Vicissitudes

K-bao's days comprise of a series of mini booms and busts - shrieks of joy turning to tears of desperation and anguish in seconds, only to return to mischievous giggles a moment later. Such is the life of the emotionally (over)expressive 4-year old.

Today, her highs included (i) snuggling with her (sometimes reluctant) sister in the morning; (ii) taking a queen off of K-Pop in a morning game of chess (which led to shouts of acclamation and the triumphant play-by-play for K-Mum, immediately); and (iii) a thoroughly enjoyable birthday party this afternoon for one of her SLS friends, where she overindulged on cake, pizza and tattoos. K-bao is such an epicurean that at one point she was quite content to sit alone in a room savoring her last bites of cake while her friends dashed off to play - because, doggone it, she was not going to be rushed from her treats.

Her lows included (i) being deprived of additional sweets (i.e. being forced to hand over the madeleine she brought home from the party to K-Pop); (ii) getting a queen taken by K-Pop in an afternoon game of chess (where K-Pop's refusal to allow her to take back her move elicited a complete meltdown); and (iii) K-Mum deciding to skip the bedtime story and threatening to withhold a good night hug given her delay in getting to bed on time.

So in short, snuggles, sweets and success (in chess) - these are the ebbs and flows of our little one, circa 2013. We'll see what the next few decades bring.

Afloat

K-bao managed to sneak down to Uncle Calvin's for a swim in the warm Sunnyvale sun a few days ago. After a few months of basic swim classes K-bao is now quite comfortable kicking around in the pool, as long as she has a floaty - or her daddy's neck - to hang on to.

Take a look at her first swim back in 2009.

Fancy Nancy

K-Pop was strong-armed into playing the dreaded "Fancy Nancy" board game with K-bao.

As the game began, K-bao declared, "Whoever is the smallest gets to go first." This was said with such authority that K-Pop was initially stunned into silent submission.

After gathering his wits, K-Pop challenged this decree. K-bao promptly appealed to a higher authority. "That's what Mommy said. Go ask Mommy."

And that was only the beginning. As the game progressed, K-bao marched out a stunning array of rules, most of which just happened to benefit her position.

"It's [the spinner] stuck in the middle. Skip a turn!" "Give me that. You don't need it." "That's supposed to stay in the box."

Finally, K-Pop decided it was time to course-correct, and launched into a short lecture on the importance of love, respect and consideration, even in game-play.

At which point K-bao finally revealed her true colors. "Daddy, can you please just stop talking. I want to win!"


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cannibal

After the previously posted shouting match, K-bao continues the tomfoolery by pressuring her sister into sampling a finger.

The only comfort K-Pop takes in this whole affair is that at least C-bao had the heart to test out her bite on herself first - see her experimenting with "how hard is too hard" at 0:19 and 0:33 - before chewing on her sister.

Shout

Yes, the below is in fact how K-bao and C-bao talk to each other.

And we wonder why our neighbors give us dirty looks in the morning.

Feast

K-bao, who has a dear love of food and all things culinary, invites us to join her in "a feast."

Although the foods she initially highlights to K-Pop are mostly sweet treats, she nonetheless demonstrates a keen interest in making sure all of her guests consume a healthy balance of greens (which upon further observation she noted were inadequately represented).

Academy

It's been a little while since K-bao has visited the California Academy of Sciences (see the last documented visit here). Here she shows her peeps - the Liu Sisters and Sammy Liu - the old hood.

By the way, Little Sam-I-Am had a blast with all the female attention. Check out the ladies' man beaming from ear to ear and getting in some extra hugs from the girls.