Great-Grandmum

The C-folks recently came across an old picture of C-Pop with his late grandmother, C-Great-Grandmum. It immediately became clear where C-bao's stately appearance, 1950s hair and benevolent expression came from.

Cuz

C-bao is chilling with her cousin Kaitlyn this week. Here they are in identical Bumbos. After an initial period of curiosity and discovery, the cousins bonded quickly and soon were holding hands.

Picky

C-bao has revealed herself to be a decidedly epicurean eater. Unlike her sister K-bao who would open her mouth obligingly anytime a spoon was waved in the vicinity of her mouth - and then gratefully swallow - young C-bao not only takes a fair amount of coaxing to accept food into her mouth, she also then dribbles out or otherwise thrusts out with her tongue a fair percentage of whatever her parent has put inside. Here she is pushing out most of her apples and blueberries onto her face, chin and bib while simultaneously giving C-pop a defiant stare down.

Cannon

At the insistence of sister K-bao, C-bao puts up her hair - in a style known in Chinese as "Sky Cannon."

Wail & Arch

C-bao has recently discovered (i) the cat wail; and (ii) the back arch, and has begun to use both discoveries liberally and inopportunely, and often together.

The former applies when the little one is excited, dissatisfied or bored (describing about 99% of her waking hours).

The latter occurs most frequently when she is on the changing table, being held, or when seated in her bumbo or high chair (describing about 95% of her waking hours). The below is a typical 25 second segment of her life.

Flap

C-bao has become quite excitable recently and demonstrates her enthusiasm by kicking aimlessly and flailing her arms. In this video - taken shortly after the pics in the prior post - she flaps like a happy penguin upon seeing C-Pop after a nap.

Intense

Below C-bao practices her movie poster Intense Look. The C-folks have to give credit where credit is due - that windswept, full-bodied 'do looks like it could have been styled by a Hong Kong salon.

Encouraged by some uplifting tunes in the background and some tickling fingers on her bare feet, C-bao breaks out of the Intense Look and into her Toothless Grin:

Clean

This week was a momentous one in C-bao's young life, to be remembered as the turning point in a heretofore squalid and soiled existence. Going forward, C-bao's life will be marked by one in which the diapers she wears can actually contain the material they were designed to hold. Yes, C-bao has been introduced to solids.

Over the last couple of months, C-bao had perfected the art of positioning herself expertly on her back with her legs raised in the air, and then expelling with such force that her #2 would inevitably squirt up the back of her diaper and all over her clothes. This was something her sister K-bao was also really good at around the 5-6 month mark.

And really, it was getting quite old.

But with solid food entering the system, the C-folks know that physics dictate a welcome composition change in the gastrointestinal chambers that will eventually solve that problem. Hallelujah!

Here she is, happily waiting in her chair.


By the way, after turning down both rice cereal and sweet potatoes, C-mum tried avocados. Winner!



UPDATE: As if to specifically answer K-Pop's premature and overly optimistic post, C-bao has made it a point to soil her clothes a minimum of once and usually twice a day since the date of this post (as of December 1, 2012).

Squeeze

Sharing a squeeze with C-Mum and my sister K-bao, along with Slobbery the Pink Rabbit.

Change

女大十八變 says the Chinese idiom (literally "the eighteen changes of a woman growing up"...also known as "I have no idea who this girl claiming to be my daughter is"). C-bao is already evidencing the wisdom of her Chinese ancients, by transforming recently - seemingly overnight - from a quiet, gentle soul into a mischievous, stubborn chatterbox.

Yesterday, apparently deciding that her surroundings were too quiet, she decided to enthrall the C-folks with thirty straight minutes of raucous bawling, for no other apparent reason than some minor fatigue. When she finally decided to be civil, and knowing that her misbehavior was not welcome, she refused to look C-Pop in the eye, no matter what angle he was holding her. This stiff-necked behavior, while admittedly influenced by hereditary factors (not calling out anyone in particular, C-Mum), was not met with any amusement on the part of the C-folks.

UPDATE: the below video documents C-bao refusing to make eye contact after some naughty behavior

Looking

"Here's looking at you, Mum."

Smile

"Smile, C-bao, smile!"

"Only when you're not looking!"

Tummy

C-bao is doing quite well with her tummy time these days, with neck strength sufficient for a minute or more of high visibility of her surroundings (before the inevitable face plant into the sheets).

This has led to a bit of overconfidence when being held. She will now whip her head back and forth to make sure she's not missing out on the fun activities occurring on the other side of the room, with general shakiness and head bobbing in between leading to minor episodes of whiplash.

Group Dance

Below C-bao and C-Pop enjoy a moment dancing.

Sister K-bao, who is never one to sit on the sidelines, then joins in rather forcefully.

While initially startled, C-bao resumes smiling quickly; she has quickly gotten used to the (forcefully) affectionate ways of her older sister.

Blur

Here is C-bao trying out her swing for the first time. She appears to enjoy it. Though when she's in a good mood these days, she smiles every time C-Mum or C-Pop calls her name, so it's a little hard to tell.

Charmed

C-bao has thus far been blessed with a fairly sweet disposition, and her good nature shines through  particularly after she's had a good feed and nap (whose wouldn't?).

The C-folks have been particularly charmed by her delightful expressions recently.

Grandmum

C-bao has been lucky to have C-Grandmum here with her over the last month.

A woman of infinite patience, energy and love, C-Grandmum has been working her magic with the little one, cooing her to sleep, cleaning her royal behind, and generally spoiling her to no end.

Up

C-bao was recently introduced to the sit-up. After some initial difficulty - due undoubtedly to the weight of her hair - she got the hang of it, and now is showing less and less patience with lying flat.

3 Months!

Happy 3 month birthday to C-bao!

C-bao was chatting away quite happily to C-Pop this morning about her milestone, but clammed up immediately in front of the camera. Not quite as much of a ham as her sister K-bao, whose own 3-month video revealed some slightly different dynamics (e.g. the signature "flamboyant flatulent sign-off" which she was pro at by that age).

Coo

C-bao is growing more interactive every day, and will now engage in 10 minute cooing sessions with C-mum where they will look intently at each other and make little dove-like sounds. What they are saying to each other is beyond C-pop's realm of understanding, but C-bao appears to be satisfied with what she hears and will smile knowingly at C-mum throughout.

Taste

C-bao has finally found her hand, and will now bring it up to her mouth regularly for a taste.

Unfortunately, said hand doesn't taste too good. A result, undoubtedly, of long hours of tight and sweaty fist-clenching inside of protective mittens.

C-bao had a try this morning and got a strong whiff of moldy goat cheese, forcing an immediate and bewildered pull back. Sadly, her short term memory isn't fully developed, so after a few seconds she put it back in...with the same result. This little dance went on for a while, much to the C-folks' bemusement.

Eventually, C-Mum had mercy and gave the hands a good wipe-down.

Grace!

C-bao has a new cousin! Little Grace, who shares a name with C-bao, made her grand entrance this afternoon - but only after her mother C-Aunt E coaxed her out with about 1,200 grams of sugar. The whole C-fam is pretty excited to meet her - welcome Grace!



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Gentle

The C-folks have started to give little C-bao some tummy time, much to the little one's dismay.

C-bao's gentle personality shines through in this video: even while voicing her disapproval, her cries never rise above a relatively quiet whimper. To the point where the C-folks almost wanted to say: "Lady! Thou dost protesteth not enough! Be more aggressive!"

Labor

Here is C-bao chilling out with C-pop - and looking less than amused strapped into the old Baby Bjorn.

On the other hand, as a few have observed, she looks plenty...healthy. Maybe the two are related. Perhaps it's just the angle.

Happy Labor Day!

Expressive

Now that C-bao has hit the 2-month mark, she is starting to demonstrate a fuller range of emotions, from terror to delight to bemusement (her previous range was (1) dazed; (2) bored; or (3) gassy)

She has also shown the capacity for lighting quick transitions from one to the other - keeping the C-folks on their toes.

Sisters

Sharing a moment with my big sis, K-bao. 

Picnic

Here's C-bao chilling out at a recent picnic, sporting a "Too Cool for You" attitude + hairstyle combo package.

Grandpop

C-bao scored a visit from C-Grandpop recently, but was unfortunately too sleepy to properly greet him. Ever gracious, C-Grandpop nevertheless took the opportunity to snap a few mementos of the somnolent interaction.

Affection

If ever Little C-bao is wanting for affection from her folks, she knows where to turn. Big sis K-bao is a deep well - a never-ending source of hugs and kisses.

By the way, as you can see below, C-bao has recently enjoyed sporting the high-fashion "Pterodactyl Head" hairstyle.

Bright

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed our little C-bao has been over the last couple of days. "Here's looking at you, Mommy." 

Church

C-bao made her first visit to church this weekend. Not being the instinctively pious type, she got bored halfway through the sermon (no fault of Pastor Dave! He was doing great) and began to demand an audience, at which point C-Pop was relegated to a quiet corner of the church by the nursery to rock 'n read instead of listening to God's word.

Gruntophile

C-bao is a champion grunter, in a way that would make Maria Sharapova proud. She grunts when she sleeps, eats and poos, which covers about 95% of her daily activities. She will also snort with equal facility. At one point C-mum even called a nurse hotline, fearing that the little one was being overtaken by some baby version of sleep apnea. The latest diagnosis? She is just one of those little noisemakers.

Hands & Feet

The C-folks are continually amazed at young C-bao's miniscule, intricate, still-wrinkled hands and feet. Little works of art they are.

By the way, those little hands have unusual grip strength, as noted by doctors shortly after birth - bodes well for future firm handshakes.

C-Mum has been eyeing those long fingers and fantasizing about future piano concert halls. Meanwhile, C-Pop is hoping that those slender pedal digits will give the little one a good jump off the blocks (that's right, good sprinters have longer toes).

Arise

It's looking like the blissful days of C-bao's perpetual sleepiness are coming to an end.

For the first week of her privileged young life, other than waking up reluctantly when life-giving sustenance was literally shoved into her mouth, or protesting angrily when we cleaned her royal behind, C-bao slumbered like a baby log.

Yesterday it appears someone flipped a switch. Her baby brown eyes refused to close, and she would stare intently up the nose of whomever was holding her.  She bleated like a lost sheep when we put her down. All manner of odd expressions began appearing on her face (though, to her credit, some were undoubtedly attributable to the strong vinegar we were boiling in the kitchen as a disinfectant).

Alas, it looks like the peaceful days are behind us.