Happy Hollow

C-bao took her first trip to Happy Hollow today (with the lovely Wangs - Tony, Mel and Lucas), where she thoroughly enjoyed herself riding the buggies, feeding the goats and running around getting dirty. (A couple of sister K-bao's visits were documented here and here.)

First, she started the day greeting the bronze animals at the park entrance with her characteristic Up Close & Personal approach.

Next she took her first ride of the day on the ladybugs, accompanied by sister K-bao. Lots of smiles all around. No sweat.

Unfortunately, this experience instilled a bit of misplaced swagger in Little C-bao. She insisted on riding again immediately afterward, even though sister K-bao had run off to do something else. This turned out to be an error in judgment. Once the bug achieved liftoff, little C realized she was all alone in the world, flying at an altitude that felt altogether unsafe. The rest of the ride was spent with her face buried in her hands yelling 不要! ("No want!") at the top of her lungs. (Unfortunately C-Pop did not capture this rare footage on camera, but the below forlorn-looking image was when the wheels first started turning)

Luckily there was more to see and do at Happy Hollow, and C-bao soon forgot about these unpleasantries by feeding the goats.

All in all, a fantastic trip which wore out Little C so much that she promptly dozed off the second she was put on her stroller, even before saying goodbye to her friends.

A Wink and a Smile

C-bao is a naturally jovial soul and loves to keep the mood around her light. Here she smiles, sways, and finally breaks into a full-throated chuckle as she contemplates how good her life is.

She's also recently learned to wink - or blink, really - and will happily oblige when asked to demonstrate.

One Second: Jul-Nov 2013

Short snippets from the last 5 months from the little ones, inspired by Cesar Kuriyama's One Second Every Day.

Verbal

Recently, C-bao has become quite conversant on a number of topics:

• Love. As she was lying in bed a few days ago in the early hours of the morning shortly after she awoke, C-Pop overheard her run through a list of people in her life and how she felt about them. 
• "Ba-ba...ai! Po-po....ai! Shu-Shu....ai!" (爸爸？爱！婆婆？爱！叔叔？爱! Daddy? Love! Grandma? Love! Uncle? Love!)

• Hunger. While she remains as picky as ever, far be it from C-bao to starve herself. She'll run to one of us, holler for our attention, point to her stomach and cry:
• "Uh!" (餓! Hungry!). And then irrespective of what the response is the immediate follow-up is: "Yao!" (要! Yes, want!). After dinner, she enjoys rubbing her tummy while grinning from ear to ear and making sure one of us comments on how rotund it looks.

• Oral Hygiene. C-bao has developed a real affection for keeping her pearly whites shiny, and also making sure her loved ones are taking care of theirs. She will run to the bathroom at all hours of th e day, looking back to make sure we are in tow, then raise an index finger and exclaim: 
• Shua-ya! Shua-ya! (刷牙! 刷牙! Brush teeth! Brush teeth!). Giving her her toothbrush with toothpaste is necessary but insufficient; she will then point at C-Pop and boss Dad into picking up his toothbrush too with a Ba-ba Shua! Ba-ba shua! command (爸爸刷! 爸爸刷! Daddy brush! Daddy brush!). The below is representative.

Other words frequently used include Nien! (念! Read!), Bao-bao! (抱抱! Hold me!) and a variety of other verbs generally used in a commanding tone while pointing urgently at C-Pop or C-Mum.

Kiss Me

About 5 or 6 weeks ago C-bao achieved a new milestone - on-demand affection - which C-Pop has understandably made her practice every day.

To 四個乖小孩

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 C-bao's cousins Elizabeth and Grace as well as C-bao and her sister K-bao) one recent afternoon.

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

A message C-bao's parents hope she internalizes early in life!

You Lift Me Up

For most of her life C-bao has had to tolerate being suddenly lifted into the air by her older sister K-bao and swung around like a rag doll.

Occasionally, C-Pop is an accomplice, singing along to give K-bao a rhythm to swing to. The song below is the old Taiwanese folk tune GeGeBaBa, which K-bao learned at a young age herself.

Carbs

Here is C-bao enjoying her onion-oil noodles once again. Fruits, vegetables and meat C-bao can do without, but carbs? All day, every day.

Equinophilia

A couple of weeks we ago we showed C-bao the video of her riding a pony at Lemos Farm. This turned out to be a mistake. Since then, whenever she sees C-Pop, she starts yelling Ma! Ma! 馬!馬! or Horse! Horse!) to strongarm him into showing her the video again. 

And who could resist? Just look at the big smile and the declarations of "Yay!" and "Good job!" from the little one once the video starts playing. And as you can see below, watching the video once is not enough (Hai yao! More!). She also likes to demonstrate the act of riding by rocking back and forth and saying "Qi! Qi" (Ride! Ride!). 

By the way, other videos of kids riding ponies also hold her interest, to the point that C-Pop is on the verge of making a Youtube playlist just of pony riding. He also tested her interest in watching other animal videos. Generally after a few seconds, C-bao looks disgustedly at C-Pop, shakes her head, and says Ma! Ma!

Eyes Ears Nose Mouth

C-bao has become a regular chatterbox and is now generally able to understand most things her parents tell her - though at times she pretends not to hear or comprehend some of the more annoying commands (e.g. "Don't play with the toilet").

In those moments she will, with a huge, impish grin on her face, ignore whatever is being said and plunge forward with her mischief, though not without looking back with a sly look to make sure her naughtiness is being observed.

In general, though, C-bao is fairly compliant with parental directives, and will indulge her folks when asked to smile, sit down or come here. She also is able to express herself reasonably clearly - bao-bao (pick me up), poo-poo (which she says excitedly and repeatedly while she points at her diaper), xie xie (thank you), yao-yao (I want, I want), roof-roof (whenever she sees a dog on the street), etc.

Here she demonstrates her command of her various body parts and happily points out her appendages (or raises them, as appropriate).

Park

Given her newfound mobility, being on a playground is a whole lot more fun for C-bao now. She usually visits various neighborhood parks generally at least once and usually twice a day.

Here she is making a new friend. C-bao tends to be quite touchy.

Later in the afternoon C-bao donned a new outfit and tried out a different park, where she pet rocks and stone turtles, sat on a bench (inexplicably, one of her favorite activities) and messed around in the sandbox.

Doggie Hike

C-bao has made enormous progress in walking by herself over the past few weeks during Grandma's visit, and now is able to traverse the length of the house without help. Yes, soon she will be running at top speed and crashing around the house causing a ruckus, as her sister did at this age.

Here she is taking a hike by Lands End with the family, during which she encounters a dog. As we know, C-bao is a big fan of the canine species ("Wof Wof! Wof Wof!" she says) and forced C-Pop to turn around and follow Spot for a while.

Tasty

C-bao enjoys the finer things of life.

Some of you may remember when sister K-bao first discovered the pleasures of twinkle toes. The last recorded incident was at 18 months old, which we include below for comparison.

Singing with Grandma

Grandma's in town! Here is C-bao learning a tune and some moves from C-Grandmum.

Lemos Pony

C-bao took a trip to Half Moon Bay's Lemos Farm recently. While the abysmal traffic on the way there put everyone in a foul mood, all was forgotten as soon as C-bao saw the trains and ponies.

C-Pop was concededly initially skeptical that the little one was going to be able to handle riding a pony by herself - especially after she freaked out while C-Pop was introducing her to the goats. Nonetheless, when C-Pop suggested to C-Mum that she might be a little young, the little one gave an exasperated look , as if saying "What's the big deal?"

Then when it came time for her turn, she cooly got on her pony without a fuss and enjoyed her ride enthusiastically, except for staring down C-Pop every once in a while when she passed him.

Baby Steps

C-bao, who is a superior crawler and has always been content jetting around on all fours, has finally decided to give bipedalism a try.

Over the last couple of weeks she has been tottering around while holding onto a C-Pop/C-Mum/Auntie Katie hand, and finally has ventured to take her first few steps on her own, which she does generally with a huge smile on her face.

Noodles

C-bao, like her sister, loves her noodles. The below is a clip of C-bao gobbling up Auntie Katie's famous "Onion Oil Noodle" (葱油麵) - polishing off two plates by the end of dinner. Despite the love, however, you can see the fastidious approach as she examines each bite to make sure she hasn't picked up any offending vegetables along the way (at one point spitting out the beans which she had accidentally put into her mouth).

Halfway through a bite she spots something she wants (a cup of water), and in the most commanding and peremptory manner possible, points and yells until C-Pop, like a foot servant, fetches it for her. Shockingly her Royal Highness managed to squeeze out a "Thank you" afterwards.

Cousins

C-bao enjoys a Facetime session with her cousins, Rong-Rong Jieh Jieh (Cousin Elizabeth) and Ling-Ling Mei Mei (Cousin Grace).

Busy with her apple sauce, C-bao was more in listening mode for this conversation. Ling looks on worriedly as if concerned her cousin is eating a tad too fast - or perhaps wondering why she isn't sharing. 

Fetch

C-bao has always had a thing for colorful balls and balloons.

Here she makes up a little game for C-Pop, namely "Fetch," with herself as the master and C-Pop as the dog.

Eyelid Flip

C-bao has fallen ill over the last few days and has experienced interrupted sleep, which has caused one of her eyelids to flip, becoming a "double eyelid."

While C-Mum has always been a double-eyelid girl, C-Pop was born with single eyelids, as is common in the Asian genotype. Growing up, his eyelids would "flip" and become double - adding a crease in the upper eyelid - only when he was extraordinarily fatigued and sleep-deprived. After he joined the finance industry, his eyelids flipped permanently, never to return to their single state. (Who has need for blepharoplasty when there is Wall Street?)

It should also be noted that C-bao's Xiao Goo-Goo was born with single eyelids, but over the course of her adolescence they developed creases and evolved into double eyelids on their own, so there is some historical and genetic basis for the eyelid identity ambivalence in the family.

Here you can see her right eyelid in its double state, while the left remains blissfully single.

Golden Gate

C-bao enjoys a day in the sun at Golden Gate park with C-Pop.

"Let me eat dirt!"

Ling-Ling

C-bao met her cousin Ling-Ling (second daughter of Da Goo-Goo, Aunt Esther) for the first time on this trip. Little Ling is a couple months behind C-bao in age and C-bao took an immediate liking to her, though the affection did not appear to be immediately returned.

In an anatomy of the hug shown in the freeze frames below, it is clear Ling sees the imminent threat, starts to mount a defense, attempts to stiff-arm C-bao, but then ultimately is enveloped in C's warm embrace, much to her dismay.

Here is C-Pop holding the two cousins who, in this picture, look remarkably alike.

Demure

C-bao was similarly demure with her Xiao Goo-Goo (Aunt Catherine) and Shu-Shu (Uncle James) in the early stages of this Taipei visit, forgetting entirely how her Uncle James had once mesmerized her with a guitar solo, or how she had once cuddled with XGG.

Within a day or so, however, she had warmed up to XGG - charmed by her aunt's warm dimpled smile and smooth voice.

Shu-Shu, on the other hand, had to truly work his way into her good graces. At one point on day 3 or 4, he thought he had arrived at last: C-bao leaned forward and tapped him on the shoulders.

However, when he reached out to hold her, she whirled around with an impish grin and refused to let go of C-Pop. A few seconds later, of course, she turned around and tapped him again - only to repeat the tease. This nonsense carried on for many minutes. Eventually, Shu-Shu broke through, once again, via his musical talents - by offering to teach little C-bao the piano (i.e. let her bang randomly on the keys). After that point, slowly but surely, S2 made his way onto the Hit List, as shown by the tangible evidence below.

Gong-Gong & Po-Po

One of the great joys for C-bao over the past 10 days in Taipei was getting to spend time with C-Grandpop (Gong-Gong) and C-Grandmum (Po-Po).

Though not at first. Indeed C-bao had apparently forgotten the March visit from her grandfolks and was reticent and coy with all of her relatives for the first few days. When, after day 5, in the gift store at the Taipei Zoo, C-bao finally agreed to let Gong-Gong hold her, Gong-Gong wanted the seminal moment recorded for posterity.

After that moment, of course, C-bao proactively would reach for Gong-Gong and Po-Po for extra hugs and kisses whenever she felt her quota from C-Pop and C-Mum was running low (which, given her overall naughtiness, was quite frequent).

Here is a video of C-bao succmbing to Po-Po's charms:

Taiwan 2013

C-bao just completed a whirlwind trip to Taipei, Taiwan. It was not only her first overseas travel, it was her first time on an airplane. It was also her first time meeting relatives such as C-Great-Grandmum (on her father's side) and several dozen great-aunts, great-uncles and cousins - all important people in C-Pop's childhood such as Great Aunt Five, Great Uncle Seven, Great Uncle Nine, etc. A lot of firsts for out little one, who only celebrated her 14th month during the trip.

As usual, C-Mum packed enough for the family to relocate permanently. Here is a snapshot of Barnum, Bailey & Hu at the airport. With five carry-on bags jam-packed with snacks, toys and extra clothing, a carseat and a stroller, not to mention 2 squirming children, C-Pop looks understandably a bit grumpy.

How did C-bao do on the flight, you ask? Well, the plan had been for C-bao to take her usual afternoon nap a little bit early, and to board the evening flight ready for bed. C-bao foiled that plan by refusing to go down for her nap, and was clearly overtired by the time the family boarded. While one might instinctively think that that state of affairs might make it easier for her to fall asleep, quite the opposite is true. Coupled with the adrenaline flowing from the vast flood of new stimuli flowing her way, C-bao literally began bouncing off the seats and did not settle down for a good 5 hours.

Luckily, C-Pop had 3 seats to work with (thanks to some smart seat selection by C-Mum), and quickly set up a fort in which C-bao roamed around like a Tasmanian pup, pulling herself up every 5 seconds, grabbing at the monitors in front of us, flirting with the old couple behind us, launching herself at C-Pop without warning and slapping him on the face every now and then for good measure. The below snippet captures one of her calmer minutes during those first few hours. By the time C-bao finally and literally keeled over, she had not closed her eyes for over 12 hours (she usually goes about 3-4) and was pretty much stupid with fatigue.

Once she arrived, of course, C-bao enjoyed just about every minute of it. Below are a few pics from the early days, with more posts to come on her various interactions with family members.

Goof

More goofing around and acting silly with sister K-bao.

At the end of the video when C-bao leans forward you can more clearly make out the patented "Ghidorah Style" (3-headed monster) hair-do that C-Grandmum invented.

Flowers

C-bao has always been a lover of flowers (hua or 花, as the C-folks have taught her). Whenever she sees them, she'll stop, point and bellow until C-Pop or C-Mum acknowledge the pretty petals. Here she takes in the colorful collection at Golden Gate Park while rolling around on the grass.