Old Friends

When she was in NY earlier this month, K-bao got to see her ol' buddy MJ and her family. MJ and her younger sister AJ were born within weeks of K-bao and C-bao, respectively, so despite living across coasts the two sets of siblings have always hit it off in the few times they've been able to get together.

Below K-bao ropes her friend into a game of Down By the Banks of the Hanky Panky while having dinner at a tasty BBQ restaurant in K-town.



On Sunday, MJ's family was gracious enough to invite us over to worship with them at their local church in New Jersey, and then had us over to their house for a fabulous Sunday brunch.

"I always make mischief when my belly is full of good food"

1 on 4!

Community

A few weeks back K-bao had her friends DL, NL and EL(whom she has been buddies with since birth) over to her place.

Of course, chaos quickly ensued as the kids jumped over the furniture, cut construction paper into millions of tiny pieces, and traded Halloween candy.

Group hug!

Group fobby pose!

The great Candy Expo

K-bao and C-bao are lucky to have fellow Christian brothers and sisters to grow up with, even if due to a little bit of distance they see each other far less regularly than we all would like them to. 

Great Grandmum

Over Christmas K-bao visited K-Great-Grandmum and other family in southern California. One evening K-bao even had the opportunity to bring in some fruit to K-Great-Grandmum and offer her a few pieces. K-Pop was on hand to snap a few priceless pics.

First Recital

K-bao has been playing piano now for a few months, and had her first recital recently. The K-folks hope that learning the instrument and going through the process of practicing and progressing will not only teach the little one some musicality, but also the value of discipline and hard work.

Admittedly, neither K-Pop nor K-Mum were shining examples of these virtues in their own checkered histories of learning the piano, but perhaps things will turn around with this younger generation.

Here she is lining up with the other fellow piano players ahead of the performance.

Aunt Chris and Uncle Calvin were kind enough to attend, along with the rest of the family.

Here she is with a friend from school who also happens to be taking lessons with the same teacher.

Below is the clip of her full recital - all 55 seconds of it. K-bao played two songs, Are You Sleeping? and Yankee Doodle, which she practiced assiduously in the couple of weeks leading up to the performance. And aside from making some funny faces after each song, she did quite well.

Post recital group picture with her certificate of accomplishment!

Gingerbread

A few weeks back, K-bao's school held their annual Winterfest, a school tradition that brings parents, students and friends of the school together to celebrate the community. Events include pet rescue information sessions such as Wags & Whiskers, book fairs where parents can purchase various books for classrooms and teachers, and of course the famous Gingerbread Workshop. 

In the Gingerbread Workshop, children decorate their own candied houses using the provided fresh gingerbread base, frosting, jelly beans, chocolate, twizzlers and other assorted sweets.

"Notice the three jelly beans I have in my mouth"

Sister C-bao somehow snuck her way into the workshop and convinced K-Pop and K-Mum to let her decorate her own house, which of course was a real triumph for the the little one.

Comparing the sugar volume of the various houses

Inevitably each year, just about as much candy is consumed as is used in decorating, and participants typically leave the workshop in a haze of sugary sweetness.

The big question for the K-folks, of course, is what in the world we are going to do with our 2 sugary gingerbread houses!

"All we need is sweet love, love love!"

Fight Song

With K-bao's infatuation with pop music of all kinds - but particularly of the kind produced by young, edgy females articulating some kind of pugilistic message - it was inevitable that sooner or later we were going to hear about Rachel Platten's Fight Song. 

These days, besides asking for the song to be played day or night, at any given hour K-bao might burst out randomly with "My power's turned on, right now I'll be strong!" or "All those things I didn't say, are wrecking balls inside my brain!"

Below is a 20 second excerpt where we turned down the volume of the song on the iPad, and drowned it out with other conversation...nonetheless, K-bao's focus is unwavering (and of course, her singing face is classic).

Taste

Last weekend K-bao shopped at the local farmer's market, which she visits from time to time on nice Sundays.

As usual, the moment she stepped foot among the various aisles of fresh fruits, vegetables, pastries and sundry other produce it became a tasting feast. The game, as it always has been for K-bao, is to go from stall to stall getting as many tasty treats into her mouth in the shortest time possible.

By the way, for this purpose K-bao has developed ultra thick skin. If a tasting plate isn't already set out, she will confidently approach the local merchant and ask for a free sample. "Can I get a sample? That one please? What about chocolate flavor? Can I try the lemon-lime one too?"

Finally corralled by K-Pop

Neighborhood

For a current school project, K-bao has been tasked to walk around to some of the key landmarks around our neighborhood and reflect on what makes it distinctive. 

As K-Pop snapped pics of the little one in front of the local bookstore, bagel store, hospital, doctor's office, school campus and the like, K-Pop felt quite thankful for the K-fam getting to live in this fantastic neighborhood.

K-bao's home hospital - where both she and her sister were born

Above and below are the local healthcare landmarks. Conveniently, the pediatrician's office is located right next to the hospital.

Doctor's office

The University of San Francisco right next door sits on top of a hill. It is a beautiful campus, and is also the locale of many a game of hide and seek for the little one.

University of San Francisco nearby is absolutely beautiful

Of course, no trip around the block would be complete without a visit to the neighborhood diner, where K-bao has consumed an enormous amount of her lifetime calories.

Local diner!

Here's (a cut off and poorly taken pic of) the final poster of our neighborhood, along with K-bao's commentary:

That's a Wrap

K-bao wrapped up her last game of the season a couple of weekends ago. Her team, the Lions, finished the season strong, with another convincing victory. K-bao had two nice goals. 

Here she is with her teammates as well as Coach Andy, who has shepherded the girls well over the last couple of seasons, from complete newbies who picked flowers and did cartwheels as often as they kicked the ball, to an actual semblance of a real team. Unfortunately next year the team will have to break up due to league rules that separate girls based on calendar year birthdays.

Showing off her post-season medal

Raggedy Ann

For Halloween this year, K-bao dressed up as Raggedy Ann, the iconic character created in the early 1900s. As in years past, the main point was of course the colorful wig.

One of the key advantages of this type of costume is the fact that K-bao is easy to spot in a crowd.

Later in the day, K-bao met up with one of her best friends to go Trick-or-Treating together. Here she is, along with sister C-bao, who dressed up as Ariel this year.

K-Pop donned a silly hat for the festivities, something neither K-bao nor her mother was particularly happy about.

At the end of the night, K-bao goes through her treasure trove item by item and negotiates trade terms with C-bao.

Chores

After K-Pop and K-Mum engaged in a conversation about chores one day, someone took it upon themselves to draw up the above chore chart. Uninvited, of course.

Notice a conspicuously empty quadrant. 

Sweet

K-bao and sister C-bao helped K-Pop celebrate his birthday recently. 

With the promise of chocolate goodies ahead, all of our jovial natures came out quickly.

K-bao also wrote K-Pop a sweet note to go along with his sweet cake.

Compromise

K-Pop: "K-bao, I'd like you to go take a shower now."

K-bao, as if pondering a deep thought: "Mom, when two people disagree, should they compromise?"

K-Mum, unsuspectingly: "Yes, that generally is a good thing to do."

K-bao: "See, Dad, you need to compromise."

K-Pop: ......

Swing High Sweet Chariot

Now that K-bao has had the Space Mountain thrills, a regular old swing doesn't quite do it for her anymore. Somehow, she has to jazz it up a bit. Above, she asks K-Pop to push her "As high as it will go! Up to the sky!" - while standing up, of course. 

Scary Song

K-bao performs a couple of spooky songs for Halloween.

Sister C-bao gets roped in for some theatrical dancing while K-bao takes care of the vocals.

K-bao did of course make sure to train C-bao to jump in with the "Boo!s" and scary cackling at the appropriate times.

Note

An enigmatic note that somehow shows up in K-Pop's pocket. Edifying message.

No prizes for guessing who the "mysterious author" is.

Hat Trick+

Let the record show that in league play yesterday young K-bao scored not one, not two, not three, but five goals for her soccer team the Lions. Almost a double hat trick.

Interestingly, on the car before the game, while we were still waiting for various family members to join us, K-bao had initiated the following dialogue with K-Pop:

• "Daddy, would you be upset if I didn't score today?" Of course not!
• "Well, would you be upset if I didn't try my best?" Well, I would probably be disappointed.
• "What if I scored a million goals but didn't try my best?" I still wouldn't like that.
• "Well, what if I tried my best but didn't score at all?" I would be very proud of you.
• "But you'd be the happiest if I tried my best and scored like 5 goals right?" Yes I suppose. But don't focus on the number of goals you're going to score.

Well, lo and behold, K-bao settled on the best outcome. And delivered exactly that number. 

Here is in fact the fifth goal (which was more of a tap-in on a rebound, after a fantastic charge downfield and an excellent first shot on goal...K-Pop wasn't fast enough with his camera on the other ones). 

Grace

Today the girls, while sitting side by side in a Costco shopping cart, got into a scrape, as sisters are wont to do. In the midst of it, however, young C-bao expressed her frustration in a highly unacceptable manner, and K-Pop was forced to intervene.

Pulling C-bao off the cart and after giving her a very stern talking to, K-Pop promised severe consequences for our 3-year-old after we returned home. C-bao walked meekly and sadly beside K-Pop as we came back to the cart.

That's when K-bao sprang into action. Though she was technically the victim in the altercation, she asked to come off the cart so she could comfort her little sister, who burst into tears as she ran into her older sister's arms.

Later, when we arrived home, K-bao intervened on behalf of her sister. "Please Daddy," she asked. "Can you not punish C-bao?"

This demonstration of grace and good sisterhood could not go ignored, so K-Pop took it easy on the little one, making sure to attribute his leniency to K-bao's advocacy. What started as an unfortunate conflict ended as an incredible relationship builder.

Later, when K-bao was getting ready for her shower, K-Pop observed little C-bao run into the bathroom to shout, "K-bao, I love you!" out of sheer gratitude.

#ASisterIsForever

Cool Biking

Now that K-bao has learned to bike, her latest hobby is zipping along the Golden Gate Park bike lane (veering recklessly, one might add), with sister C-bao scootering behind her, and K-Pop huffing and puffing on foot in third place, trying to keep up.

Too Cool for Bike School

Noodles

During this last trip down to LA, K-bao learned from K-Grandfolks the fine art of noodle-making.

Always a hands-on type of gal, K-bao loved every bit of it - particularly the part where she got to squeeze the dough into the machine and turn the crank.

Afterwards, K-Grandmum made her famous beef noodle soup, and K-bao and the rest of the family got to eat fresh noodles made by our little six-year-old.

Below K-Grandpops stands by to offer a few tips. Sister C-bao got into the action as well.

Shake It

"Higher, C-bao. Lift it higher"

Whenever K-bao visits K-Grandmum & K-Grandpops in LA, she feels the urge to put on a performance. Perhaps it is the long, grand staircase, so perfect for presenting to an adoring crowd below, that inspires her. Perhaps it is the untiring enthusiasm and unending patience displayed by her long-suffering grandfolks and great-grandma for K-bao's every initiative (see here, here and here - or even this post from 2009).

Recently, K-bao's proclivity to perform has been further enhanced by her infatuation with all things Taylor Swift.

Below is one scene among many that the K-Grandfolks and K-Great-Grandmum witnessed. The first video below is only the introduction to the show; K-bao insists on properly "Setting the Stage," including allowing her co-performer, sister C-bao, to also have a few words.

The second video captures most of the actual performance - set to Swift's Shake It Off, of course - including K-bao spending a good amount of time with her back to the audience observing her own moves in the reflection she sees in the television set. A few gymnastics maneuvers are also thrown in for good measure.

Space Mountain

This past week K-bao visited Disneyland for the second time in her young life. In contrast to 2.5 years ago, when K-bao was deep into "Princess" stage, this time she wanted nothing to do with princesses. Instead, it was all about the roller coasters.

And of the Disneyland coasters, somewhere along the way our little one picked up the notion that Space Mountain was the biggest and baddest. That was enough for K-bao. Being the natural thrill seeker that she is, Space Mountain quickly became Objectives #1, #2 and #3 -- and also quickly became all K-Pop and K-Mum heard about in the days leading up to the visit. ("Can I go to Space Mountain? Like three times? Or six times? Please? Pretty please? I can't wait for Space Mountain!")

Here she is before entering the famed Space Mountain dome.

"You realize this is small potatoes for me, right?"

Getting ready to follow the line into the dark tunnel

About to blast off!

So, after all that drama, here is how Ride #1 turned out: 

"You tying your shoes down there, K-bao?"

Now, to be fair, K-bao may or may not have been hiding her face the entire ride -- this cameo shot was auto-snapped near the end of the ride and K-bao may simply have been working out some kinks in her neck. 

Either way, she quickly recovered and insisted on doing it again. And again. And again. By the end of the two days, K-bao had become a regular Space Mountaineer. The last two rides are captured below: 

"I eat you for breakfast Spacey"

After that, the other "big girl rides" with 42"+ minimum height requirements -- the likes of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Indiana Jones -- all became small fry, and were quickly conquered by our intrepid little adventurer.