Uno Madness

K-bao has earned a few dollars recently, via a generous Tooth Fairy, a variety of chores and some memorized scripture. One of her first investments was in her Aunt Christina's charity run, to which she committed $2 (and, to her credit, would have given virtually her entire savings before her Aunt scaled her back).

The other major purchase - costing her $5, the majority of her bank account - was in a pack of Uno cards. Yes, that's right. A blast from K-Pop and K-Mum's (mostly K-Mum's) past. And since that fateful day, the family has whiled away many a long hour strategizing on skips and reverses, throwing down Wild cards, and dropping the dreaded +4 grenade. As the K-folks have learned, no Uno session is complete until K-bao asks "Can we play one more game?" and is turned down at least four or five times.

Uncle Chris, Aunt Lynn, and visiting out-of-towner Uncle Dave each got a taste of the Uno craze this past weekend, when all were roped into a marathon session with K-bao at Golden Gate Park. Forty minutes and multiple deck re-uses later, an exhausted Uncle Dave finally emerged victorious from the single game. K-bao's first response? "Just one more game? Great, I'll shuffle."

Stow Lake

A few weeks ago, K-bao had her first experience on a rowboat, at Stow Lake at Golden Gate Park.

While sister C-bao exhibited more caution in the boat - not helped by K-Mum's cries of "We're not going to make it! We're not going to make it! Let's say our last prayers!" - K-bao watched K-Pop for all of a few seconds before she insisted on trying her own hand at the oars. Of course, some of that impatience was likely driven by exasperation at K-Pop's less-than-efficient rowing.

K-bao discovered that controlling the boat was a little harder than it looked. An oar or two might even have slipped into the lake during her short-lived stewardship.

Unfortunately, K-Pop was too busy trying to maintain his balance and not fall into the water during this little adventure to take any pictures or videos, so no documentation has been preserved for future reference. In any case, while the K-folks aren't ones to draw any premature conclusions, let's just say that no one is banking on any future crew scholarships.

Picnic with XG2

Xiao Goo-Goo  (Aunt Catherine) was in town following the K-Grandfolks' visit. Here she is with the Hu fam out for a picnic at Golden Gate.

How time flies! Compare that last stroller picture with some of Xiao Goo-Goo's prior visits, in 2011 and 2010.

Up

A great day at Golden Gate Park for little K-bao, including experiencing a little air here with K-Pop.

Short Hike

After working for some 210 of the last 240 hours, K-Pop managed to get a couple hours today to take K-Mum and K-bao to Golden Gate park for a little bit of R&R. We also thought it would be a good opportunity to test out the Kelty Kids baby carrier that our dear friends A&Z's Mum & Phat Baby Photographer gave us, pictured above.

Now why exactly we thought it would be a good idea to test a hiking backpack at a city park is unclear, given that it took all of 2 minutes to walk from our car to the kids' playground, all on smooth, paved asphalt. Especially since it took us about 10 minutes to load her up in the carrier, figure out all the straps, buckles and other bells and whistles, and another 3 minutes to unload her once we got there.

Of course, our lengthy loading time was due in no small part to K-Mum insisting on attaching the "UV Screen" with its fancy hook and loop system - this despite the fact that the sun was setting and K-bao frankly would probably have been quite pleased to get a few warm rays on her pale, chubby cheeks. All in all, with our hiking backpack, UV screen, diaper bag and other paraphernalia, K-Pop felt like a traveling circus. Barnum, Bailey & Hu.

K-bao appeared to have fun though. It turns out that she enjoys people-watching; she spent a good deal of time staring at the older kids hollering and clambering all over the monkey bars. Hopefully she didn't pick up too much. She also enjoyed the baby swing and slide, shown below.