Pizza Party

K-bao tries to look inconspicuous while stuffing her face with pizza.

The fancy balloons and pizza (and cupcakes!) were thanks to her buddies the Jerez twins (Dylan and Naomi - younger sibs of friend Sasha, who has appeared on these pages before) who were holding their birthday bash at Tilden Park this past Sunday.

Afterwards, K-bao took her little sister C-bao steam-training across the way.

Summer

K-bao has had a full summer of activities, thanks largely to the zealous efforts of K-Mum, who has also carried the brunt of shuttling her back and forth to and from a half-dozen different camps near and far.

The last two weeks have been at a nature-oriented program at Cow Hollow, where she has inspected bugs, planted seeds, hiked a variety of trails and generally gotten her hands (and especially fingernails) plenty dirty.

Below she joins her class in pulling out a handful of baby carrots, a task which K-bao approached with appropriate solemnity at first...giving way quickly to unbridled enthusiasm.

Dealmaker

The K-folks weren't exaggerating when they said their firstborn has some serious bossy genes, uh, some leadership skills.

Here you can see K-bao harnessing her inner Sheryl Sandberg and deciding the day's schedule for K-Pop. Poor Daddy knew he was in trouble when the first words out of K-bao's mouth when she marched in were "Here's our deal."

Royal Responsibilities

Princess K-bao recently was called to attend a festive gathering of fellow princesses. Never one to shirk the obligations of the crown, she awoke early, donned her bejeweled outfit and headed off. Here she is upon her return, with a balloon flower, a face full of wings and butterflies - which she insisted on wearing until nighty-night - and a tummy full of sugar. Ah, the heavy duties of royalty!

Giggles

As noted on these pages before, K-bao's chief pleasure in life is finding ways to make her sister laugh. Her first tack is generally to act silly, as in video #1 (why the head rub is so amusing is beyond K-Pop, but C-bao has an endless appetite for it).

If all else fails, she resorts to the tickle monster, as in video #2.






Once successful, K-bao ensures that everyone around her recognizes and affirms. "Look, she's giggling! Quick, get the camera!"

Dualism

As we all know, K-bao has more energy than our entire family knows what to do with, which for a noise-sensitive soul like K-Mum can be rather trying.

The other day K-Mum asked K-bao to calm her body down (actually, this is a daily occurrence). After failing to make meaningful progress, K-bao was sent to her room. A minute later she emerged, claiming she was ready. K-Mum had seen this movie before and sent her back. A minute later, K-bao came running out, exclaiming (loudly): "Mommy, my body is telling me something! It's telling me it's ready. Really, really ready."

The following exchange ensued:
K-Mum: "Your body is wrong, K-bao. You're not ready."
K-bao: "My body is never wrong."
K-Mum: "Your body has been wrong before."
K-bao: "Well this time is different because the princesses and fairies are watching me."
K-Mum had no answer to this argument. How can one shoot down the princesses and fairies?

On another day, K-Mum and K-bao were baking. After running around the kitchen distracted, K-bao was once again sent to her room to calm down and get herself ready to concentrate on the task at hand. Shortly after, K-bao reappeared with the following logic:

"Mommy, I'm ready to focus. I really, really am. But my body won't let me focus. My body said to me, 'If you focus, I will punish you!'"

Not only has K-bao internalized the work of Plato and Rene Descartes around mind/body dualism, she's taken it a step further by having the body and mind converse like old roommates, or in this case, like a master and slave.

Kick Me

K-bao for some reason or another has never minded being slapped, kicked, bitten or punched by sister C-bao. If anything, she encourages it. Perhaps she understands her sister's limited repertoire for expressing physical affection at her tender age. Here she has C-bao practice a paddle kick on her tummy.