Singing Spinning Split

K-bao's latest obsession is doing cartwheels and the splits. At all hours on the day, and in all places - the soccer field, the living room, the playground - she can be found generally in one of these two positions. Ideally, she combines the two moves so that she first cartwheels and then goes directly down into the splits.

Even more heavenly for K-bao, of course, is to combine these gymnastics moves with her other passion, theatrical singing. In the below video, for example, the K-grandfolks observe K-bao leading her sister in Rachel Platten's Fight Song, all while doing the splits.



K-Pop's friends in Taiwan also got to see this up close and personal. When the family went down to Hsinchu to visit K-Pop's old high school, the National Experimental High School, K-bao quickly found the small theater room and helped herself to the stage. K-Pop's friends who stopped by to say hello were treated to an impromptu performance. No shyness here!

Peter and the Wolf

Readers of this blog know well both the theatrics and theatricality of little K-bao. Over the summer the K-folks decided to give K-bao a taste of real theater, and enrolled her in a one week theater camp. The culmination of the week was a musical performance of Peter and the Wolf.

K-bao was assigned (or fought for, unclear which) the part of the Wolf. In the play, the Wolf is described as a "misunderstood character." K-bao shows us her fierce wolf face below.

There were some cute songs in the production. Below the Wolf makes its nefarious entrance. K-bao tries to keep a smile off her face as she thinks about pouncing on the silly duck. The cast then breaks into a song about food.


Her favorite song in the production was the Hokey Pokey.



Whether this camp is a first step towards Hollywood remains to be seen (we hope not). What is clear already though is our little one's love for performance, music and drama.

Fight Song

With K-bao's infatuation with pop music of all kinds - but particularly of the kind produced by young, edgy females articulating some kind of pugilistic message - it was inevitable that sooner or later we were going to hear about Rachel Platten's Fight Song. 

These days, besides asking for the song to be played day or night, at any given hour K-bao might burst out randomly with "My power's turned on, right now I'll be strong!" or "All those things I didn't say, are wrecking balls inside my brain!"

Below is a 20 second excerpt where we turned down the volume of the song on the iPad, and drowned it out with other conversation...nonetheless, K-bao's focus is unwavering (and of course, her singing face is classic).

Scary Song

K-bao performs a couple of spooky songs for Halloween.

Sister C-bao gets roped in for some theatrical dancing while K-bao takes care of the vocals.

K-bao did of course make sure to train C-bao to jump in with the "Boo!s" and scary cackling at the appropriate times.

Shake It

"Higher, C-bao. Lift it higher"

Whenever K-bao visits K-Grandmum & K-Grandpops in LA, she feels the urge to put on a performance. Perhaps it is the long, grand staircase, so perfect for presenting to an adoring crowd below, that inspires her. Perhaps it is the untiring enthusiasm and unending patience displayed by her long-suffering grandfolks and great-grandma for K-bao's every initiative (see here, here and here - or even this post from 2009).

Recently, K-bao's proclivity to perform has been further enhanced by her infatuation with all things Taylor Swift.

Below is one scene among many that the K-Grandfolks and K-Great-Grandmum witnessed. The first video below is only the introduction to the show; K-bao insists on properly "Setting the Stage," including allowing her co-performer, sister C-bao, to also have a few words.

The second video captures most of the actual performance - set to Swift's Shake It Off, of course - including K-bao spending a good amount of time with her back to the audience observing her own moves in the reflection she sees in the television set. A few gymnastics maneuvers are also thrown in for good measure.

Running on Water

K-bao and her sister C-bao are both big fans of her Aunt Catherine and Uncle James' band The Lighters. Here they are belting out the chorus to The Lighters' hit single "Running on Water" (which can be purchased here).

A New Chapter

At long last, after 3 years of phenomenal growth, many adventures with new friends, a handful of dramatic incidents and a long list of lessons learned, K-bao has graduated from preschool.

SLS, K-bao's preschool, has traditionally put on a big graduation ceremony for the little tots, and this year was no exception. Filled with pomp and ceremony - as if to convey one last time to the gathered parents that all that tuition was indeed worthwhile - the event was replete with balloons, diplomas and musical performances. K-pop naturally joined the many other obnoxious fathers who ran around snapping endless pictures and recording way too many videos (until he literally overran his phone's storage).

Here is the procession, set appropriately to a solemn rendition of Pomp & Circumstance, the classic graduation tune. Rather than marching in an orderly manner, K-bao of course was running when K-Pop first caught her on camera. When she noticed K-Pop, her first question was, "Where is Xiao Ah-Yi (Aunt Christina)?" You're welcome, little one, for the past 3 years of tuition.

This is the scene at the front, a privileged position K-Pop elbowed his way into.

Here is an excerpt of some of the songs, most of which our little K-bao belted out with gusto, though it was also apparent that her distraction factor was high. All in all, very well done program.

And here is the big diploma-receiving moment.

Aunt Christina and Uncle Calvin were able to make the event to celebrate the big day. Here are a few shots of K-bao with friends and family after the ceremony.

Congratulations K-bao!

Frozen with Friends

K-bao visited her friends Aidan and Zoe a couple of weeks ago and also saw old pals Sam and Emily.

The children quickly discovered a common bond in, what else, Frozen, the DVD of which A&Z had just purchased the week before. After much cajoling of the respective parents, they were permitted to watch some of the movie together.

Naturally it quickly became a rambunctious sing-along session, with K-bao leading the pack. Here she and Zoe belt out Let It Go with enthusiasm, while C-bao looks on and Sam appears perplexed by all the excitement.

Winter Wonderland

Before the holidays K-bao's class at preschool put on a holiday music special for the parents.

K-bao has become an increasingly enthusiastic musician over the past year and practiced her songs with gusto in the days leading up to the show.

Below are a couple of clips from the 10-song program. The songs were short and sweet and filled with great choreography, which K-bao performed with zest. This first one, Winter Wonderland, is one of her faves.

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

Going Over the Sea

Here is K-bao hammin' it up with a nursery rhyme she learned at SLS this past semester.

Down, Down Baby

On the way to the bookstore with C-bao today, K-bao suddenly had her 4-year-old mind stuck on the Roller Coaster song taught to her by Xiao Ah-Yi (Aunty Christina) several years ago - to the point where she had to stop and give an impromptu performance.

Here is the rendition - a little lacking in accuracy but all there in heart.

By the way, you can see C-bao, who is enjoying the solo, giving her "The Wave" in appreciation at 0:13.

Shalom Senor

K-bao makes up her own lyrics while singing (and banging on a makeshift drum, ineffectively) to entertain sister C-bao. Why she insists that the lyrics are comprised of Hebrew and Spanish words, however, eludes K-Pop. She does attack the gutteral sounds with gusto.

Talent

K-bao practices in her room here for a future audition to America's Got Talent. Plenty of passion (and confidence), is about all K-Pop can say about it at the moment.

Ladybug Song

Here is K-bao at her first school musical. You can hear the Ladybug's voice bursting out at the end of the first refrain, demanding to be heard.

Little Donkey

K-bao's love for song and dance has only increased over the last few months. Multiple times a day she will shout "Some music!," slide over her little white chair to her toy kitchen in order to reach her mini-CD player, and put on a few of her favorite tunes without consulting whether anyone else is in the mood for cacophonous children's tunes.

Here she is galloping about to the tune of "My Little Donkey," an old classic about a young donkey rider who ends up with a face full of mud, a story line that seems to resonate with our little one.

Spider

K-bao's latest song. See if you can make out the K-bao-lese.

Manners

Here's K-Pop trying to teach K-bao a little manners. Admittedly, the exercise veered a little into bribery.

For the non-Mandarin speakers:

KP: "Let me ask you a question. What do you want to play?"

KB: "Opposites" (a Fisher-Price online computer game)

KP: "I see. You'd like to play Opposites on the computer. Well, how do you need to ask Daddy?"

KB: "Please!" (Bows). "Please play Opposites!"

KP: "A bow. Right. Daddy also wants you to dance."

(KB does a Feraba African tap dance).

KP: "Now sing a song."

(KB sings the Taiwanese folk song GeGeBaBa)

KP: "Daddy also wants you to ask in English."

KB: "May I? Opposites. Right now. Please."

KP: "Good job."