K-Cuz

C-bao is hanging out with her cuz Kaitlyn this week (a.k.a. K-K). Born only a few days apart, the two have plenty in common, not the least of which is each having a "strong Chinese woman" as a mum. Check out these pics from a couple years ago...my how time has flown by.

Going for our daily constitutional

The two are at a point where they can do more than parallel play, and have already spent plenty of time this week teasing, testing and hugging one another.

Come here, you little rascal you

 They have also had plenty of affection from anyone standing nearby.

In the loving arms of C-Grandmum

Uncles everywhere!

Christmas

After all that traveling, young C-bao is all traveled-out and is staying put these holidays. Instead, her other C-Grandmum and C-Grandpops, along with C-Great-Grandmum, have come up from LA to see her and other family members in the Bay area.

That, of course, means that young C-bao is feasting and partying like royalty. Her very first meal with C-Grandmum looked like this:

Not quite feeding the 5,000, but close

Indeed, C-bao couldn't get enough of those green onion pancakes (at the bottom left hand corner of the picture), and helped herself repeatedly to those slices throughout the evening.

After she had finally had her fill, naturally she was ready for play. C-Grandmum was more than happy to oblige, zooming her around on the new scooter that Cousin Justin had received as a Christmas gift.

Who needs a helmet when I've got loving arms on all sides?

Merry Christmas everyone!

Flower Girl

And here it is! The culmination of all of the rehearsing and dressing up, jet lag and thousands of miles across the Pacific.

As noted in the last post, the wedding ceremony was held at the Chijmes, a historic building complex in Singapore, on a beautiful Sunday morning.

C-bao makes her first appearance at 3:19 in the video, and her entrance into the hall at 3:35 (after a quick pep talk by C-Mum). While she hung on pretty tightly to those petals, and accelerated down the aisle particularly after the midway point, overall she looked quite comfortable with all of the attention.

The C-folks were very proud of her performance. Sister K-bao and Cousin Elizabeth were also magnificent.

Rehearsing

"Practice makes progress!" chimes sister K-bao often, and C-bao took the advice to heart recently in Singapore, practicing her Flower Girl routine at the wedding hall (coincidentally named Chijmes) ahead of the big day.

In her first attempt, she was asked to hold the hand of another young toddler, a nephew of WZ Shu-Shu (Uncle Zech) who would be bearing the rings. C-Mum comes alongside and gives detailed instructions, while WZ Shu-Shu encourages sister K-bao to manage the pace.

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Cute as he was, the handholding clearly impeded C-bao's petal disposal motion, so in her second try she walked alone, leading the young procession down the aisle. This would end up being the winning combination, and on the actual wedding day C-bao was in fact the very first person the audience turned to see. Fame!

Jackpot

One of the big bonanzas for C-bao on this trip was the opportunity to don a little make-up. Already a young lover of all things fashion-related - who attempts to over-apply lotion and lip balm at every opportunity - the possibility of adding a little rouge and perhaps a touch of foundation was almost too much for our little one's young heart to handle.

C-Grandmum

C-bao got to spend some time with her beloved grandparents on this trip, particularly C-Grandmum.

Here she is with C-Grandmum on a trip to Singapore's Gardens by the Bay, which besides being filled with beautiful flowers, was - Hallelujah! - fantastically air-conditioned.

Here she is pointing out something perplexing to C-Grandmum and asking for some clarification.

HB to Uncle James

The first order of business on this Asia trip was, of course, to wish Shu-Shu a.k.a. Uncle James a very Happy Birthday.

Both K-bao and C-bao are big fans of Shu-Shu. "Is Shu-Shu going to be there?" is usually the first one or two questions the girls ask when told of an impending family gathering.

So it was no surprise that they elbowed each other out of the way in their eagerness to serenade their uncle. C-bao in particular was aggressive about singing alone to make sure her voice was heard.

Go East Young Girl

C-bao has made the 2nd major international trip of her short 2.5 years, this time to play an important role as Flower Girl at the Singapore wedding nuptials of Xiao Goo-Goo (Aunt Catherine) and Wen Zhen Shu-Shu (recall the immodest "dress rehearsal" a couple months back).

A very full and busy trip from which C-bao has just returned. Below are few pics of the first 24 hours of the 10-day trip: 

Knocked out, with feet firmly planted on C-Pop. On the first leg to HK

Moving all these suitcases C-Mum packed is a family affair

Arrived! At the hotel

First real meal in Singapore. Yes - pizza

More to come!

Reading Time

On a quiet Sunday, C-bao waits patiently with her sister K-bao for the C-folks to get ready for church. The sisters pass the time by reading Dr. Seuss.

Unable quiet yet to make out any words, or frankly to speak any English, C-bao nonetheless gamely mumbles aloud a string of random syllables she hopes sounds vaguely like English while she checks out the colorful pics.

Soon will the come the day - not too far off, we hope! - when the two sisters will sit side by side, engrossed in Judy Bloom, Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, and then C.S. Lewis,  J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien and many others. Magical times await.

Bounce

C-bao jumps on the buggy bouncer at the park with sister K-bao. Predictably, craziness and some head-bumping ensue.

Secret Plan

The following conversation took place just now, while C-bao sat on the potty.

C-Pop: C-bao, 爸爸今天晚上要带你们去吃 pizza (Daddy is going to take you to eat some pizza tonight, Cbao)

After a moment of silence...

C-bao: 我在想一个东西, 爸爸 (I am thinking about something, Daddy)
C-Pop: 什么? (What is it?)
C-bao: 阴谋! (A secret plan!)
C-Pop: 阴谋? 什么阴谋? (A secret plan? What secret plan?)
C-bao: 妹妹吃大的 pizza, 姐姐吃小的 pizza! (Little Sister will eat a big pizza, and Big Sister will each a little pizza!)
C-Pop: ......

Not quite two and a half, and already hatching grand conspiracies.

Zoo

C-bao, an animal lover, chats about her planned trip to the zoo. She was particularly excited to see the baby giraffe, and clearly has an affinity for the lions as well. Notice the well-practiced roar.

Trick or Treat

#Nonconformist

C-bao fights the social currents of our times, deciding to dress up as Anna, not Elsa, this Halloween.

Below she stops by C-Pop's office for the first Trick or Treat outing of her young 2-year-old life. At first, she was hesitant, even suspicious, of the gratuitous outpouring of candy. "All these treats for free? Is this a trick?"

"But I thought you said not to take things from strangers, Daddy"

The skepticism did not last long. The pragmatist in C-bao soon took over. Before we knew it, she was taking not one, not two, but three or more pieces of candy from whatever candy jar was in front of her, and transferring them as quick as possible to her little pumpkin bag. Clearly a little capitalist in the making!

Beach rides

C-Pop took the little one for a stroll on the beach this weekend. The sun had just burned away the clouds and the sky was a perfect blue when we snapped the pic below.

C-bao enjoyed watching the waves and seagulls, and commented on many a passing dog frolicking by the water (typically on their size and color).

She also made C-Pop do a number of windsprints, while being carried in his arms like royalty. "Faster! Faster!" she hollered, egging on C-Pop much as an equestrian might urge on a steed. It turns out these Daddy-Daughter dates provide quite a bit more exercise than C-Pop might otherwise expect.

Fashionista

 

If there's one person who loves clothes more than K-bao, it would be C-bao. Put a fashionable dress in front of our 2-year old and she lights up like a Christmas tree. "O thank you!" she will proclaim, and rush to embrace her benefactor (typically C-Mum. Ok, always C-Mum).

Here she is trying out some new threads for some upcoming big events. Sister K-bao was sporting some new attire as well and the two sisters strutted around our home like proud peacocks.

Story Time

A few weeks back little C-bao was honored to host C-Grandmum at her place for a few hours.

Naturally, she quickly leaned on her soft-hearted grandmum to spend whatever time was available reading from selected storybooks (selected, naturally, by C-bao - in this case, the Three Billy Goats Gruff).

Immodest

"Cutesyville here I come!"

One thing these sisters are not is modest.

C-bao and her sister K-bao don their gowns for their flower girl roles at the upcoming nuptials of Xiao Goo Goo (Aunt Catherine) and Wen Zhen Shu Shu.

Before we knew it, phrases such as "I look so beautiful!" began to tumble out.

Even the C-folks had to admit, however, that there was some truth to that statement.

Hot slide

"C-bao, be careful - that slide looks hot!" exclaimed C-Pop.

Thinking quickly, C-bao replied: "C-bao will blow on it."

"I'll huff, and I'll puff..."

Not Amused

#21YearsTooEarly

C-Pop caught little C-bao prancing around with one of these, rendering him aghast and only very slightly amused, in a sick-in-the-stomach kind of way.

The question now is not if, but rather when, and how many, supplemental dead-bolt locks C-Pop should install on the doors to guard against the unwelcome intrusion of foreign Y chromosomes in this household down the road.

Potty Praise

C-bao has been potty training for a little bit now, and like her sister, has climbed up the learning curve quickly.

Indeed, perhaps the C-folks have overdone the encouragement, for during the first couple of weeks of training, she took an inordinate amount of pride in her "productions," insisting after each episode to gather everyone in the house to admire her handiwork. She would then make sure to verbalize her accomplishments to each person ("妹妹在马桶里poo-poo了!" x3 or x4) until she received individual acknowledgement and applause. Then, and only then, would she permit a flush.

Luckily over the past week or so it appears she's become more confident that her toilet-using prowess is well understood. While she will still seek post-facto validation, the "eye-witnessing" piece of it is no longer demanded, which has been a major relief to the entire family who, many a time in the last few weeks, had to interrupt a meal for an in-person Potty Praise.

Multitasker

C-bao shows off her ambidextrous, multi-tasking capabilities.

"一邊拿奶奶,一邊拿水水" she observes for the visually challenged among her audience ("I'm holding milk and water at the same time").

In fact, when asked somewhat ironically by C-Pop whether she is also drinking both cups at the same time, she refuses to acknowledge the friendly sarcasm, and shows that indeed, she is.

Wet Deception

Earlier today before leaving the house, C-bao went to get a clean face towel from her drawer. For whatever reason, our girl loves washing her face, and insists on doing it herself, always very daintily. The following dialogue ensued:

C-Mum: "Didn't you wash your face already?" (妹, 你今天不是以已經洗过脸了吗?)
C-bao: "No, I haven't!" (还没有!)
C-Mum, disbelieving: "Daddy, did C-bao wash her face already?" (爸爸, 妹妹洗过脸了吗?)
C-Pop: "Yes, she has." (有, 洗过了)
C-bao, running into the bathroom with her precious towel: "No, Mei-mei hasn't! Mei-mei hasn't washed yet!" (还没有! 妹妹还没洗过!)
C-Pop, following C-bao into the bathroom. "No lying, C-bao." (妹妹, 不可以说谎!)
C-bao, ready to turn on the tap, repeats: "Mei-mei hasn't washed yet!" ( 妹妹还没洗过!)
C-Pop, grabbing the little one's previously used wet towel from the rack: "Is this towel wet or dry?" (这个毛巾是湿的还是干的?)
C-bao, feeling the towel: "Wet" (湿的)
C-Pop: "So why is it wet?" (为什么是湿的?)
C-bao, without skipping a beat, and in her most earnest tone: "Because my sister used it." (因为姐姐用过!)

It wasn't so much the dissembling itself, which is commonplace...it was the combination of her age (yes, she just turned two a couple months ago) and the fluidity and ease of her response - the way it rolled easily off the tongue - that shocked the C-folks.

Terrible 2s

Dialogue with C-bao tonight:

C-Pop: "妹妹，你有乖嗎？" (Mei-mei, are you being a good girl?)
C-bao, with a sly smile: "剛剛沒有, 現在有!" (Not earlier, but I am now!)
C-Pop: ......

"Do you see what I have to deal with every day, Dad?"

The reality is, C-bao has entered an uber naughty stage. For example, when she sees her older sister playing with blocks, it delights her to no end to sneak up from behind like a silent predator, then burst onto the scene and scatter the blocks as provocatively as possible, causing anguished wails from poor K-bao. In some cases, C-bao will dance in, grab one of the larger blocks and then take off down the hall, looking back and pausing briefly only to make sure her irate sibling is chasing her.

Ah, the delights of little sisterhood!

Growth

A year ago, C-bao would look on helplessly while sister quite literally danced circles around her while reciting Tang Dynasty poetry.

The below is from August 2013, when C-bao was not quite walking:


My how time flies. These days, not only is C-bao running almost as fast as her sister, and speaking in full paragraphs to boot, over the course of the summer she memorized a good 9 or 10 Tang poems. In fact she can recite two or three that her sister still has trouble with.

Here she reviews a subset of her favorites (and burps loudly while reviewing how hard the farmer works while planting rice):

Here she is doing the March & Chant:

Clownin'

Visiting the home of Aunt Carol (a.k.a. Da Ah-yi) in Redding, recently, C-bao brought out her inner entertainer. As you can see, she has clearly perfected the Arm Roll dance move.


Later, she showed off her book-balancing skills - as well as her ability to appreciate her own talents - while Cousin Kaitlyn and the family look on.

Stream of Consciousness

C-Pop had night duty the other night with C-bao, meaning that he was the one putting her down after the nightly Scripture and prayer session ended.*

The other night, however, C-bao had napped only a few hours earlier, so she started chatting to herself aloud while trying to fall asleep. C-Pop had the opportunity to hear a little bit of what's going on in the little one's head, stream-of-consciousness style. This is what he heard:

1. Chinese poetry excerpts.  言师采药去，只在此山中， 云深不知处 ("Teacher has gone to pick medicine in the mountains, but at this time, the clouds and fog are so thick that no one can know where exactly he is"). C-bao has been learning some Tang dynasty poems lately, and now can rattle off quite a few. Clearly the words are floating around up there in her semi-conscious state, because C-Pop heard her repeat the above lines several times, which are of course an excerpt from a well known verse by Tang poet Jia Dao.

2. Select Biblical concepts: 仁爱还是盼望?  仁爱还是盼望? ("Love or hope? Love or hope?") C-bao apparently has been wrestling with the supremacy of certain biblical concepts, because one theme that was repeated several times while she was rolling around trying to get comfortable:  These are concepts found in 1 Cor:13 and Gal 5:22, which C-bao is able to repeat when asked...though we would be shocked if she had any idea what she was actually saying.

3. The Big Bad Wolf. 爸爸不会让大野狼进来的!爸爸会保护的! ("Daddy won't let the Big Bad Wolf come in! He will protect me!") This unsavory character shows up in many of the little nursery books C-bao has consumed over the past year, and clearly has assumed a prominent role in the little C's imagination. Luckily, C-Pop was brought in appropriately to the situation.

There were many more scattered thoughts throughout the 30 or so minutes it took C-bao to fall asleep...both encouraging and sobering, of course, is that the little one is clearly listening, all the time, and is soaking up the words around her like a little sponge. 

* Note: Somehow in the past 8 months or so, C-bao has developed a bad habit of needing a parent to be with her until she falls asleep; how it was developed C-Pop shan't say - can't throw wifey under the bus! Luckily, the little one is normally so exhausted by the time 7 p.m. rolls around that she is generally out within 60 seconds.

Miscalculation

Over this past weekend, C-bao took a trip down to Happy Hollow with her sister to take in the sun and ride the roller coasters. Unfortunately for barely 2-year-old C-bao, she is not quite 36 inches tall, even with her thick rubber-soled Crocs, and doesn't meet the height requirement for the fastest rides.

She did, however, join sister K-bao in line for the well known Pacific Fruit Express - the fastest ride in the park - and after watching her sister's giddy anticipation, she grabbed C-Pop by the ears and earnestly intoned, "妹妹也想坐! 妹妹也想坐!" (Mei-mei also wants to ride it! x2).

Well, what was C-Pop to do? Thinking quickly, he pulled C-bao's hair into a bun to give her a couple extra inches, and then taught her to tippy-toe on command (尖脚!). When the ride attendant pulled out his measuring stick, C-bao obediently stretched up a couple of inches, and Lo! What with the extra carrot bun on top, the tippy-toes, the bright sun and loud noises, C-bao was ushered through.

As it turned out, of course, minimum height requirements have their unfailing logic. Little C-bao ended up...not quite enjoying the ride as much as she thought she would. The below video captures it all (the couple of fake "Ha-ha's" - and only at C-Pop's insistence that she give a smile - only underscores the irony).

Matchy-matchy

C-bao and sister K-bao enjoy going "matchy matchy."

They also enjoy causing a ruckus.

"Here's looking at you, cutie."

Stomp

Here comes C-bao, singing and stomping her way down the hall. The song? From the musical introduction to a Chinese storybook:

"來，來，來，小朋友, 快來一起來享受，姐姐為你說故事喲，快來快來小朋友!"

"Come, little children, let's enjoy together! Sister will tell you a story. Come little children!"

Heliophobia

As the daughter of someone who is a well-known heliophobe (has "fear of the sun") - and let's just say it's not C-Pop - C-bao manages to maintain her milky-white complexion no matter what the level of photovoltaics out there.

Here C-bao takes a dip in a pool in blazing hot Redding, CA in full full sun-protection regalia, looking more like a farmer getting ready for airstrikes by enemy drones than a casual swimmer trying to cool down.

"Please tell me there's noone here I know"

心肝寶貝

C-bao has heard perhaps more than a few times that she is Daddy's little precious, or in Chinese, 心肝寶貝 (Xin gan bao bei, literally "heart liver treasure shell(fish)"). When asked, she revels in repeating it, in a whisper at first, and then with greater and greater emphasis on the last word bei (in a higher pitch). With luck, she'll remember that little fact forever.

Guard the Sheep!

C-bao recently has gotten into a story about sheep - specifically how Grandpa Sheep embarked on a quest to hire an animal guard to protect his little ones from the big bad grey wolves.

As one can see in the below video, C-bao gets quite pumped for the story.

Encouragingly, C-bao appears to genuinely follow what is going on, and will remark throughout the text about things she sees happening on the pages that correspond to the story line.  "Here are the little sheep...and they're getting eaten." "So many animals appeared!" "The bear is crying!" "That plate is broken."

Part of the way through sister K-bao appears and joins in the animated storytelling.

Mischief

C-bao is growing in mischief every day. Her sense of irony abounds; her sass knows no limit. Here she decides it's time to fish around for a face towel lying on her tummy when she knows full well that C-Pop expects her to be flat on her back for her diaper change. Her impish giggle at 1:02, in response to C-Pop's inquiry - "You know full well you should be lying obediently - what in the world are you doing?!" - is classic (and typical).

Gangnam

C-bao's all-time favorite video of her scant two years on earth thus far is a clip of an Asian mother and son duo hip-hop dancing on the Ellen Degeneres show, set to Gangnam Style.

Concededly, she's gotten into the song a little bit past its peak popularity - but she has more than made up for any lost cycles through her intensity. She can watch this clip on the iPad or computer a dozen times in a row.

While not quite able to articulate exactly what this video is, she has always been able to communicate precisely what she wants by coming up to C-Pop with a big smile on her face, stomping her feet (in imitation of Psy's horse-riding dance), and then climbing into his lap. In the below video she also tries to say "se- se- se- sexy lady!" to make sure C-Pop gets it. This is now a daily routine for the little one.

Kicks

Little C-bao, like sister K-bao, likes to run. The problem, as always, is the footwear.

Bare feet again! How do you expect me to reach my track potential?

This is called Taking Matters into My Own Hands (or Feet). 

Finally! And a matching tracksuit!