Hawaii

Charlotte loves Hawaii.  I almost have no idea how this happened.  She saw an episode of Imagination Movers that involved Nina returning to Hawaii for a family party.  The show covered all the basic Hawaii themes - hula, surfing, island....and Charlotte ate it up.  She especially loved the little hula primer (Nina demonstrates the hand movements for house & ocean) and tried to teach everyone she met how to do it for the next month.

yes, this is Charlotte's hula outfit. Tutu, slippers, and  too-small winter hat. I added the halter top for modesty's sake.

After that episode I decided to try her out again on Lilo & Stitch (Disney movie set in Hawaii).  There is some shooting of lasers in it, which sorta bugs me for a 3 yr old, but she'd seen lasers on Wall-E (Matt's choice), so I decided to give it a try.  Disney is very good at not showing person on person shooting.  ANYHOO, she loved Lilo & Stitch and we started listening to the Lilo & Stitch soundtrack constantly.  As a result, Charlotte now also loves Elvis.

Charlotte said, "I'm Elvis!"

After that, Charlotte moved on to books.  When I told her one day that we were going to the library tomorrow, she said, "Want a Hawaii book!"  I had to look online...hard to find a children's picture book about Hawaii on short notice, but we found Dear Katie, The Volcano IS a Girl.  It's written by Jean Craighead George (who wrote my favorite all time book, My Side of the Mountain ) and illustrated by Daniel Powers.  It is, as you might expect, about Pele.  

Charlotte also looked at pictures of my sister-in-law, brother-in-law and nephew in Hawaii, as their vacation started up about the same time as her obsession.  In fact, at the site of the first picture, Charlotte even said, "Is that Hawaii?"  Oceans & palm trees will do that.

She's gotten some Hawaii-themed gifts for her birthday.  A grass skirt and some leis from her Grammy, a book and shirt brought back from Hawaii from her aunt & uncle.



The whole thing is adorable.  I love these kicks she gets on.  Now to start saving for airfare...