Coop City

A few months ago, in a moment of boredom one day in the car, K-Mum challenged K-bao to see who could spot more Mini Coopers before they reached their destination.

Boy, does she rue the day.

At first, it was easy-peasy for K-Mum. Games were relaxing and fun. K-bao could barely identify a Mini Cooper, let alone beat the eagle-eyed K-Mum, who also had the advantage of always sitting in the front seat and being quite a bit taller. As K-Mum drove down certain neighborhoods packed with Minis, she would remark, "Wow, we are in Coop City! 3 on every block! There's a blue one! I've already gotten seven! Better focus, K-bao!"

But soon K-bao started holding her own. She seemed to develop her own special Mini Cooper radar, and before long could spot a Mini by a mere bumper or a glimpse of a headlight. In addition, she started to get sassy about the score, e.g. about who spotted which Mini first, or how many she had already counted, or perhaps even conjuring up phantom Coops on side streets we zipped by.

"That's two Mini Coopers! Two to zero!"

These days - many months later - K-bao cannot seem to take a five minute ride without trying to start up a game, and will plead ceaselessly with K-Mum (or K-Pop, who has somehow gotten himself roped into this racket) and give us no peace until one of us finally caves.

Of course, K-Mum has tried refusing to play - many a time. But besides the persistent whining, K-bao always seems to find a way to egg on and taunt her competitive mom until she gets her way (i.e. "I've already spotted three, Mom. That's 3 to 0. You're definitely going to lose. Wait, red one! That's 4-0.").

In desperation, K-Pop initially tried shifting the game to pick-up trucks (disaster - there are far too many in the city), and more recently has tried Fiats, which thankfully appear to be a great deal less popular than Minis and has resulted in a whole lot less shouting in the car. We've also initiated the "Let's count silently until we get there and see who ends up with more" option, with some early success thus far. Fingers crossed to see how long that one lasts.

Mem Day

Over Memorial Day K-bao took a second visit to Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, a delightful children's park in San Jose. Once again she insisted on the elephant at the carousel (for which K-Mum again summoned her competitive juices and made a wild but successful dash to secure), and also enjoyed herself driving and ringing the bell in the little red car and climbing on the various structures.

And yes - these are basically the exact same pictures, on the exact same rides and slides - shot 5 months later.

Driving to the Doghouse

While father and daughter were waiting in the car the other day on a rare weekend shopping trip for K-Mum, K-Pop decided to introduce little K-bao to the wheel to give her a headstart to the fame and fortune that awaits her on the IndyCar track.

You can see a few action shots of K-bao below, including her trying to put on K-Pop's shades first. She settled right in to the driver's seat - very much in line with her personality - and tried to shift us into D straight away.

Unfortunately, K-Pop did not notice that while she was playing with the controls, she turned the headlights on. Needless to say, when K-Mum returned to the car some time later, the car battery was drained. If not for the kindness of a stranger passing by it would have been a long afternoon for the K-family in the parking lot, not to mention for K-Pop in the doghouse.