Tested

K-bao decided to test her parents this past weekend. Yes, this day has arrived - sooner than we had anticipated, and we can't say that we are overwhelmed with joy. Surely it was only yesterday that our little K-bao was a helpless, barely conscious little ball of wonder and joy, full of milk and gas and not much else, responding honestly to a hungry tummy or a rashy bottom. Today, she is a scheming little imp, full of mischievousness and rascality. Yes, original sin has reared its ugly head. Thank you, Adam and Eve.

We started to notice the transformation over the last couple of weeks. Prior to that KJ had only truly bawled a few times in her lifetime, notably early on at the clinic where blood was squeezed out of her little heel, and at the doctor's office where a large needle was stuck brutishly in her thigh. Once or twice when we were a bit rough washing her hair; but overall, plenty of reasonable provocation. Of course, there was the Quasimodo incident referenced earlier on these pages. But by and large we felt pretty lucky and K-Mum even went on record that the little one had inherited K-Pop's "laid-back nature." So we started to be concerned when KJ began really using her vocal chords these past couple weeks - the full-throated, let it rip, I-have-been-deeply-wronged-and-shall-not-be-comforted-for-at-least-5-minutes type of sobbing. And without proximate cause, it appeared to us.

On Saturday, during one of said blubbering and wailing episodes, K-Pop decided that the nonsense was ending and set her down alone in her room to calm down by herself. Lo! As soon as K-Pop left the room, all crying ceased and desisted. K-Pop returned to find K-bao finding plenty of comfort and justice in the fingers of her left hand. But as soon as Pops returned to the scene of the crime, the hand miraculously left the mouth, the lips turned downwards, the world became a dark and inhospitable place and the bawling began in earnest again. K-Pop felt like a used car being spun around for a test drive.

Lately K-Mum will simply look K-bao sternly in the eye in the middle of one of her sessions and let her know that we are wise to her ways. And we'll be darned if a roguish smile hasn't appeared once or twice.