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.

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.

Wall Squat

If there's one person K-bao has met who might be just as competitive as she is, that would be J-Cuz, also known as Cousin Justin. Recently J-Cuz visited briefly and soon the two were comparing notes on all manner of things such as who could do the prettiest cartwheel.

Before long, the two were in a match to see who could squat against the wall the longest (in fairness, an activity K-Pop instigated - perhaps with ulterior motives to utilize someone's energy units faster). First, Justin set the initial record at close to 3 minutes. Then, K-bao bested him by putting 5 minutes on the clock. Justin then upped the ante to 7 minutes (!!). Finally the two went head-to-head, as captured below.

Let the record show that J-Cuz outlasted his little cousin in their first direct wall squat competition. K-bao is gearing up for the rematch already.