Strike a Pose

Here's a pic from a few months ago, taken at First Baptist Church in San Francisco, that shows K-bao's sassy side (which constitutes about 80% of her personality).

Strict

One thing the K-folks have always struggled with is the fine line between appropriate sternness and discipline -- to hopefully engender in the kids a healthy respect for authority and boundaries -- and overly authoritarian "traditional" Asian parenting that might "clip their wings."

Of course, according to K-Mum, given the sometimes unbounded sassyness on display in the house from time to time, that's one balancing act that K-Pop need not worry himself about.

Over this past year a specific area that K-Pop has wrestled with is the enforcement of piano practice. K-bao has progressed remarkably quickly in her first real year of piano playing, but it has not come without some, um, "struggles" along the way. Given both K-Pop's and K-Mum's own childhood experiences, the irony of some of our impositions today have not escaped us. And it should be clarified that the piano proposition is really K-Mum's brainchild, though of course music education is something that K-Pop wholeheartedly supports.

However, little notes like the below, which K-Pop received from K-bao after one particularly challenging practice session, reassure K-Pop to grit through it.

(By the way, having just completed Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, K-Pop can rest assured that he is but a marshmallow in the greater tradition of Asian parenting)

Compromise

K-Pop: "K-bao, I'd like you to go take a shower now."

K-bao, as if pondering a deep thought: "Mom, when two people disagree, should they compromise?"

K-Mum, unsuspectingly: "Yes, that generally is a good thing to do."

K-bao: "See, Dad, you need to compromise."

K-Pop: ......

Stages

The girls have entered a new stage. Now that sister C-bao has turned three and (1) is physically able to keep up with her sister on the playground, at least with most play structures; (2) knows enough English to beat K-bao from time to time at the "What's this English word in Chinese" game, and (3) will no longer take smack lying down (and in fact initiates the smack herself), the sisters are relating to each other increasingly as peers.

This has benefits as well as costs. For example, as laid out on these pages before, on any given weekend morning, the girls are generally the first ones up, and will now happily entertain themselves for as long as the K-folks want to snooze in. (Granted, the running, laughing and shouting that immediately ensues guarantees only very light snoozing)

On the other hand, there are now real fights to break up. Daily. Wait, hourly. The pinching, shoving, and tongue-stick-outing goes both ways. The sass comes right back at ya, in spades. Some form of tattle is told dozens of times a day, by both parties.

But the good news is that the smiles and giggles return quickly - generally within seconds - and before you know it, the tale of woe is forgotten and the next adventure is embarked upon.

These pictures (and the video below) were all taken this weekend as K-Pop took the girls to various restaurants, parks, coffee joints and church. Whether it be silliness on the street or a spontaneous wagon pull after church, in this current stage at least, the girls are genuinely enjoying each other's company.

Azul

(Overheard)

K-bao, smugly: "How do you say 'Blue' in Spanish, Xiao Ah-Yi?"
AC (Aunt Christina): "Azul." 
K-bao: "It's Azul with a 'zzz' not a 'sss.'"
AC: "Um, I'm pretty sure it's pronounced Assssul. I took Spanish for eight years, K-bao."
K-bao: "Well, that was a long time ago, and I take it almost every day now, so obviously I know more Spanish than you do. It's Azzzzzul."

(long pause by Aunt Christina while digesting that zinger, confidence clearly shaken)

AC: "I'm pretty sure I'm right K-bao. In fact...." (while furiously Googling on her iPhone)..."I bet you my house, and all of my earnings to date. And if you're wrong, I'll take all of your money."
K-bao: "Fine. That's ten dollars. I'm going to go ask Ms. McDonald. She's great at Spanish."
AC: "Is that your Spanish teacher? "
K-bao: "No, that's my gym teacher."

Unrepentant

K-Pop: "Ok, K-bao, as a consequence you are not getting any dessert tonight."

K-bao: "Well, you can sit and have dessert and be bored. I'm going to run around and be free."



p.s. This, apparently, is what she meant by "run around and be free." The below video was shot shortly thereafter in Arizona.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

唐詩六首

K-bao has been in the midst of a literary kick recently, thanks in part to Auntie Katie.

Here she gives a dramatic performance of six recently learned Tang Shi (poems from the Tang Dynasty), starting with Li Bai's famous "Contemplating Moonlight."

Dualism

As we all know, K-bao has more energy than our entire family knows what to do with, which for a noise-sensitive soul like K-Mum can be rather trying.

The other day K-Mum asked K-bao to calm her body down (actually, this is a daily occurrence). After failing to make meaningful progress, K-bao was sent to her room. A minute later she emerged, claiming she was ready. K-Mum had seen this movie before and sent her back. A minute later, K-bao came running out, exclaiming (loudly): "Mommy, my body is telling me something! It's telling me it's ready. Really, really ready."

The following exchange ensued:
K-Mum: "Your body is wrong, K-bao. You're not ready."
K-bao: "My body is never wrong."
K-Mum: "Your body has been wrong before."
K-bao: "Well this time is different because the princesses and fairies are watching me."
K-Mum had no answer to this argument. How can one shoot down the princesses and fairies?

On another day, K-Mum and K-bao were baking. After running around the kitchen distracted, K-bao was once again sent to her room to calm down and get herself ready to concentrate on the task at hand. Shortly after, K-bao reappeared with the following logic:

"Mommy, I'm ready to focus. I really, really am. But my body won't let me focus. My body said to me, 'If you focus, I will punish you!'"

Not only has K-bao internalized the work of Plato and Rene Descartes around mind/body dualism, she's taken it a step further by having the body and mind converse like old roommates, or in this case, like a master and slave.

4 Going on 14

While K-bao has always been a sassy girl, over the last quarter or so she has officially entered what K-Mum has called the "4 going on 14" stage, where she has doubled down on the 'tude and spunk.

A few days ago, K-Pop asked the family innocently if we were going to have Korean food that night at a dinner event. K-bao put on her Exasperated Face and hit unsuspecting Dad with this zinger:

"Daddy, it's at a Korean restaurant, what are you talking about?"

In another incident, K-Mum got upset at K-bao for failing to obey instructions. As the punishment was being meted out, K-bao complained loudly:

"But Mommy, it's just a balloon. It's not that important! Why are you being so dramatic?"

(Yes, she really said "dramatic," and with extra emphasis). K-Mum was having none of it, so K-bao continued with this pointed observation:

"Mommy, I am trying to talk, and all you are doing is saying 'No, No, No, No, No!'"

Not That Kind of Kid

K-Mum: "Kayla, can you please calm your body down? Why can't you sit quietly and read a book?"

K-bao: "I'm not that kind of kid, mom."

K-Mum: "Oh really? What kind of kid are you?"

K-bao: "I'm a move kid, a loud kid and a drama kid."

K-Mum: ......

Surprise

Kayla: I have a surprise for you, Mommy
Mommy: What is it, Kayla?
Kayla: I can't tell you right now
Mommy: Please? Can I have a clue?
Kayla: No, you need to be patient
Mommy: I can't be patient, I need to know right now!
Kayla: That's too bad, Mommy
Mommy: ....*stunned*...

Go Big

K-Mum, in a fit of generosity today, promised K-bao a gift. The exchange went like this:

K-Mum: "K-bao, next weekend, we are going to go buy you a bicycle!"

K-bao, after a moment: "I don't want a bicycle."

K-Mum: "Why don't you want a bicycle? I thought you said you wanted one."

K-bao: "I want a motorcycle."

K-Mum: "A motorcycle! Those are for grown-ups. Kids can't ride motorcycles."

K-bao, repeating a phrase from one of her favorite songs: "If only I grew up!"

In other words, she's taken the normal 2-year-old demanding spirit and mixed in sass, irony, a touch of humor and a philosophy of "go big or go home" (ain't no sense in stopping at a bicycle if you can get a motorcycle!).

This spirit was also much in evidence yesterday when we took her to Target to buy a soccer ball. Instead of picking out a single soccer ball, she decided she wanted a sack of balls - and proceeded to drag the sack of balls around the store for the rest of the afternoon.

Habitot

We recently took K-bao to Habitot Children's Museum in Berkeley. This was K-bao's third visit, and she ran around authoritatively like she owned the place. She didn't hesitate in muscling aside some older kids at the makeup application corner to check out the latest cosmetics, and at one point unceremoniously snatched away a rake from the hands of a startled one-year-old while visiting the leaf raking alley. Later when she began painting a wall (below), a curator had to run up to explain that this was actually Gingerbread House Decorating Day, not Paint the Wall Day. K-bao reluctantly put her brush down (but not before starting to write "Live a Little!" on the wall). At her last stop, the Water Works station, K-bao wasted no time in dumping a bucketful of water down her own shirt before sharing the puddles with everyone else within splashing vicinity. Luckily K-Mum came prepared with some extra bundles of clothing, else it would have been a cold and miserable trip home for the Hu family.

2 Fast

K-bao's age now rounds up to 2. Even for us K-folks who see her every day, we are amazed at how much she's grown over the past 6 months. She really is a little "big girl" now. Some of her baby fat is melting away - to K-Pop's dismay - right before our eyes (check out the difference between these two pictures). Her awareness and ability to mimic our every move (or bad habit) grows, alarmingly, each day. She has a real sense of humor now. And her sass knows no bounds.