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.

Running on Water

K-bao and her sister C-bao are both big fans of her Aunt Catherine and Uncle James' band The Lighters. Here they are belting out the chorus to The Lighters' hit single "Running on Water" (which can be purchased here).

Collaboration

After service today K-Pop went to pick up K-bao from Sunday school. Class was over, and K-Pop found her engaging in a structure building exercise with her buddies.

K-Pop liked both the leadership and the collaboration skills he saw in his short one-minute observation. #21stCenturySkills, as they saw in education circles these days.

Higher

If K-Pop has one job in this world, it is to help little K-bao reach new heights.

Gymnast

K-bao has always enjoyed gymnastics, but over the past couple of years as we've been forced to prioritize among the never ending stream of activities, gymnastics has gotten the proverbial short end of the activity stick.

This summer we enrolled her in a series of summer camps, and one of them was a week-long program at the JCC that included, among other things, dancing, somersaulting, tumbling and the like. What did that mean for the ever-active, hyper-energetic, kinetically motivated K-bao? Pure joy!

Below are some action shots, as well as a video of a ring routine.

Biking & Scootering

K-Mum recently declared that K-Pop had been entirely derelict in his duty to teach young K-bao to ride a bike. This was a charge that even K-Pop had to concede was well-founded.

K-Mum decided to take matters into her own hands. Last week she bought our budding 1st grader a bicycle, and then over the course of only a day and a half, over by an empty school playground near Balboa Park, lo and behold she taught K-bao to bike without training wheels. And K-bao, quick learner that she is, took to it like a fish to water.

Not to be outdone, young C-bao has picked up scootering in an equally short timeframe, as shown below (though the turns could use a little tightening).

Summer

Here's K-bao with sister C-bao after church on a recent Sunday.

The girls are growing quickly and both K-Pop and K-Mum have noticed some real changes this summer. K-bao in particular seems to have shot up a couple of inches in the last few months.

It won't be long before holding a girl in each arm won't really work for K-Pop anymore (without first doing some iron pumping to build up those biceps, that is).

Quick, before my arms fall off

Call Me Maybe

K-bao, who recently has fallen in love with a number of pop songs by the likes of Taylor Swift, Katie Perry and Carly Rae Jepsen -- not at K-Pop or K-Mum's introduction, we hasten to add -- belts out at the top of her lungs:

      "All the other boys, try to chase me,
      But here's my number, so call me maybe!"

Yes, at 6 years old. #HoustonWeHaveAProblem