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.