Rong-Rong

One of the favorite parts of this trip for K-bao, besides all the attention she received as she walked down the aisle in her pretty Flower Girl dress, was of course the opportunity to hang out with Cousin Elizabeth, a.k.a. Rong-Rong.

Here she sits down to a 1:1 meal to have deep conversations with her intellectual cousin. Notice the thoughtful expressions, witty banter and sophisticated thinking clearly going on.



Here the cousins get up to introduce themselves before showing off their expert dance moves.

At the end of the trip, K-bao was highly reluctant to part with her cousin. On one of the last nights, knowing Rong-Rong was leaving the following morning at 4:30 a.m. for the airport, she tried to extract a promise from K-Pop that he would wake her up exactly at 4:00 a.m. to knock on the hotel door and say her last goodbyes.

When this demand was wisely refused, given the reception night bedtime of 11:00 p.m., she woke herself up anyway in the wee hours, in the dark, and tapped on K-bao's sleepy head in another effort to see her cousin one last time. "What time is it, Daddy? Can we go say goodbye now?" she whispered urgently.  Unfortunately, she was an hour late...and was ushered unhappily back into bed. "We'll Skype her soon!" promised K-Pop in a failing effort to console the little one.

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..."

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

Skype Prayer

Cousin Elizabeth, aka Rong-Rong Jieh-Jieh aka Rong-bao, Skypes with K-bao and was sad to hear that K-bao was not feeling well.

At the end of the Skype session pious little Rong-bao prays earnestly for the Lord to be with and heal her cousin. Little sister Ling-bao looks on.

Cousin Elizabeth

In a surprise turn of events last week in Taiwan, K-bao got to see her Aunt Esther (Da Goo-Goo), Uncle Ying-On and most importantly her Cousin Elizabeth (aka Rong-bao).

The two cousins, who hadn't seen each other for over three years other than through the occasional Skype / iPhone Facetime, immediately bonded. They compared notes on recent accomplishments, took over Xiao Goo-Goo's iPad to play games, got into mischief together and exchanged plenty of hugs.

Here is how they've grown over the years:

When it was finally time for K-bao to say goodbye to Taiwan, she refused to leave her cousin Rong-bao's side. Her first instinct was, predictably, defiance: "I am NOT leaving Taiwan! I am staying here in Taiwan with Rong-Rong forever!" Her second instinct was avoidance: she grabbed her cousin to find a place to hide out until those pesky parents left without her.

Cousins Redux

Aunty Esther (Da Goo Goo) and Cousin Elizabeth came to visit for a few days last weekend. A prodigy who is on her third language before the age of three, Elizabeth alternated between curiosity and fright as K-bao barged recklessly around the house, inserting herself into everyone's business. Here you see the cousins sharing a hug on the Hu family rocker, as well as some Barney time on the couch.

It was amazing for the respective parents to see how much the little ones on the other side had grown since the last visit.

Cousins

K-bao got to meet Cousin Elizabeth, who is almost 2, last week at the house of Da Goo Goo (Aunt Esther) and Da Goo Chan (Uncle Ying-on).

Cousin Elizabeth is unbelievably precocious and normally runs around like a steam locomotive, but demonstrated empathy for her infant cousin by lying on the mat with her and Pompous the 'Po, asking to play in the little exersaucer she hadn't had occasion to use for a year (she had to do it on her knees because her legs are now too long), introducing her to Disney's Mulan six times in three days, and taking K-bao into her lap every now and again. Good times by all.