No Food

K-Pop came home the other day famished, as he had managed to skip lunch again - something that happens not uncommonly in his busy days at work. 

The first thing he saw, however, were the following little messages posted on the wall.

That's right, you read that correctly. "No food till you say Yes to chess," says one of them.

"Yes chess x 4 || No food" says another, in case the first one wasn't abundantly clear. To soften the tone of the messages, a little red heart was appended to each note.

The third note was of a similar vein, except it was printed audaciously on a card that included a message of "Who's the Sweetest?"

K-Pop didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The girl certainly knows how to ask for what she wants directly - perhaps a desirable characteristic. The pairing with a message that applied some extortionist pressure was, of course, a little less desirable.

In end end of course, K-Pop found himself sitting down to the chess board (with a bowl of rice in hand). Ask and ye shall receive. 

Vallejo

This weekend, K-bao was assigned to take care of her class mascot, Vallejo, and document their time together in a class journal.

It was a much anticipated couple of days, as the grizzled, unassuming stuffed lion is apparently very popular among the girls.

It was quite a packed weekend and little Vallejo had plenty to see and do. He started bright and early Saturday morning by cheering on his namesake team, the Lions, in their club soccer game.

That was followed by a visit to Golden Gate Park, where K-bao competed in the annual San Francisco Scholastic Chess Championship in the K/1st Grade category. Vallejo, who doesn't play himself, nonetheless gamely looked on while K-bao played four games over four hours.

Let the record show that that K-bao came away with two victories, a loss and one stalemate. Here she is with her medal, which she generously shared with Vallejo.

Later that evening, Vallejo accompanied our little one to a party at Uncle Steve's and Aunt Anna's place, where he joined the gang of "6-and-unders" running around hollering at the top of their lungs for about three hours. Here they finally take a quick breather:

On Sunday, K-bao took Vallejo to church at a new service on the peninsula, where they met with her three friends Dylan, Naomi and Emmett. This was followed by a birthday party with friend Alex, an occasion predictably filled with dolls, dresses and sweets galore.

Later in the afternoon, Vallejo, who was just about exhausted at this point, was dragged along by the ever energetic K-bao for further running and playing in the sun at a nearby park, where he met up with a number of girlfriends from the morning.

"Help! Too many X chromosomes!" cries Vallejo 

A full weekend indeed! Vallejo returns to school for a much needed 5-day sabbatical, after which he will resume his weekend adventures with another of K-bao's friends. 

The Velvet Cup

K-bao emerges the victor in the "First to 3" Chess Championship I and is awarded the coveted Velvet Cup(cake).

In K-Mum's defense, she didn't actually get to play a game before K-bao made it to Win #3.

That poor cupcake lasted about 20 seconds.

Eeny Meeny

Who gets to be White?

That is the eternally debated question.

K-bao implemented her usual system of figuring out the answer. K-Pop was certain where this was going to end; somehow, and unsurprisingly, the advantage has always ended up with you know who.

So the outcome of this process was shocking.

將君

Don't ever tell K-bao she doesn't like to win. Here she celebrates - rather over the top, we would say - after pulling off a rare chess move: forking not only the rook while checking K-Pop's king, but the queen as well. C-bao looks on in delight.

Visit

The K-Grandfolks and Uncle James (Shu-Shu) were in town this week, and true to historical practice, showered K-bao with undeserved praise, attention, treats and gifts of all kinds.

In return, K-bao repeatedly hit up K-Grandpop and Shu-Shu for multiple rounds of her most recent favorite hobby. Oblivious to the generosity inherent in some of her opponents' moves, she ran around the house all week with vanquished chess pieces obnoxiously calling out, "Guess what? I ate his queen!"

For which she was then rewarded with goodies like chocolate-covered Pacific Puffs, Hello Kitty earmuffs, sparkly shoes, etc. That's right, the K-Grandfolks filled an entire suitcase with these things (and paid for additional checked luggage!), forcing them to take a full week to be able to pass them out in a manner that didn't overwhelm the little one with adrenaline. 

Broken Promise

K-bao continues to pull out all manner of tricks to get a chess win. Here, she lulls K-Pop into a false sense of security by "Super Wa-Duper" promising that she won't eat his queen after a silly move, only to gleefully and immediately backslide. Integrity lessons forthcoming from the K-folks.

Strategy

K-bao explains her defense strategy in a game of chess.

Some of it involves emotional intimidation: "And you are going to be so sad!"

She then goes on to explain in detail to K-Pop the implications of her ultimate end goal: K-Pop's humiliating loss at the hands of his four-year-old.

Cuz

K-bao has been hanging out in LA this week and was reacquainted with Cousin Justin, whom she hadn't seen since Thanksgiving of last year. Looking back over these pages at the last time her cousin was profiled here reminds the K-folks how quickly time has flown by.

In the presence of this handsome boy, K-bao quickly abandoned her fuddy duddy parents, and has been spending all of her time with her Cuz (which unbeknownst to her is just dandy with her folks). Here she is learning advanced chess moves from precocious little Justin (while K-Mum lounges in the background).