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.