Taiwan 2017

This summer K-bao made her third summer trip to Taipei to visit K-Grandpop, K-Grandmum and her other beloved relatives.

Indeed, as it was both her grandparents' 70th birthday and Father's Day in Taiwan, the entire extended family made it out from various cities around the world for a full reunion.

K-bao and her sister C-bao don't get a lot of time with their cousins and aunts and uncles on K-Pop's side, so it is always a blast for them to hang out.

Whether it be burying themselves in card games (Uno, The Big 2 which they both learned to play on this trip and absolutely love), huddling together over a table to watch the Netflix show Horseland, or just plain goofing around, whenever the cousins or Shu-Shu or Xiao Goo-Goo (and Uncle Zech) were around, it was a quick goodbye to K-Pop and K-Mum and the girls would be off.

Needless to say, K-bao also enjoyed plenty of great Taiwanese food -- beef noodle soup, red bean paste buns, black sesame desserts, ice soy bean milk and tea eggs. 

 K-bao had many other adventures in Asia this past August -- more posts to come!

Chinese Chorus

The first week we were in Taipei, K-bao attended a summer chorus camp at K-Grandfolks' church, Hsin-Yi Friendship Presbyterian Church, led by one of K-Granpop's closest friends, Pastor Shen. K-Pop and K-Mum figured this was a way to combine music & singing (K-bao's interests) with Chinese and church (more the K-folks' priority).

The camp was no joke. The teachers were apparently "the strictest in the whole world," according to K-bao. The music was in German and Chinese - serious pieces by composers such as Mendelssohn. And K-bao arrived in Taiwan only in time for the second and final week of the camp, so she had to play catch up.

However, K-bao took gamely to the task. One of the great things about our little one is her gumption and adaptability. After a bit of hesitation on Day 1, she dove right in, and completed the week without complaint.

At the end of the week, the choral group and the drama team put on a little concert play. The full family group attended, including K-Grandmum (K-Grandpop had to be in HK for the weekend), Aunt Catherine, Uncle James, C-bao, and the parents.

Her favorite song of the camp was probably Abenstille Uberall, which K-Pop captured in the video below.

 

After her performance, Xiao Goo-Goo and Shu-Shu presented the little one with a rose.

Games in Taiwan

K-bao made her second trip to Taipei, Taiwan over the past few weeks. It was her third trip to Asia in seven years. Once again, K-bao thoroughly enjoyed herself.

The first thing she did upon arriving at the airport in Taipei was a cartwheel. Naturally.

K-bao hadn't seen the K-grandfolks, Xiao Goo Goo (Aunt Catherine) or Shu-Shu (Uncle James)in over a year, and she wasted no time getting her beloved relatives to play all sorts of games with her. This was a theme that would repeat itself throughout the trip.

In fact, here is a video of K-bao challenging K-Grandpop to a Rubik's Cube race.

Happy Recessional

One of the more touching moments of our trip to Singapore recently for XGG (Aunt Catherine) and WZ Shu-Shu's wedding occurred at the end of the ceremony.

Once the marriage was officially declared, the music coordinator started blasting Pharrell Williams' hit "Happy" and the happy couple began leading the wedding party recessional, dancing down the aisle toward the exit. The flower girls, K-bao, C-bao and Cousin Elizabeth, were also supposed follow along.

Little sister C-bao, though, was unsure what to do. The wedding party was moving fast, and once some separation was created, she felt even more hesitant to move forward.

That's when K-bao sprang into action. Looking back, she motioned for C-bao to join. When that didn't work, she came back up the aisle part-way, and demonstrated more actively. Finally, seeing C-bao still rooted to the spot, she came all the way back, took her sister by the hand, and led her back to join the group.

Leave no sister behind!

The Ceremony

It's finally here!

Aunt Catherine and Uncle Zech's magnificent wedding ceremony in Singapore is documented beautifully in the above highlight clip.

The bride was stunning, the groom handsome, and of course the little ones did their best to play their part.

The girls make their entrance at 3:19 in the video. Sister C-bao led off the procession, striding resolutely down the aisle without bothering to dispense too many petals, as if late for an appointment. K-bao, on the other hand, took her time, solemnly and gracefully.

In between them was a young lad, a relation of WZ Shu-Shu's, whose gleeful, clearly intentional pitches of the ring pillow was more than made up for by sheer adorableness. And of course, stately Cousin Elizabeth made up the rear, ushering her young cousins ahead.

The bridesmaids then made their appearance, with Matron of Honor Da Goo-Goo (Aunt Esther) finally preceding the bride.

All three young ladies were beautiful in their flowing white gowns. In all, a fantastic experience for young K-bao and her sister.

Below is the original invitation from Xiao Goo-Goo from many months ago:

Family time

K-bao got to catch up with quite a few family members in Singapore. Here she shares a laugh with K-Grandmum and some other women in the family. 

The group took a quick day trip to the wonderful Gardens by the Bay, which was not only beautiful, but beautifully air-conditioned.

Here are the various granddaughters on the same trip, huddled around K-Grandmum and having a good time.



One of the best meals of the trip for our little epicurean was the brunch buffet with K-Grandpop & K-Grandmum at the St. Regis. As usual, K-bao's eyes were several times bigger than her stomach, as she wandered around excitedly from station to station, collecting plate after plate.

Below is the last evening with the always-popular Shu-Shu (a.k.a. Uncle James). This expression on his face is pretty typical of his interactions with the little ones (see, for example, here), as he is usually fending off some overexpressive advances by his little nieces.

And of course, the star of the show, Xiao Goo-Goo (Aunt Catherine). Here K-bao and C-bao, along with cousin Elizabeth, are being hosted by WZ Shu-Shu's family on the eve of the big day.

She also saw Da Goo-Goo (Aunt Esther) just about every day, but didn't get as many pics with her.

Singapore!

K-bao's just returned from a whirlwind trip to Singapore where she was a flower girl for Aunt Catherine & WZ Shu-Shu's wedding.

It was a fantastic experience for the little one and, like her Taiwan visit in the summer of 2013, worth a few posts. She got to see pretty much the whole fam on K-Pop's side - including her fave, Cousin Elizabeth - and met a number of new friends as well.

Here she is en route:

Clowning around with sister C-bao at a stopover in HK (see video below)

K-Mum packed a suitcase worth of books and coloring pencils for the flight

"Weak sauce! I'm never tired!"

"I can do it, really I can! Hang on a sec...just wait one moment..."

Self Esteem

The dresses have arrived!

K-bao, along with sister C-bao, will be a flower girl at her Aunt Catherine's upcoming wedding.

Once the dress was donned, of course, the overconfidence ensued.

WZ Shu-Shu

K-bao's Aunt Catherine's fiance, Wen Zheng Shu-Shu, came by to visit recently.

K-bao, who is a big fan of her Aunt Catherine a.k.a. Xiao Goo-Goo, figured that anyone who was going to join the family ought to be initiated into standard family practices.

Soon WZ Shu-Shu found himself building Lego houses with the little one...

...being "locked down" (while forced to listen to chants of "lock-down, baby, lock-down!")...

...and listening to K-bao prance around singing Let It Go. Welcome to the family WZ!

To Our Nieces

K-bao and C-bao's talented Aunt and Uncle (Shu-Shu and Xiao Goo-Goo) penned, sang and recorded a brief piece of music for their 4 nieces, including K-bao, one recent afternoon in Taipei. The song contains a number of worthy messages for our little one.

Music: To 四個乖小孩

Lyrics:

寶貝妳要做個乖小孩

Watch the tone when you are asking why

做個討神喜悅乖女孩

Our love will always be with you

永不分開

寶貝乖乖跌倒不用怕

It hurts a bit but you will grow a lot

別因妳可愛就不用聽話

Learn to love and trust in God

Your life will be

Right where it should be

記得永遠守護妳的心

XGG & S2

The bulk of K-bao's time in Taipei this trip was spent with the K-Grandfolks, Xiao Goo-Goo (Aunt Catherine, aka XGG) and Shu-Shu (Uncle James, aka S2).

Indeed, within 24 hours K-bao made clear she would rather spend her time with XGG and S2 - who appeared half as mean and twice as fun - than with her own parents.

Let's just say that that message (which sounded a whole lot like "Free babysitting!") was music to the ears of the fatigued K-folks.

On one of the first days in Taipei, XGG took K-bao and the family to her old workplace, Xue Xue Institute, a private non-profit entity working to foster greater creativity and intersection among the arts, philosophy, design, business and science.  There, K-bao assembled magnet houses, was filmed dancing to Gangnam Style while twirling a baton, and generally ran around creating a mess.

Meanwhile, Uncle James / S2 was strong-armed into playing chess, answering nonsensical questions, and sitting next to little K-bao whenever she had a meal. Indeed, instead of greeting K-Grandpops politely when she saw him in the morning, her first questions were invariably, "Where's Shu-Shu? Where's Xiao Goo-Goo?"

By the end of the trip, poor XGG and S2, who had indeed put in plenty of free babysitting time, appeared almost as worn out as the K-folks. As for K-bao?  Her usual refrain: "I'm never tired!"

.........

Here is little K-bao getting an impromptu live concert by the talented XGG and S2. Before long, K-bao was on her feet, dancing along to the music.