To Our Nieces

K-bao and C-bao's talented Aunt and Uncle (Shu-Shu and Xiao Goo-Goo) penned, sang and recorded a brief piece of music for their 4 nieces, including K-bao, one recent afternoon in Taipei. The song contains a number of worthy messages for our little one.

Music: To 四個乖小孩

Lyrics:

寶貝妳要做個乖小孩

Watch the tone when you are asking why

做個討神喜悅乖女孩

Our love will always be with you

永不分開

寶貝乖乖跌倒不用怕

It hurts a bit but you will grow a lot

別因妳可愛就不用聽話

Learn to love and trust in God

Your life will be

Right where it should be

記得永遠守護妳的心

K-Beach

Here is K-bao enjoying a day at the beach. Playing with sand is second only to playing with water on her list of favorite activities, with the former consisting of getting as much of it where it doesn't belong as possible - on the blanket, in the sandwiches, in K-Pop's face, etc. (that's her right foot above kicking some sand up at the camera, in case you didn't notice).

Drawing

In her first instance (of what will undoubtedly be many more instances) of inflicting damage to the condo we just moved into, K-bao practiced her letters on the wall with a big blue marker. With a 3-year-old's sixth sense that this was not going to be an approved activity, she at least made her marks in her closet and not on the walls of her room.

Being it was her first infraction of this sort, and we hadn't specifically said that she is not to write on the walls, she got away with a stern talking-to.

However, clearly it wasn't quite stern enough because as we were trying futilely to wipe the marker away, she ran around piping "Don't forget the other one! There's more behind you!"

Here's one side of the wall:

Here's the other side - after 10 minutes of scrubbing (and yes, she's recently learned her A's, V's and W's):

Alarming

Mom: "Sweetheart, no we are not going to do that."
3 year old Kayla: "Sweetheart, yes we are going to do that."

Naughty

2-year old K-bao had the following pronouncements today:

• (Lying down on the floor of the kitchen) "I want to sleep here today. It's comfortable here."
• K-Pop: "And if you're naughty, what do you get?" K-bao: "I get a hug from Daddy."
• (After listening to K-Mum tell K-Pop that she was a few minutes away in the car) "But Mom you didn't say you were coming on the Pine Street side of the building."
• K-bao: "I want to listen to [Andrea] Bocelli." K-Mum: "We can't do that, we're outside of the home right now." K-bao: "Yes we can, on the iPhone, I'll show you - listen to this" (opening up the Youtube app and turning on Bocelli)

Jungle

Here is K-bao observing some boorish behavior from her jungle friends (consisting of her established cadre of animal stuffies), who are lined up to try and enter "K-bao's House." As you can see, she takes some delight in their survival-of-the-fittest naughtiness - to the point that K-Pop had to do a separate session (not recorded) giving each friend a stern talking-to about the importance of taking turns.

Vanity

As we know, K-bao likes to watch K-bao. Since she discovered her own blog and Dad's collection of videos, she has become very specific about her viewing requests. Her top two asks are for the clip of her throwing K-Pop's sandals into the ocean on the beaches of Waikiki, and the one of her breaking her promise to K-Mum about eating her grapes one at a time (which she labels the "Don't Worry" video, since in it she gives plenty of glib assurances before she promptly "forgets" her promise). She will watch these videos of her naughtiness with a sly smirk on her face, basking in the glory of her own rebelliousness. And then she will shout, "New one!"

Forgot

One of K-Pop's chief pleasures is watching the expression on K-bao's face right before she does something deliberately naughty, when she is reveling in the delicious knowledge that she is about to break the rules.

O the joy! The juicy anticipation!

You can see it here at 0:13 right after she ensures K-Mum that she has not forgotten her promise to take only one grape at a time.

Of course, one of K-Pop's chief sorrows is dealing with all of the naughty things K-bao actually does, including the flaunting (observe the triumphant declaration "Two grapes!" afterwards).

But that impish expression almost makes it worthwhile.

Peachy

K-bao demonstrates below her preferred method of tasting a peach - sample, spit, and smear. Granted, the fruit in question was perhaps a little tart. Nonetheless, the K-folks remain befuddled as to why the little one feels compelled to wear her food. Perhaps she's gotten an early start on Judy Bloom's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (remember Fudge's favorite phrase?).