Vallejo

This weekend, K-bao was assigned to take care of her class mascot, Vallejo, and document their time together in a class journal.

It was a much anticipated couple of days, as the grizzled, unassuming stuffed lion is apparently very popular among the girls.

It was quite a packed weekend and little Vallejo had plenty to see and do. He started bright and early Saturday morning by cheering on his namesake team, the Lions, in their club soccer game.

That was followed by a visit to Golden Gate Park, where K-bao competed in the annual San Francisco Scholastic Chess Championship in the K/1st Grade category. Vallejo, who doesn't play himself, nonetheless gamely looked on while K-bao played four games over four hours.

Let the record show that that K-bao came away with two victories, a loss and one stalemate. Here she is with her medal, which she generously shared with Vallejo.

Later that evening, Vallejo accompanied our little one to a party at Uncle Steve's and Aunt Anna's place, where he joined the gang of "6-and-unders" running around hollering at the top of their lungs for about three hours. Here they finally take a quick breather:

On Sunday, K-bao took Vallejo to church at a new service on the peninsula, where they met with her three friends Dylan, Naomi and Emmett. This was followed by a birthday party with friend Alex, an occasion predictably filled with dolls, dresses and sweets galore.

Later in the afternoon, Vallejo, who was just about exhausted at this point, was dragged along by the ever energetic K-bao for further running and playing in the sun at a nearby park, where he met up with a number of girlfriends from the morning.

"Help! Too many X chromosomes!" cries Vallejo 

A full weekend indeed! Vallejo returns to school for a much needed 5-day sabbatical, after which he will resume his weekend adventures with another of K-bao's friends. 

Chicanery

Several weeks ago little K-bao was nursing a loose tooth. One day, the conversation turned to the Tooth Fairy. K-bao remarked upon how "lucky" one of her former classmates was, whose Tooth Fairy was apparently "Soooooo generous," as compared to K-bao's stingy one (whose Fairy tight-fistedly doled out only $2 for K-bao's last canine).

That's when the idea struck.

"I know!" cried K-bao excitedly. "I'll trick the Tooth Fairy! I'll put an envelope under my pillow and pretend that my tooth has already fallen out. Then when my tooth actually comes out I can do it again!"

To no avail did K-Pop and K-Mum remind her about The Boy Who Cried Wolf; in vain did we discuss her long-term relationship with the Tooth Fairy and how she might feel and what she might do once she found out that the envelope was empty. All the grand biblical principles we shared about the importance of honesty and not bearing false witness was as much wind blowing in the air.

The fake envelope was created and sealed, with a devious little message: "Look for the tooth."

Unfortunately, the following morning, K-bao learned to her disappointment that the Tooth Fairy had not fallen for her little scheme. No piggies in the envelope.

Lo and behold, that very afternoon the loose tooth came out. And dutifully did K-bao place it in a sealed envelope, which went in its place under the pillow. The next morning, K-bao woke up to the following missive:

It turns out the Tooth Fairy wasn't born yesterday. "Ahhh," thought the K-folks with satisfaction. "Surely that one will sink in."

But wait! The little one wasn't done. Turning to Uncle Calvin, who was visiting, K-bao had the following exchange before breakfast was even on the table:

K-bao: "Hey Uncle Calvin, want to trade two of your dollars for this two dollar bill?" (not emphasizing, of course, that her bill appeared to be manufactured in a playroom somewhere and not the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing)
Uncle Calvin: "Well....uh....maybe. But I only have a twenty dollar bill."
K-bao: "That's ok. I'll take your twenty dollars."
Uncle Calvin: "Or actually...I think I have two single dollar bills."
K-bao: "Well in that case, I'll take those, but then I'll have to keep this fake two dollar bill."
Uncle Calvin: "......Wait, what?..."

Before we knew it, somehow the negotiations were completed and two real dollars were in K-bao's piggy bank, while Uncle Calvin was left holding the Tooth Fairy's colored paper.

#LessonFail

Saturday

A typical Saturday for K-bao.

1. Wake up earlier than the household. Burst into sister C-bao's room, rousing everybody. Convince sister to jump out of bed and begin running around raucously.

2. Plead for sugary cereal for breakfast. Get turned down. Handed a bagelwich on the way to her soccer game.

3. Join her school club team, the Lions, for the first soccer game of the new season. Score a couple of nice goals. Enjoy a ton of snacks (madeleines, clementines, yogurts, juices) after the game, which appears to be the point of the whole thing for the majority of the girls.

4. Head to the chess club downtown. Play a couple of games with K-Pop. Lose game 1 due largely to watching every other game going on in the club other than her own. Dominate most of game 2 before losing concentration in the endgame.

5. Visit the mall for a late pizza lunch, followed by clementines and froyo. (After stuffing a half clementine in her mouth in one bite, exclaim loudly, "Don't think that's aggressive - I've had a whole clementine in my mouth before!")

6. Walk around the streets of San francisco. Create altogether too much noise with sister C-bao while playing with balloons and striking silly poses.

7. Shop for groceries. Serendipitously run into a kindergarten classmate. Create havoc (such as breaking into a spontaneous limbo dancing routine using checkout counter equipment).

8. Come home, quick shower, quick dinner and bedtime routine. Another full day tomorrow!

The Trees

K-bao got up early on a Sunday morning and was feeling lyrical. She got out the markers, and with an assist by Uncle Calvin on the spelling of a word or two, penned the following verse:

The Trees

The trees are very green,

The lake is very blue, 

Roses are very red,

Grapes on trees are very purple,

Flowers are very pink,

What is orange?

Clearly a colorful one, is little K-bao.