Mexico

Over the winter break, K-bao & family made a trip down to Mexico to attend the wedding of K-Mum's cousin Uncle Stephen. Sister C-bao was also invited to be a flower girl. K-bao was not happy to learn that she had aged out of the program. However, the trip was so relaxing and full of sugar that she quickly forgot about the disappointment.

K-bao had a lot of fun hanging out with her cousins J-Cuz (cousin Justin) and K-K. Here she take K-K on a lap around the pool, and then comes down the water slide with J-Cuz.

The key attraction was, of course, the unlimited dessert buffet. No further explanation needed.

One of the nice highlights of the trip included an in-house performance of The Lion King at the resort.

Birthday

Happy birthday K-bao! Our not-so-little-one has turned 7.

K-bao had an active day. The morning was filled with a basketball game with her team, The Cats. Here she dribbles the ball upcourt before handing the ball over to a teammate for a blown assist.



After a big brunch, she and the fam were joined by Uncle Calvin for an afternoon of bowling.

Checking out the scoreboard with a concerned look

Check out that professional bowling stance

After dinner at a local Vietnamese restaurant, where she enjoyed garlic noodles, the family had a modest celebration at home with some of K-bao's favorite desserts, courtesy of Uncle Calvin. (We won't mention on these pages how much of these desserts she was actually able to partake in today due to other dessert consumption choices earlier in the day, of course).

Thanks for the sweets Xiao Jiu!

Sharing some hugs with K-Pop and K-Mum below.

First Recital

K-bao has been playing piano now for a few months, and had her first recital recently. The K-folks hope that learning the instrument and going through the process of practicing and progressing will not only teach the little one some musicality, but also the value of discipline and hard work.

Admittedly, neither K-Pop nor K-Mum were shining examples of these virtues in their own checkered histories of learning the piano, but perhaps things will turn around with this younger generation.

Here she is lining up with the other fellow piano players ahead of the performance.

Aunt Chris and Uncle Calvin were kind enough to attend, along with the rest of the family.

Here she is with a friend from school who also happens to be taking lessons with the same teacher.

Below is the clip of her full recital - all 55 seconds of it. K-bao played two songs, Are You Sleeping? and Yankee Doodle, which she practiced assiduously in the couple of weeks leading up to the performance. And aside from making some funny faces after each song, she did quite well.

Post recital group picture with her certificate of accomplishment!

Chicanery

Several weeks ago little K-bao was nursing a loose tooth. One day, the conversation turned to the Tooth Fairy. K-bao remarked upon how "lucky" one of her former classmates was, whose Tooth Fairy was apparently "Soooooo generous," as compared to K-bao's stingy one (whose Fairy tight-fistedly doled out only $2 for K-bao's last canine).

That's when the idea struck.

"I know!" cried K-bao excitedly. "I'll trick the Tooth Fairy! I'll put an envelope under my pillow and pretend that my tooth has already fallen out. Then when my tooth actually comes out I can do it again!"

To no avail did K-Pop and K-Mum remind her about The Boy Who Cried Wolf; in vain did we discuss her long-term relationship with the Tooth Fairy and how she might feel and what she might do once she found out that the envelope was empty. All the grand biblical principles we shared about the importance of honesty and not bearing false witness was as much wind blowing in the air.

The fake envelope was created and sealed, with a devious little message: "Look for the tooth."

Unfortunately, the following morning, K-bao learned to her disappointment that the Tooth Fairy had not fallen for her little scheme. No piggies in the envelope.

Lo and behold, that very afternoon the loose tooth came out. And dutifully did K-bao place it in a sealed envelope, which went in its place under the pillow. The next morning, K-bao woke up to the following missive:

It turns out the Tooth Fairy wasn't born yesterday. "Ahhh," thought the K-folks with satisfaction. "Surely that one will sink in."

But wait! The little one wasn't done. Turning to Uncle Calvin, who was visiting, K-bao had the following exchange before breakfast was even on the table:

K-bao: "Hey Uncle Calvin, want to trade two of your dollars for this two dollar bill?" (not emphasizing, of course, that her bill appeared to be manufactured in a playroom somewhere and not the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing)
Uncle Calvin: "Well....uh....maybe. But I only have a twenty dollar bill."
K-bao: "That's ok. I'll take your twenty dollars."
Uncle Calvin: "Or actually...I think I have two single dollar bills."
K-bao: "Well in that case, I'll take those, but then I'll have to keep this fake two dollar bill."
Uncle Calvin: "......Wait, what?..."

Before we knew it, somehow the negotiations were completed and two real dollars were in K-bao's piggy bank, while Uncle Calvin was left holding the Tooth Fairy's colored paper.

#LessonFail

The Trees

K-bao got up early on a Sunday morning and was feeling lyrical. She got out the markers, and with an assist by Uncle Calvin on the spelling of a word or two, penned the following verse:

The Trees

The trees are very green,

The lake is very blue, 

Roses are very red,

Grapes on trees are very purple,

Flowers are very pink,

What is orange?

Clearly a colorful one, is little K-bao.

Giorgio's

K-bao visited her favorite restaurant tonight, Giorgio's, together with Xiao Ah-Yi (Aunt Christina) and Jiu Jiu (Uncle Calvin).

Earlier in the day, K-bao was asked by Uncle Calvin to name her 5 favorite foods. It didn't take much effort to rattle them off:

1. Pizza ("From Giorgio's!")
2. Mac & Cheese
3. Spaghetti with meatballs and Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top
4. Baked lasagna with cheese
5. Grilled cheese

See a common thread? Anyhow, that was the inspiration for dinner. 

Let the record show that K-bao polished off four (4) slices of pepperoni pizza tonight, along with several pieces of heavily buttered bread. That was more than any adult at the table. 

Indeed, as one can see, she was so busy stuffing her face that she couldn't be bothered to turn to the camera to say "Cheese!"

Lucky 13

Over Christmas and New Year K-bao got to spend some time with K-Mum's side of the family. Indeed, with K-Great-Grandmum in the house, along with all the cousins, there were 13 happy campers in all. It was a festive gathering which extended over many days.

There was plenty of lounging time...

...but also some intense activities. In the below "friendly" Bocce ball match, the judge (Uncle Calvin) had to resort to taking off his shoelaces to measure the distance between the balls in order to resolve a dispute between the teams. (One can also see contestant Aunt Christina - clearly not fully trusting in the process - on the ground closely inspecting the measuring activity.)

"Pull that string tighter! Tighter!"

A highlight for K-bao was of course spending time with her cousins, particularly J-Cuz, i.e. Cousin Justin. The two built Magna Tile castles, read Bible stories aloud and even tested their arm strength against each other (refereed once again by Uncle Calvin). K-bao and sister C-bao also had fun playing with Justin's younger sister, Cousin Kaitlyn, who is a few days older than C-bao.

"Don't let my expression (or my 2 hands) fool you, J - I'm only using 30% of my strength"

"Don't try this at home, kids"

As usual, K-Grandmum, saint that she is, spent most of her personal time cooking up great heaps of delicious food to feed the hungry crowds.

Bocce!

On a recent weekend trip to Uncle Calvin's for barbeque and cake, K-bao had her first exposure to Bocce Ball. It turns out Xiao Jiu's building complex has an outdoor bocce court with an artificial, mini-golf-like surface.

After dessert, of which K-bao had more than her fair share, we ventured out to the court and split into teams. K-bao got the rules quickly, and surprised everyone with her skills. In fact, despite a rather unorthodox bowling style, in 2 of the 3 games we played, K-bao delivered the closest ball to the jack of any contestant. All while playing in a flowy white dress.

Naturally, after hitting that kind of winning streak, it was hard to drag the little one off the court. ("Just one more game? Please? Anyone?")

Here is the beaming bocce ball winner.

Human Hoop

Here is why K-bao loves her Uncle Calvin.


That's right. Since K-bao isn't quite able to reach the standard height basketball hoop, Xiao Jiu (aka Jiu-Jiu aka Uncle Calvin) constructed a hoop for the little one by putting his body on the line. This also entailed allowing his face to be used as the backboard.

With this construct, K-bao made a decent number of baskets and is excited to play again.

(Don't ask whether K-Pop was on the side encouraging K-bao to "bank it in off the backboard").

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Not Confirmed

A couple of weekends ago, the K-folks went to a Parenting Seminar hosted by our church. Uncle Calvin and Aunt Christina (a.k.a. Xiao Jiu and Xiao Ah-Yi) generously came by to babysit during that time. At one point, the following text exchange transpired between Uncle Calvin and K-Pop:

You read that right. Out of an abundance of caution given the chilly weather, Uncle Calvin wisely asks K-bao put on some warm pants, and reinforces his authority by texting first for parental confirmation.

After said confirmation is given by K-Pop, somehow the little one sneaks away her Uncle's phone, manages to read the text exchange, and in her contrarian mischievousness types: "Not confirmed. Kaylajordanhumomanddad." And then a bunch of euphemistic gibberish to express her frustration at having to change out of her pretty dress.

The Parenting Seminar did indeed address how parents should deal with rebels, but what about supremely cute and literate ones?

Thanksgiving Tree

Over Thanksgiving K-bao engaged in an exercise with her extended family to encourage all to reflect on their blessings.

Predictably, K-bao's favorite part was not so much writing out her blessings, but handing out the activity pieces and instructing everyone else on what to do.

Each person was supposed to write out up to 3 things they were thankful for, on individual leaves, while putting prayer requests on pieces of red fruit.

K-bao's Thanksgiving Leaves were: "Family," "Friends" and "Food" - unclear what order those were supposed to be in, but everyone appreciated the alliteration - while her Fruit prayer requests were for "Uncle Calvin and Aunt Christina" as well as for "K-Great-Grandmum" (represented by a stick figure).

Here she is working on the project.

The finished tree after various family members wrote out their leaves and fruits.

K-bao's prayer request, and what she is thankful for: 

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.

Uncle Birthday

Uncle Calvin was here for his 25th birthday a few nights ago.  K-bao was delighted to help celebrate it with him, not only because he's one of her faves, but also because it meant both staying up past her bedtime and lots of cake. Here she is enthusiastically joining in on both the Chinese and English versions of Happy Birthday.

Bullfighting

Knowing her passion for her bei-bei, Uncle Calvin discovered this little trick to keep K-bao entertained. After showing us his discovery, he noted "There's a lot more mileage on this one." And indeed, we've used it almost daily to get some giggles from the little one.

Uncle Xiao Jiu

K-bao is a fan of her Xiao Jiu - "Little Uncle," a.k.a. Uncle Calvin. It may be because of his gentle disposition or infinite patience, or it may be because he lets her abuse him.* It could also be because of his burly hands and capacious digits - she has shown an affection for hanging on to particular protuberances such as K-Pop's ears (while being carried around) and Xiao Jiu's index fingers (while eating or watching Barney).

Below are some shots of Xiao Jiu zooming our little Supergirl around on a cardboard box. Naturally, K-bao demanded repeated zooming until poor Uncle Calvin had built up a month's worth of lactic acid in those quadriceps.

* K-bao's capacity for cheerfully overtaxing her uncles is well documented, as Uncle Shu-Shu can attest.