Chinese Note

Over the years, K-Pop has preached to K-bao the importance of learning the Chinese language and understanding her Chinese heritage and culture. At one point K-bao managed to memorize a good number of Tang Dynasty poems (which now unfortunately have been mostly forgotten); generally she practices a few characters at least once every couple of weeks.

These lessons have not always been well-received. Indeed, any and all Chinese lessons, particularly of late, have been met with not a small amount of resistance. In some cases, strong words have been used by the little one.

The below seven characters shown below, which were assigned this past week, might be a typical exercise. In this case, the usual complaining of course ensued, but K-bao eventually dutifully went off to write them, along with some other scribbles she added on of her own accord.

Much to K-Pop's surprise, the following message was scrawled on the back.

Perhaps all is not lost!

Happy 6th!

Happy birthday K-bao! Our little one has turned six.

May this year be filled with the wonder of learning, the joy of friendship, thanksgiving at the abundant blessings God has blessed you with and an ever increasing knowledge of Him!

We are so blessed to have you in our lives!

Love, K-Pop, K-Mum & C-bao

Better Than Hallmark

Sister C-bao fell and scraped her knee while running in the courtyard after church.

K-bao immediately went to her rescue, held her hand all the way home, and did everything else she could think of to comfort her sister.

Indeed, while the two girls were listening to a story at home to help little C-bao take her mind off her injury, K-bao excused herself briefly, saying "I'll be right back!"

Shortly thereafter, she appeared with the below card:

For the Love of the Game

K-bao had the pleasure of hosting the K-Grandfolks several weeks ago for a short visit.

Naturally, K-Grandpops immediately got roped into K-bao's latest love, Uno, and found himself on the carpet with the little one hashing out Skips, Wild cards and +4s.

"Love is patient, love is kind," K-Grandpops must have been repeating to himself throughout the afternoon.

Commercial Instincts

K-Pop found out recently that K-bao had declared K-Mum recently her "bestie" (her "best friend," alongside her other faves at school such as Atenea, Milagros, Sienna, Alexandra etc.). K-Pop, while normally not so forward, felt he perhaps had rights to this exclusive club, and made a discreet inquiry about it this past weekend.

Sensing an opportunity, K-bao decided that this high end club clearly needed an entry price given the demand for admission. She ran off with a marker, a piece of paper towel and a head full of sparkly ideas. The below is what she came back with.

Yes, you saw correctly. The first paper reads: "Gold coins and stars and gold. Thank you." As I said, sparkly ideas. At least she had the manners to write Thank You at the end.

Then feeling she was perhaps set the price too low, she added a second piece of paper towel, which reads: "Pink and blue dress. A kitten. Love Kayla." The Love, Kayla perhaps was meant to soften the blow of a hard message.

Shocked and outraged by this act of pure commercialism, K-Pop launched into an extensive diatribe about how some of the best things in life cannot be bought or sold, and furthermore how one should think about things such as love and friendship. He then wrote the following list to drive home the message.

Of course, the numbers were just meant to be illustrative, because in reality they are so much more (even on a single semester basis!).

Thrills

For a 4-year old, K-bao is a bit of a thrill seeker.

She's never seen a hill which she doesn't want to run down. And as K-Mum can attest, even before age 2 she loved going down steep slides, such as the ones at Yerba Buena near our home back then.

Recently she's fallen in love with roller coasters, and is finally tall enough to qualify for the ones at both Happy Hollow and Oakland Zoo.

Below are some action videos of recent rides at each. In the first one, which was the first time she's been on a roller coaster of any kind for a while, there are 5 seconds of abject terror (between 0:09 and 0:14) which she gets over a few seconds later, enough to throw up her hands in delight by 0:20.

Hug

"Let me show you what I wrote," said K-bao, leading K-Pop to her room.

"You are going to give me a big hug," she predicted. And she was right.

Caregiver

This past Saturday K-Pop was beset with a horrific case of seasonal allergies that had him sneezing and wheezing all morning. K-bao had observed her Pops' suffering throughout their long morning walk at Golden Gate Park, all the way until he collapsed on the couch at home.

Once home, however, the little one sprung into action. Without a word she dragged her little white chair into the kitchen, climbed up on the counter and took down a glass, into which she somehow managed to pour water from the heavy Brita pitcher without major spillage. This she brought over to the invalid.

Next, she rummaged around some drawers in the hallway and produced a plastic Ziploc bag of yellow facemasks belonging to Auntie Katie. "Here, Daddy," she declared, "if there are more than two you can take one." Where the rule of three came from K-Pop did not know, but lo and behold there were three facemasks, so one of them was promptly donned by the still-sneezing K-Pop.

K-bao wasn't finished. She headed back to her room and emerged with a blanket and box of tissues, which she arranged conveniently around the patient. Finally, deciding that K-Pop needed some entertainment to take his mind off his not-very-serious illness, she carefully selected an oldie but goodie from her shelf - "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," which for some reason she thought apropos - and began reading it to K-Pop in a melodious voice.

K-Pop was almost moved to tears by this completely voluntary and unsolicited act of filial piety, but managed to snap a quick memento of the moment for the inevitable future times when paternal patience is being particularly tested.

Love

This is K-bao's dance interpretation of 1 Cor 13:4-8.

Love runs in circles, she says - while giving a biblical interpretation of her patented Whirlwind Dance.