Shoes & Love

Unfortunately for K-Pop, K-bao has inherited her mother's love of shoes. Though to be fair, the footwear fetish appears widespread among the fairer gender. Several months ago, K-Pop was riding in the back of a taxi with a colleague, and the subject of shoes came up. K-Pop shared how his beloved wife has a closet full of shoes, all in their original shoe boxes. K-Pop's colleague chimed in that, indeed, his wife has two closets full. Before we could go on, the taxi driver whipped around and snapped, "Now don't get me started on my wife's shoes!"

This past weekend, once K-bao spotted her new shoes in the closet, she would not rest until she had them on her little hoofs. She was a little munchkin on a mission - pawing away like a mad badger until K-Pop finally relented and helped her unzip the box. Below, you can see K-bao first removing the shoes from their packaging, then comparing the new shoes to her existing all-of-3-months-old sneaks, summarily discarding her old shoes for the new, ripping a little tissue paper as a side project, and then stuffing her old shoes back in the box for good measure.

Music & Dancing

K-bao shows off her Janet Jackson hip-hop spin below. K-Mum made up a game with this particular little blue toy where we dance until the music stops (she subscribes to the Chuck Prince theory of market making). Of course, when the music starts up again, so must the dancing. Big hit with K-bao. Now a big headache for everyone else.

Structure

We're starting to get a little worried. We always knew that K-bao was into order, structure and routines, but this is getting to be a little too much.

In the morning, K-bao walks into the bathroom, points out her blue bumbo chair, and starts signing for K-Pop to brush his teeth the second she sits down in it (the sign consists of K-bao rubbing her teeth with her fingers while looking at K-Pop anxiously and grunting). You can see her helping K-Pop brush below.

Even as K-Pop is still rinsing his mouth, she is signing for K-Pop to shave (this consists of scratching her face, together with the aforementioned grunting and anxious looks). Always think ahead, Pop.

When that is done, and she gets the little splish splash discussed in the last post, she runs over to the kitchen and points to the coffee pot and hollers. Nothing can distract her or move her from her spot until we pick her up and go through the coffee-making routine, during which she always insists on helping to put in the filter and close the coffee machine lid.

You're getting the picture. There are numerous other examples. When K-Mum takes K-bao to the California Academy of Sciences, which she does a couple of times a week, K-bao insists on walking through the same route each and every time:

(1) Hit up the exhibits in the African Hall

(2) Spend some time with the South African penguins

(3) Walk through the Science in Action area, quickly

(4) End at the Early Explorers Cove, where she likes to spend the majority of her time

(5) If, and only if, she feels "up to it" at the end, she will make K-Mum bring her down to the Water Planet on the lower level to see the Alligator Gars and Philippine Coral Reef

Occasionally K-Mum will try and skip a step, e.g. go straight to the South African penguins without giving the African Hall exhibits their due. K-bao will have none of it. She will run back, point, grunt, squeal, hoot and make a nuisance of herself until the proper order (which was established apparently on Visit #1) is followed. When she is done with an exhibit, she will unerringly point in the direction of the next one.

As another example, when K-Pop first comes home, K-bao will run over and try and untie his shoe laces to enforce the "No Shoes Except for K-bao's Shoes Allowed Indoors" rule. The moment the shoes come off, K-bao won't rest until they are properly stowed in the closet. She enforces these rules with more peskiness than an airline stewardess telling you to shut down your phone before take-off. As a result our little hallway has never looked so clean and neat.

Anticipation

As part of K-bao's morning routine of sitting in her blue bumbo chair, admiring herself in the mirror and watching K-Pop shave, she gets a little splish splash in the face after Daddy rinses off. K-bao quickly learned when to expect the douse - i.e. immediately following K-Pop's fingers curling into the "flicker" position.