Confident

Since turning 3, C-bao has a new swagger about her these days. More self-assurance. More bounce in her step.

Her new-found confidence is perfectly summed up below.

Birthday Girl

Happy 3rd birthday to our dearest C-bao!

C-Mum took C-bao to pick out her cake from her favorite bakery, Schubert's. Naturally C-bao zoned in quickly on their chocolate and nut confection, the Opera Cake.

A modest but happy celebration ensued in the evening. Below you can see sister K-bao offering up her best wishes through cards, hugs and songs.

More extensive celebrations to come later this summer!

Summer School

C-bao is off to summer school! This is her first step towards going to a real preschool this fall. Knowing that this would be a major transition for our little one (who has never done any type of school or camp other than Sunday School at church), the whole family tried to get her ready and excited to go.

C-Mum helped her pick out and order her own very first ladybug backpack, and helped her preview the site days in advance. C-Pop talked to her extensively about how many great snacks she would be getting at school, not to mention music and drawing classes. Sister K-bao played with her in the morning (below) to put her in a good mood ahead of Day 1.

When the time for parting came, while not without a little bit of sadness, C-bao took it in stride and by the end of the first week had started to develop a little bit of rhythm with the drop off, to wit: (1) look for recognizable teacher figure; (2) werbally confirm several times that parent will return at some point; (3) wave goodbye sadly.

The day will undoubtedly come when the little one will scamper into the classroom excitedly with nary a look back. That day doesn't yet seem imminent, yet from experience the C-folks know that it's really just around the corner. 

Hyena Love

In this moving story of a young fox who lost his mother in a bush fire and was subsequently adopted by a compassionate hyena, C-bao learned:

• The meaning of sacrificial love
• Always run when you hear "Fire!"
• Hyenas are not always bad (contrary to what she has believed since watching The Lion King)

C-bao is quite into animals, and stories about the African veld are always well received. In the video above C-Pop quizzes her on her listening comprehension after the story and she passed with flying colors. 

Filial

C-bao promises to take care of C-Mum in her old age.

Quick, get this down on film! Make her pinky promise!

Sumo

Occasionally, C-bao's sister K-bao likes to initiate a little rough 'n tumble. C-bao doesn't back down; in fact she welcomes it and is happy to throw her weight around.

Here are the siblings at the park last weekend.

Puzzle

Over the past few months C-bao has mastered basic puzzles. She can fly through the Melissa & Doug wooden sets by herself in no time now. Now granted, those puzzles are only 12 pieces each. With larger sets, like the 100 piece one we tried together over the weekend, there is still a reasonable amount of guidance needed. But on ones like the above, she pushes away any helping hands. "I do m'self!" she insists in her fobby accent.