and pheasants!

I think Gianna's favorite animals were the black sheep.

Here she is talking to the sheep.

Here's a pink, but very stinky, pig.

Gianna also tried talking to the cows.



The next stop on Papa's tour of Berkeley was his old playground.

She loved the new toddler swings that were there.

Gigi even found a ball on the basketball court. She needs to work on her passing (sharing) skills, though.

Here's Papa helping Gianna shoot the ball.

This really was Papa's old playground.

Here's the evidence.

Our final stop for the afternoon was the Lawrence Hall of Science, another one of Papa's old stomping grounds.
We headed to the soft blocks for some constructive play.

I think Gianna was hungry.

Here's Gianna crawling under a bridge.

She didn't quite fit, so I build her a taller one.

But that was still too short, so I built an even bigger one.

That one was just right, until Gianna removed a foundation block!

Next stop was the Lego area.

Look at the concentration on their faces!

The next stop featured mirrors.

Gianna could crawl into this mirrored structure.

Here she is looking into a concave mirror.

She kept moving around to see how it changed her reflection. Again, it's amazing to see her experience new things.

We ended our time at the LHS with a puppet show.

Papa was cracking me up. Unfortunately, you cannot hear his "voices".

February 28, 2008

Today Papa had the day off since we were leaving for San Francisco tonight. He decided to join us for Kindermusik class.

Here he is "participating". After class, we all rushed over to the Honolulu Academy of Arts so that I could go on a tour of the Hawaii State Museum with Auntie Mirella. :) Luckily, the museum was only a block away from the YWCA where Gianna has swim class. So I was able to meet up with Papa and Gigi for the lesson.

Here's Gianna demonstrating her skills after almost three weeks of lessons.


Here's Gigi with her carry-on luggage from Auntie Susy. She walked all the way from the security checkpoint to the Red Carpet Club.

It's really a long walk.

Here she is with her luggage in the Red Carpet Club.

She saw Uncle Joey who was surprised that she's walking now. :) I forgot to take a picture of him with Gianna. :(

This is Gianna's tenth trip! For this trip, Gianna got her own seat. We all sat in the Economy Plus section, and it worked out quite well. Gigi stayed up for about the first third of the trip, because the people in back of us were talking quite loudly...in French.

Once the people in back of us went to sleep, Gianna was able to settle down and sleep, too.

February 25, 2008

Here's Gianna chasing the birds on the grounds of Iolani Palace. We arrived at our swimming lessons very early, so we played at Iolani Palace for a bit.

Gigi kept chasing the birds,

but they kept eluding her.

She did not give up, though.

She even got quite close a couple of times.

February 23, 2008

This morning Papa took us out for breakfast at the Kahala Hotel. It happened to be Auntie Ana's last day there. :( But we can at least still see her on Fridays at Champa Thai.

Here's Gianna eating some fresh fruit.

After breakfast, we headed down to the beach. Here's Gigi testing out the water.

She scooted around on the sand and ended up with a bunch of sand in her bikini bottom.

Papa came in the water, and Gianna waded in circles around him.

She went around,

and around,

and around.

Here she is trying to float. I think she ate too much. The floating did not go too well.

Thank goodness Papa was there to help her up!

Gianna had a great time!

Papa tried to get some color. Even Gianna is darker than Papa!

February 22, 2008

Today we went to gymnastics in the morning. Gianna did really well in class today. She tried a lot of things on her own. I was so proud of her! After class she fell asleep, so I went home to pick up her things for her swimming lesson and drove over to class very early to find parking. We parked at Iolani Palace and was able to see some live entertainment.

Here's Gianna on the palace grounds listening to the band play.

A children's choir also performed some songs. During class, Gianna worked on her floating techniques.

In the afternoon, Papa took Gigi out to play with some water, because she was getting a bit crabby.

She had a lot of fun splashing around.


Gigi loved it when Papa poured the water from one bowl to the other.

Look how WET she is!

She had the best time!

She even tried to catch the water in her mouth...silly, girl!