Medusa

"Excuse me, Daddy, who did this to me?"

(Who else?)

#ASisterIsForever

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).

Led Astray

Lest any reader, after the last post, fall into some misguided notion around how lucky little C-bao is to have such a wonderful sisterly influence in her life, someone to play with, guide and teach her and act as her True North as she navigates the murky moral waters of her childhood...the below video will set you straight.

Imp

In the last few months Little C-bao has not only become a mischievous imp, she has embraced the identity and now basks in the knowledge of her mischief.

Ask her "誰是小皮皮?" (Who is the Little Naughty One?) and she will proudly say "C-bao!" (or sometimes 小妹妹 - "Little Sister" or "Little Girl," her other nickname), before smiling sassily and running off.

The below video where she purposefully grabs too many snacks while grinning from ear to ear is broadly representative. Reminds us of a certain incident around greedy grapes several years ago.

Conversations with C-bao

C-bao's vocabulary has expanded by leaps and bounds over the past few months, and she uses her newfound communication skills to issue a nonstop stream of commands to C-Pop and whomever else is in the vicinity.

A few examples:

• 爸爸喝奶奶！("Daddy drink milk!" This is not, Daddy can I get a drink of milk. This is, Daddy, I want you to drink your milk. There, nice and slow. That's it. Good boy.)
• 妈妈陪! ("Mommy stay with me!" C-bao's understanding of "陪," which means "stay with," is "hold hands")
• 姐姐刷牙！("Sister brush your teeth!")
• 爸爸抱抱出去! ("Daddy take me outside!")
• 要！要！要！要！橘子! 橘子! 橘子! ("Want! Want! Want! Want! Orange! Orange! Orange!")
• And her favorite: 不要！不要！不要！("Do not want!" Do not want! Do not want!" - always in 3's)

Yes, everything has an exclamation after it, and is usually repeated at least 3 times before C-Pop or C-Mum has a chance to get a word in.

In the below video C-bao talks about her socks and shoes, the pen she's not supposed to be holding, and how much she loves her extended family (saying "Love!" with increasing ferocity as we went through the list).

Eyes Ears Nose Mouth

C-bao has become a regular chatterbox and is now generally able to understand most things her parents tell her - though at times she pretends not to hear or comprehend some of the more annoying commands (e.g. "Don't play with the toilet").

In those moments she will, with a huge, impish grin on her face, ignore whatever is being said and plunge forward with her mischief, though not without looking back with a sly look to make sure her naughtiness is being observed.

In general, though, C-bao is fairly compliant with parental directives, and will indulge her folks when asked to smile, sit down or come here. She also is able to express herself reasonably clearly - bao-bao (pick me up), poo-poo (which she says excitedly and repeatedly while she points at her diaper), xie xie (thank you), yao-yao (I want, I want), roof-roof (whenever she sees a dog on the street), etc.

Here she demonstrates her command of her various body parts and happily points out her appendages (or raises them, as appropriate).

Speedy Gonzales

Ever since C-bao's breakthrough at Xiao Jiu's (Uncle Calvin) apartment a half-dozen weeks ago, she has enjoyed the new found freedom of forward movement. These days, she won't tolerate being held for long and generally struggles to get down on the ground so she can get herself into mischief more freely.

Indeed, her land speed is now quite remarkable. Whenever she spots trouble (namely the kitchen, a bathroom, an outlet or a cabinet or drawer of some kind), she'll put on a burst of speed, and with a pitter-patter of small hands and knees hitting the ground and a huge smile on her face, she'll make a bee-line for it. Usually, before she actually engages in tasting the forbidden fruit, she'll look back to make sure someone is witnessing her naughtiness. The below is illustrative.

C-bao is also pulling herself up on anything that her little fingers can grip. It won't be long before she begins teeter-tottering on those little hoofs.

Squeeze It

As noted on these pages before, C-bao is not the most obliging eater, which generally makes the job of any unlucky fellow assigned the task of feeding her a rather trying experience.

Here she is using her remarkably strong little fingers to pulverize her food and scatter the crumbs, while being egged on in her mischievousness by sister K-bao.

Change

女大十八變 says the Chinese idiom (literally "the eighteen changes of a woman growing up"...also known as "I have no idea who this girl claiming to be my daughter is"). C-bao is already evidencing the wisdom of her Chinese ancients, by transforming recently - seemingly overnight - from a quiet, gentle soul into a mischievous, stubborn chatterbox.

Yesterday, apparently deciding that her surroundings were too quiet, she decided to enthrall the C-folks with thirty straight minutes of raucous bawling, for no other apparent reason than some minor fatigue. When she finally decided to be civil, and knowing that her misbehavior was not welcome, she refused to look C-Pop in the eye, no matter what angle he was holding her. This stiff-necked behavior, while admittedly influenced by hereditary factors (not calling out anyone in particular, C-Mum), was not met with any amusement on the part of the C-folks.

UPDATE: the below video documents C-bao refusing to make eye contact after some naughty behavior