K-bao took her second trip down to San Diego a few weeks ago.
As readers might recall, her first trip to the city of Saint Didacus, back in 2011, was fairly action-packed. Life was quite different back then. She was only two, and sister C-bao, for one, had not even arrived on the scene.
This time around, Day 1 consisted of a fairly leisurely day of travel, as chronicled here on sister C-bao's blog. On Day 2, her good friends the Liu's arrived, and K-bao settled down to business. The first stop was Legoland.
Waiting for the adults to get themselves ready ("Come ON Mum!")
"Just to be clear, I still won't build those Lego sets you got me"
Legoland turned out to be surprisingly large, and while rides were mostly geared towards a slightly younger demographic, K-bao had plenty to do and see.
Here she tries her hand at the wheel. Given how autonomous driving is developing, this may be one of the few times K-bao actually gets to drive her own vehicle. (And with the way she feels compelled to flick her hair recklessly while she drives, this is almost certainly a good thing).
As we passed one of the tricky ladder vendors, K-bao observed the set up for all of ten seconds before declaring confidently to K-Pop and K-Mum that she could do it if she could only be allowed a turn. After recognizing they would never hear the end of it (and not minding the forthcoming lesson in humility), the K-folks agreed to give her chance. Naturally, she was fleeced out of five bucks.
Luckily in the below vehicle the drivers had no discretion, particularly since K-bao spent most of the time doing various Supergirl poses.
"I'm an excellent driver, trust me"
Some of the lego constructions were truly remarkable. If K-Pop were responsible for building the Darth Vader figure below, for example, it would probably take several months of dedicated work and still come out looking like a lump of coal.
"Sister C-bao: 'Why are those people so little?'"
The force is strong with this one
Near the end of the day, the kids were handed 51 cents each to do the ol' Penny Press machine. Friend NL and K-bao, too sophisticated for flat pennies, thought they would outsmart the world by pooling their capital and buying something fun and cool and perhaps very sweet instead. Dismayed they were when they confidently inquired the gift store clerk as to the range of treats available to them and were pointed instead to the postcard rack. Not even a Tootsie Roll was within budget after taking into account Uncle Sam's share ("Wait, Mom, it's only $1.06! That's only four cents more! Come on!").
While at her good friends the Liu's the other day, K-bao got her first taste of karaoke.
Apparently it was a pretty sweet taste, because K-bao had a hard time letting go of the mic. Here she sings Sugar by Maroon5 (also by The Lighters, by the way).
The rest of the day was pretty fun too. K-bao got to go to the park...
The kiddos all had some wheels
...hit the swings...
"Higher! I said, 'Higher!'"
...climb trees (which K-Pop was very directly told he was not welcome to)...
"No boys allowed, Daddy. You can't come up here."
...enjoy great food, including some fantastic cake (there was even some birthday singing and belated celebration of January birthdays, including K-bao's, so she got to blow out yet another candle)...
...and overall have lots of fun with her buddies DL, NL, EL, SL and EL2!
When she was in NY earlier this month, K-bao got to see her ol' buddy MJ and her family. MJ and her younger sister AJ were born within weeks of K-bao and C-bao, respectively, so despite living across coasts the two sets of siblings have always hit it off in the few times they've been able to get together.
Below K-bao ropes her friend into a game of Down By the Banks of the Hanky Panky while having dinner at a tasty BBQ restaurant in K-town.
On Sunday, MJ's family was gracious enough to invite us over to worship with them at their local church in New Jersey, and then had us over to their house for a fabulous Sunday brunch.
"I always make mischief when my belly is full of good food"
A few weeks back K-bao had her friends DL, NL and EL(whom she has been buddies with since birth) over to her place.
Of course, chaos quickly ensued as the kids jumped over the furniture, cut construction paper into millions of tiny pieces, and traded Halloween candy.
Group hug!
Group fobby pose!
The great Candy Expo
K-bao and C-bao are lucky to have fellow Christian brothers and sisters to grow up with, even if due to a little bit of distance they see each other far less regularly than we all would like them to.
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.
K-bao has been spending her summer with her friends the L's. The L sisters, DL and NL (along with little brother EL) share K-bao's love of swimming, princesses and all things Frozen (and yes, this includes little EL, who will tag along and be into whatever his sisters are into).
What does this mean for K-bao? Tons of hanging out around the pool, an abundance of of outrageous princess costumes, and plenty of "Let it Go" sing-alongs. (By way of reference, K-bao was introduced to DL some 5 years ago, as profiled in this post.)
Wait - where's my hat, mommy?
And what does all this mean for K-Pop and K-Mum? Why, "Christian fellowship" of course...also known as "Rest and Relaxation."
Even in hypothetical math problems, K-bao insists on K-Pop getting the right friends worked into the situation, and protests vehemently if too many boys are included. She also inevitably rewards her closest friends (and herself!) with any hypothetical extra cupcakes.
This video is from several months ago but the instincts - which have been around as long as the K-folks remember - persist.
K-bao's old friend Gillian (subject of the now famous interview) is back in town! Here is a Sunday School pic from this past weekend of the two of them chaperoned by longtime guardian Reagan (who gave the two the bunny ears in this pic).
In a surprise turn of events last week in Taiwan, K-bao got to see her Aunt Esther (Da Goo-Goo), Uncle Ying-On and most importantly her Cousin Elizabeth (aka Rong-bao).
The two cousins, who hadn't seen each other for over three years other than through the occasional Skype / iPhone Facetime, immediately bonded. They compared notes on recent accomplishments, took over Xiao Goo-Goo's iPad to play games, got into mischief together and exchanged plenty of hugs.
Here is how they've grown over the years:
When it was finally time for K-bao to say goodbye to Taiwan, she refused to leave her cousin Rong-bao's side. Her first instinct was, predictably, defiance: "I am NOT leaving Taiwan! I am staying here in Taiwan with Rong-Rong forever!" Her second instinct was avoidance: she grabbed her cousin to find a place to hide out until those pesky parents left without her.
K-bao has been blessed with some good friends in her young toddler life, though with her Too Cool For You schtick (how does a 3 year old have a schtick?!) these days she doesn't always readily acknowledge it.
For example, a big part of her adjustment to Sunday School has been the presence of a trio of benevolent and affectionate sisters, G, R & M, who embraced young K-bao at an early age and made sure she felt welcome each and every week. Indeed, when K-bao learned she was going to have a little sister, her chosen name - which she stuck with for months, literally until we told her C-bao's real name - was "G, R, M Hu."
Today she was lucky enought to share a post-church burger lunch with her buddies (also including Gillian, whom we covered in a prior interview).
Here's an older pic of K-bao with M, who may have been the first non-adult to give her a hug:
Here she is getting a high speed whirlwind tour from R after class today:
Growing some extra ears:
Learning from G the difference between indoor voice and outdoor voice:
K-bao got to hang out with her friends Dylan, Naomi and Baby Sam a little while back over Mother's Day weekend. Perhaps due to all the practice managing (and disciplining) her other "friends" - i.e. the stuffies who reside in her crib - she has become quite maternal, particularly with noticeably younger children. In other words, she has no problem bringing out the bossiness.
