Demure

C-bao was similarly demure with her Xiao Goo-Goo (Aunt Catherine) and Shu-Shu (Uncle James) in the early stages of this Taipei visit, forgetting entirely how her Uncle James had once mesmerized her with a guitar solo, or how she had once cuddled with XGG.

Within a day or so, however, she had warmed up to XGG - charmed by her aunt's warm dimpled smile and smooth voice.

Shu-Shu, on the other hand, had to truly work his way into her good graces. At one point on day 3 or 4, he thought he had arrived at last: C-bao leaned forward and tapped him on the shoulders.

However, when he reached out to hold her, she whirled around with an impish grin and refused to let go of C-Pop. A few seconds later, of course, she turned around and tapped him again - only to repeat the tease. This nonsense carried on for many minutes. Eventually, Shu-Shu broke through, once again, via his musical talents - by offering to teach little C-bao the piano (i.e. let her bang randomly on the keys). After that point, slowly but surely, S2 made his way onto the Hit List, as shown by the tangible evidence below.

Gong-Gong & Po-Po

One of the great joys for C-bao over the past 10 days in Taipei was getting to spend time with C-Grandpop (Gong-Gong) and C-Grandmum (Po-Po).

Though not at first. Indeed C-bao had apparently forgotten the March visit from her grandfolks and was reticent and coy with all of her relatives for the first few days. When, after day 5, in the gift store at the Taipei Zoo, C-bao finally agreed to let Gong-Gong hold her, Gong-Gong wanted the seminal moment recorded for posterity.

After that moment, of course, C-bao proactively would reach for Gong-Gong and Po-Po for extra hugs and kisses whenever she felt her quota from C-Pop and C-Mum was running low (which, given her overall naughtiness, was quite frequent).

Here is a video of C-bao succmbing to Po-Po's charms:

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.

Goof

More goofing around and acting silly with sister K-bao.

At the end of the video when C-bao leans forward you can more clearly make out the patented "Ghidorah Style" (3-headed monster) hair-do that C-Grandmum invented.

Flowers

C-bao has always been a lover of flowers (hua or 花, as the C-folks have taught her). Whenever she sees them, she'll stop, point and bellow until C-Pop or C-Mum acknowledge the pretty petals. Here she takes in the colorful collection at Golden Gate Park while rolling around on the grass.

Orchestra

C-bao, a natural musician, has been treated to a whole new set of Chinese nursery rhymes over the past couple of weeks by C-Grandmum. At first, she contented herself with waving her hands to the music whenever she heard the music. The last few days, whenever she sees C-Grandmum, she will start proactively waving her index finger around as if conducting an orchestra, instructing her grandma to begin with the tunes.

Below you can see her conducting away, and then giving a round of applause.

Stand!

C-bao, who has been pulling herself up on any and every ledge or handgrip she can find for a few months, has finally started to try and stand on her own, and will even do so now on command.

Here you can see C-Pop asking C-bao to stand, and her open-leg technique for completing the task.

As you can also see, she's awfully proud of even a second of unassisted standing (at 0:27), and trumpets victoriously like a wild elephant.

iPhone

Like her sister - and most other kids, undoubtedly - C-bao is enamored with phones, blackberries and tablets. Here she pleads for the iPhone and says "Dada" in her most obliging voice.

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!

Spoilage

With the arrival of the C-Grandfolks (on C-Mum's side), C-bao is enjoying life - just as her sister did at this age.

Already, the attention is coming fast and furious, with extra reading and singing sessions, lots of additional shoulder rides, and plenty of 2:1 play sessions with the kitchen set. A few snapshots of the action below.

Trains

C-bao spent the day riding the steam trains at Tilden Park, thanks to the Jerez twins' (Dylan & Naomi) birthday bash. Here she is enjoying a snuggle with C-Mum and K-bao right before the train takes off.

C-Mum couldn't resist getting in a few tickles as the train rounded the corner.

One Second

Another short compilation of snippets from the last six weeks, with the siblings generally giggling and being silly. Credit to Cesar Kuriyama's One Second Every Day app.

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.

Not Peachy

The notoriously picky C-bao was digging into her sweet peach when suddenly she stopped. A long silence ensued, during which she suspiciously scrutinized the peach in her hands. Something was not right.

A wail of complaint issued forth. "What's the matter, C-bao?" asked C-Pop. The little one slowly untangled a piece of sticky, dark peach skin. Peach skin! Poison, no doubt! After inspecting, and confirming, this last point, the skin was quickly flicked away, and shortly thereafter the entire peach was summarily swept off the high chair.

Scratch & Giggle

Meal time at the Hu's is a slow and laborious affair, usually because someone is teasing or provoking someone else to giggle.

Here you see C-bao being highly entertained, inexplicably, by K-bao's head scratch. C-Mum gets in on the action too.

Discovery

C-bao made a visit to the Bay Area Discovery Museum this weekend. Her favorite was of course the outdoor area at the Tot Spot, where she splished and splashed happily while soaking through both her and C-Pop's shirts. Incidentally, this was also a favorite haunt of sister K-bao when she was about C-bao's current age, as recorded here.

Below she crawls through another section of the Tot Spot, navigating the tunnel with a big smile on her face.

Stinson Beach

C-bao hit the beach this weekend for the first time in her young, privileged life. It was a blazing hot day and the single-lane mountain road was congested and horribly curvy.  Not too far into the trip, C-bao began to complain and several times along the way C-Mum threatened to commandeer the car and turn the family around.

Once the gang arrived though at Stinson Beach, the pain was forgotten and C-bao settled down to some serious sandplay and seagull watching.

Did a little sand end up in the tummy, not to mention diaper, somewhere along the way? Undoubtedly. But C-bao was too busy to notice.

Below she runs alongside of sister K-bao in the sand. More accurately, she kicked her legs and pumped her arms furiously while C-Pop carried her underarm like a football to help her keep pace.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to our sweet little C-bao!

Below is her humble birthday celebration with sister K-bao and a strawberry frosted cupcake. You can see C-bao rocking out to the Birthday song, leaning in to blow out the birthday candle (ultimately delegated to her older sister, of course), and finally taking a poop right as she makes her first wish.

Ab Smooch

Here is C-Mum getting in her abs workout with the help of little C-bao.

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.

Party

C-bao attended the 1st birthday party of her buddy Emily over the weekend, where she gorged on sumptuous Korean delicacies while being loud and rambunctious and drawing all sorts of unnecessary attention.

Here she is agreeing reluctantly to a Daddy-Daughter pic with the birthday gal and her Pops, all the while sporting her patented "Ostrich Tail" hairdo.

Reality

Here is little C-bao praising the Lord with C-Mum in Sunday School at RealitySF.

Actually, that was the aspirational reality; the real reality is that she spent her time jamming random toys and carpet fuzz in her mouth in between demanding to be held. Hopefully she gets more worshipful over time.

(Photo Credit: Gus Dizon)

Forward

Triumph!

At last, little C-bao has acquired the foundational skills to crawl forward (as opposed to backwards, which was her only achievement in this area to date).

The breakthrough appeared this weekend at Uncle Calvin's ("Xiao Jiu") sunny Sunnyvale apartment.

You can see older sister K-bao clapping and encouraging her through it - and setting up the tempting water bottles just out of reach to motivate her forward. C-bao is lucky to have a real cheerleader in her sib - who was more excited about the accomplishment than she was ("Yay!!! She did it!!!")

Tilden

Here is C-bao enjoying a day at Tilden Park with the C-folks and her sister K-bao. After watching her sister hand out some munchies to the greedy goats, she took her first steam train ride, which she thoroughly enjoyed. You can see her gurgling with delight below.

Jieh Jieh

Each morning after C-bao takes her milk and gets her diaper changed, she starts looking around for her sister K-bao. Indeed, her first two phrases have emerged over the course of the last week: "Jieh Jieh" (older sister) and "Da Da."

C-Pop and K-bao can't seem to agree which one came first; naturally, K-bao insists vehemently she started hearing the former ages ago.

By the way, C-Mum, who has been trying to elicit the "ma" or "mum" sound from little C-bao for some time to no avail, has taken the view that C-bao's "da da" is actually the Chinese phrase "beat down," rather than any paternal recognition.

The Silent Swinger

C-bao swings in a contemplative silence - largely because she can't see what's going on around her.



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Footstool

The C-folks have apparently not done a very good job with passing on strong Confucian values to the next generation. As you can see, the concepts of "parental respect" and "dutiful daughter" are about the last things on C-bao's mind.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pretzel

Another reason C-bao hates covering up her little hoofs is because it doesn't allow her to demonstrate her remarkably flexible and agile footsy moves. Here she demonstrates the "pretzel foot" - which involves twisting and turning her feet and toes in quick succession.