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.

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.

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.

Really Something

[Overheard]

K-Mum: "K-bao let's race. You get into the carseat while I put away the groceries - let's see who wins. Ready? Go!"

......

K-Mum: "Wow, K-bao, that was fast. You've been waiting for a while, huh?"

K-bao (all buckled in): "That's right, Mom, for quite a while."

K-Mum: "You know what that tells me? You can be really fast when you're focused."

K-bao: "And you know what that tells me, Mom? You can be really slow." 

K-Mum (chuckling): "O, Kayla....you are really..."

K-bao: "Hilarious?"
K-Mum: "Actually, I was thinking...you're really something."

K-bao: "Something hilarious, right?"

J-Cuz

A few weeks back K-bao got to hang out with Cousin Justin, who she gets to see only once or twice a year. The two of them spent some time taking in the Bay Area fresh air at a local park.

Naturally the conversation devolved into the "Let me show you what I can do" and "I bet you can't do this" variety.

K-bao was on her home turf - the monkey bars at the playground she frequents weekly - and thus had a natural leg up, both metaphorically and literally (as she loves to hook her legs over the bars and hang upside down).

Nonetheless, with his competitive juices flowing, Cousin Justin gamely tried all the tricky moves her little cuz threw her way.

Of course, when it came time to head home, little K-bao wouldn't let her cousin go...something she has a history of doing.

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.

Crazy Eights

K-bao was recently introduced to a little Uno-like card game called Crazy Eights. It has quickly become her second-favorite pasttime (after watching videos of Andrea Bocelli). As you can see above, she typically teams up with Baby, leaving K-Pop or K-Mum to partner with Tolo the diminutive plastic pig. Unfortunately, the game has also unleashed (or at least uncovered) a fierce little 2-year-old competitive spirit, the extent of which K-Pop would have been quite alarmed by had he not been able to trace its roots directly to the cutthroat board game behavior of one K-Mum. Note the unrestrained merrymaking (including victory gallop) at 0:27 and 0:15 below.