Birthday

Happy birthday K-bao! Our not-so-little-one has turned 7.

K-bao had an active day. The morning was filled with a basketball game with her team, The Cats. Here she dribbles the ball upcourt before handing the ball over to a teammate for a blown assist.



After a big brunch, she and the fam were joined by Uncle Calvin for an afternoon of bowling.

Checking out the scoreboard with a concerned look

Check out that professional bowling stance

After dinner at a local Vietnamese restaurant, where she enjoyed garlic noodles, the family had a modest celebration at home with some of K-bao's favorite desserts, courtesy of Uncle Calvin. (We won't mention on these pages how much of these desserts she was actually able to partake in today due to other dessert consumption choices earlier in the day, of course).

Thanks for the sweets Xiao Jiu!

Sharing some hugs with K-Pop and K-Mum below.

First Recital

K-bao has been playing piano now for a few months, and had her first recital recently. The K-folks hope that learning the instrument and going through the process of practicing and progressing will not only teach the little one some musicality, but also the value of discipline and hard work.

Admittedly, neither K-Pop nor K-Mum were shining examples of these virtues in their own checkered histories of learning the piano, but perhaps things will turn around with this younger generation.

Here she is lining up with the other fellow piano players ahead of the performance.

Aunt Chris and Uncle Calvin were kind enough to attend, along with the rest of the family.

Here she is with a friend from school who also happens to be taking lessons with the same teacher.

Below is the clip of her full recital - all 55 seconds of it. K-bao played two songs, Are You Sleeping? and Yankee Doodle, which she practiced assiduously in the couple of weeks leading up to the performance. And aside from making some funny faces after each song, she did quite well.

Post recital group picture with her certificate of accomplishment!

Lucky 13

Over Christmas and New Year K-bao got to spend some time with K-Mum's side of the family. Indeed, with K-Great-Grandmum in the house, along with all the cousins, there were 13 happy campers in all. It was a festive gathering which extended over many days.

There was plenty of lounging time...

...but also some intense activities. In the below "friendly" Bocce ball match, the judge (Uncle Calvin) had to resort to taking off his shoelaces to measure the distance between the balls in order to resolve a dispute between the teams. (One can also see contestant Aunt Christina - clearly not fully trusting in the process - on the ground closely inspecting the measuring activity.)

"Pull that string tighter! Tighter!"

A highlight for K-bao was of course spending time with her cousins, particularly J-Cuz, i.e. Cousin Justin. The two built Magna Tile castles, read Bible stories aloud and even tested their arm strength against each other (refereed once again by Uncle Calvin). K-bao and sister C-bao also had fun playing with Justin's younger sister, Cousin Kaitlyn, who is a few days older than C-bao.

"Don't let my expression (or my 2 hands) fool you, J - I'm only using 30% of my strength"

"Don't try this at home, kids"

As usual, K-Grandmum, saint that she is, spent most of her personal time cooking up great heaps of delicious food to feed the hungry crowds.

Bocce!

On a recent weekend trip to Uncle Calvin's for barbeque and cake, K-bao had her first exposure to Bocce Ball. It turns out Xiao Jiu's building complex has an outdoor bocce court with an artificial, mini-golf-like surface.

After dessert, of which K-bao had more than her fair share, we ventured out to the court and split into teams. K-bao got the rules quickly, and surprised everyone with her skills. In fact, despite a rather unorthodox bowling style, in 2 of the 3 games we played, K-bao delivered the closest ball to the jack of any contestant. All while playing in a flowy white dress.

Naturally, after hitting that kind of winning streak, it was hard to drag the little one off the court. ("Just one more game? Please? Anyone?")

Here is the beaming bocce ball winner.

Human Hoop

Here is why K-bao loves her Uncle Calvin.


That's right. Since K-bao isn't quite able to reach the standard height basketball hoop, Xiao Jiu (aka Jiu-Jiu aka Uncle Calvin) constructed a hoop for the little one by putting his body on the line. This also entailed allowing his face to be used as the backboard.

With this construct, K-bao made a decent number of baskets and is excited to play again.

(Don't ask whether K-Pop was on the side encouraging K-bao to "bank it in off the backboard").

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Not Confirmed

A couple of weekends ago, the K-folks went to a Parenting Seminar hosted by our church. Uncle Calvin and Aunt Christina (a.k.a. Xiao Jiu and Xiao Ah-Yi) generously came by to babysit during that time. At one point, the following text exchange transpired between Uncle Calvin and K-Pop:

You read that right. Out of an abundance of caution given the chilly weather, Uncle Calvin wisely asks K-bao put on some warm pants, and reinforces his authority by texting first for parental confirmation.

After said confirmation is given by K-Pop, somehow the little one sneaks away her Uncle's phone, manages to read the text exchange, and in her contrarian mischievousness types: "Not confirmed. Kaylajordanhumomanddad." And then a bunch of euphemistic gibberish to express her frustration at having to change out of her pretty dress.

The Parenting Seminar did indeed address how parents should deal with rebels, but what about supremely cute and literate ones?

Afloat

K-bao managed to sneak down to Uncle Calvin's for a swim in the warm Sunnyvale sun a few days ago. After a few months of basic swim classes K-bao is now quite comfortable kicking around in the pool, as long as she has a floaty - or her daddy's neck - to hang on to.

Take a look at her first swim back in 2009.

K-bao, Meet C-bao

And she's here!

K-bao could not wait to see her younger sister C-bao, and finally the patience paid off with a "Big Sister Party" at the hospital this past weekend.

There was a gift exchange (thanks to some great work by Xiao Jiu (Uncle Calvin) and Xiao Ah-yi (Auntie Christina) - notice the balloons and toy for C-bao - placed strategically by K-bao near her sister's head), some cuddling, and lots of smiles.

All signs are pointing toward strong sisterly (and perhaps even maternal) instincts. Unfortunately for K-bao, she promptly got sick and over the last few days has had to keep her distance. Hopefully she'll get well soon - because the K-folks have plenty of helping chores lined up for her to do...and cannot wait for her to develop some coordination to assist with those diapers.

Please visit C-bao at her own blog here. 

Uncle Xiao Jiu

K-bao is a fan of her Xiao Jiu - "Little Uncle," a.k.a. Uncle Calvin. It may be because of his gentle disposition or infinite patience, or it may be because he lets her abuse him.* It could also be because of his burly hands and capacious digits - she has shown an affection for hanging on to particular protuberances such as K-Pop's ears (while being carried around) and Xiao Jiu's index fingers (while eating or watching Barney).

Below are some shots of Xiao Jiu zooming our little Supergirl around on a cardboard box. Naturally, K-bao demanded repeated zooming until poor Uncle Calvin had built up a month's worth of lactic acid in those quadriceps.

* K-bao's capacity for cheerfully overtaxing her uncles is well documented, as Uncle Shu-Shu can attest.