Straw Wars

"Draw thy straw, sister!"

While hanging out in the Outer Sunset last weekend waiting for K-Mum, who was attending a friend's baby shower, K-bao lunched with K-Pop and her sister at a local Chinese joint on Noriega Street, and then stopped by Bubble for afternoon tea and dessert.

Spotting the wide angle straws commonly used in such locales to enable suction of tapioca balls, K-bao naturally wasted no time in challenging her sister to a public straw-saber joust.

"On guard, little one!"

While it has always been somewhat ironic that K-bao and her sister are grandchildren of a career diplomat, who in his retirement has taught such university courses as International Etiquette (emphasizing the proper behaviors one might demonstrate in public settings such as restaurants), recently K-bao has really been taking said irony to a new level.

Coop City

A few months ago, in a moment of boredom one day in the car, K-Mum challenged K-bao to see who could spot more Mini Coopers before they reached their destination.

Boy, does she rue the day.

At first, it was easy-peasy for K-Mum. Games were relaxing and fun. K-bao could barely identify a Mini Cooper, let alone beat the eagle-eyed K-Mum, who also had the advantage of always sitting in the front seat and being quite a bit taller. As K-Mum drove down certain neighborhoods packed with Minis, she would remark, "Wow, we are in Coop City! 3 on every block! There's a blue one! I've already gotten seven! Better focus, K-bao!"

But soon K-bao started holding her own. She seemed to develop her own special Mini Cooper radar, and before long could spot a Mini by a mere bumper or a glimpse of a headlight. In addition, she started to get sassy about the score, e.g. about who spotted which Mini first, or how many she had already counted, or perhaps even conjuring up phantom Coops on side streets we zipped by.

"That's two Mini Coopers! Two to zero!"

These days - many months later - K-bao cannot seem to take a five minute ride without trying to start up a game, and will plead ceaselessly with K-Mum (or K-Pop, who has somehow gotten himself roped into this racket) and give us no peace until one of us finally caves.

Of course, K-Mum has tried refusing to play - many a time. But besides the persistent whining, K-bao always seems to find a way to egg on and taunt her competitive mom until she gets her way (i.e. "I've already spotted three, Mom. That's 3 to 0. You're definitely going to lose. Wait, red one! That's 4-0.").

In desperation, K-Pop initially tried shifting the game to pick-up trucks (disaster - there are far too many in the city), and more recently has tried Fiats, which thankfully appear to be a great deal less popular than Minis and has resulted in a whole lot less shouting in the car. We've also initiated the "Let's count silently until we get there and see who ends up with more" option, with some early success thus far. Fingers crossed to see how long that one lasts.

Rainbow Magic

Over the course of the last half year or so, K-bao has gotten seriously caught up in the Rainbow Magic series.

K-Mum was the one who first turned her on to the series in the fall by borrowing a couple of the books from the local library and incorporating them into the bedtime reading routine. Soon thereafter, K-Pop found himself being coerced by the little one into including a chapter or two of the latest fairy adventure whenever it was his reading turn.

Luckily, over the course of her kindergarten year, K-bao's reading skills improved by leaps and bounds, such that by the beginning of this year, she was starting to read them by herself. (To which the K-folks said: "Hallelujah! Thank you Lord! Unlock the magic within! Goodbye Jack Frost the goblin!").

Indeed, over the last few months, unless she is going to school or the park, K-bao doesn't leave home without her literary friends Kirstie Tate and Rachel Walker accompanying her. In fact, K-Pop has even caught her reading crouched by the night light an hour after bedtime. We thought that problem was at least 6 years away.

Furthermore, upon investigation - how did six new Rainbow Magic books appear every time K-Mum returned from the library?? - it turns out that there are over 150 Rainbow Magic books published over the last dozen years or so. Gasp! (which, by the way, is Kirstie and Rachel's favorite thing to do. They gasp pretty much on every page). Of course, the magic is explained by the fact that author Daisy Meadows is a fictional character herself; the books are ghostwritten by a committee.

But the K-folks won't complain. The Rainbow series has unquestionably contributed an average of at least 80-90 decibels of peace a day to the K-household. God bless Daisy Meadows!

Boots

K-bao dons K-Mum's boots and immediately starts strutting around like a proud peacock.

Not sure what it is about boots that gives gals such zest, but whatever it is K-bao felt it right away.

"Fob-in-Boots"

Happy Mother's Day

On this Mother's Day, K-bao stops to give a big Thank You to K-Mum for all of her love, sacrifices and commitment over the last 6 years. Thank you Mum!

Always walking beside us

Government

K-bao and K-Pop were at the mall today and fell into conversation about the government.

It started with K-bao asking how long it took for the mall to be built. "Years," replied K-Pop. Queried as to why so long, K-Pop found himself going through the complexities related to zoning, regulation and bureaucracy. This then snowballed into a conversation about laws, democracy and representative government.

K-bao listened intently for a while, digesting her first lesson in Political Science.

The first line out of her mouth was:

"Daddy, when I grow up I'm going to be the government and I'm going to boss you around."

No Food

K-Pop came home the other day famished, as he had managed to skip lunch again - something that happens not uncommonly in his busy days at work. 

The first thing he saw, however, were the following little messages posted on the wall.

That's right, you read that correctly. "No food till you say Yes to chess," says one of them.

"Yes chess x 4 || No food" says another, in case the first one wasn't abundantly clear. To soften the tone of the messages, a little red heart was appended to each note.

The third note was of a similar vein, except it was printed audaciously on a card that included a message of "Who's the Sweetest?"

K-Pop didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The girl certainly knows how to ask for what she wants directly - perhaps a desirable characteristic. The pairing with a message that applied some extortionist pressure was, of course, a little less desirable.

In end end of course, K-Pop found himself sitting down to the chess board (with a bowl of rice in hand). Ask and ye shall receive.