Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

Amazingly, C-bao is coming to the end of her year in the Rainbow Dolphin class at her school, and in celebration of a great year her class put together a spring musical.

The musical was Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, and C-bao was assigned an important role as one of the Gardeners.

By the way, C-Mum astutely noticed that the key sign with the show name had a number of, um, "autographs" repeated several times in 3 or 4 places on the sign.

Here the performers enter the outdoor stage area, to great fanfare and applause.



Here are a couple of snippets of the story narration and accompanying songs.


Both C-Pop and C-Mum attended the show, and  Aunt Christina cut short her workday and came all the way up from South San Francisco to catch little C-bao in action. Aunt Christina brought a nice flower for our star performer.

A Note

Today was C-bao's first day back at school after an extended holiday with the family, and our little one had a tough time with morning goodbyes.

C-Pop had to make multiple promises involving early pickups, snacks and sundry other bribes, which together with a series of minor threats ultimately convinced C-bao to stay in her classroom, but not without a few tears.

When C-Pop went to pick up C-bao at the end of the day, she had apparently just finished dictating the below letter, which Teacher Soara had jotted down for her.

A heart-warming (and slightly heart-breaking) note. The plants referred to in the last sentence were little beansprouts that C-bao has recently grown in a plastic bag with the help of moist soil and sunlight, which she proceeded to show C-pop enthusiastically.

As we departed, C-bao also collected from her cubby a large swath of cards and papers, amidst which C-Pop found the below, written at some point in the recent past. To the delight of the C-folks, an ever-expressive C-bao has now taken to putting her sentiments regularly down on paper.

Hopefully the beginning of a series of lovely notes which undoubtedly over the teenage years will morph into printed complaints about how the C-folks are the strictest and meanest parents in the world. Well, enjoy it while you can, C-folks.

I Know

"I know! I know! Choose me!"

Here is C-bao eagerly seeking to participate in the conversation at school.

(Either that or she really needs to use the restroom)

While C-bao still clearly prefers to stay home and hang out with the fam, the C-folks are grateful that she seems by and large to be engaged at school.

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.