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!

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.

Great-Grandmum

Here is lucky little C-bao with C-Great-Grandmum.

Appropriately, C-bao looks back in gratitude. To think: if not for the many miracles in the lives of this great woman, her daughter, and then her granddaughter over the years - enduring multiple world wars and countless harrowing experiences along the way - C-bao wouldn't even be here today.

His mercy passeth from generation to generation!