Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade's Daughter Kaavia James Makes Her First Red-Carpet Appearance
Gabrielle Union‘s baby girl Kaavia James was born to be a star!
On Thursday, the 8-month-old made her first red-carpet appearance at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Sports Awards alongside her parents Union, 46, and Dwyane Wade.
The family flashed wide smiles as they posed together with Wade, 37, holding little Kaavia in his arms. The baby girl looked adorable in a white sundress paired with white sandals while her mom wore a peacock-patterned cocktail dress by Antonio Berardi and gold heels. The actress had her hair styled in cornrows, while Wade looked dapper in a black short suit paired with sneakers and checkered socks.
“It’s amazing,” Wade told reporters of having Kaavia with them at the event. “Obviously our story is very documented and we were waiting on her arrival for a long time. … It’s a lot for her but she will look back at these moments and appreciate them when she comes back again and she’s walking.”
This marked Kaavia’s “first big carpet,” he shared, noting that “she didn’t cry” and joking that they had a “stern talk in the car” where the couple “bribed” their daughter “with Puffs.”
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Kaavia’s latest milestone is that she has a habit of “nodding,” Union said — and Wade chimed in that the new action was something that made their baby girl’s family “laugh for two hours.”
“She’s very particular about everything, just like her mother,” the athlete continued. “But I love it because she lets you know who she is and what she wants and what she doesn’t want and what she loves, so it makes it easier for me to be like, ‘Oh, you don’t want that? Okay, cool.’ “
Union shared a photo from the awards show on her Instagram, captioning it, “Once upon a slime” and also posting clips from their red-carpet moment on her Instagram Stories, which showed Wade running up to his daughter in order to make her laugh.
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The outing comes after Wade raved over Union at the ESPY Awards on Wednesday, where the former Miami Heat star was honored for his legendary career — alongside fellow retirees Lindsey Vonn and Rob Gronkowski — and made sure to give his wife of nearly five years a special shout-out.
“I have to say thank you to [New Orleans Saints quarterback] Drew Brees. Because of what you said to your wife onstage, my wife looked at me with a death stare, and said if I don’t say something up here, the car ride home is gonna be long,” Wade joked as the camera panned to a smiling Union. (Brees, 40, gave wife Brittany a sweet shout-out in his acceptance speech, telling her he falls “more in love with [her] each and every day.”)
The star athlete continued with praise for the Bring It On actress, whom he married in August 2014.
“Darling, you are amazing. You looked incredible in this dress,” Wade added. “I cannot wait till five years from now until I get a chance to marry you again. It’s gonna be a little lower budget than the first one, but it’s all good.”
A post shared by Gabrielle Union-Wade (@gabunion) on Jul 4, 2019 at 7:13pm PDT
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The former NBA star proposed in December 2013 after four years of dating. He and Union tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in Miami in front of family and friends including pal John Legend, who performed.
The couple welcomed baby Kaavia in November, via surrogate. Wade is also dad to three sons — Xavier Zechariah, 5½, Zion Malachi Airamis, 12, and Zaire Blessing Dwyane, 17 — and guardian to nephew Dahveon, 17.
“He’s my best friend. All we do is laugh when we’re together,” Union told PEOPLE in 2017 of Wade.
