Dinner Date

C-bao enjoys dinner out with C-Pop and sister K-bao at a local restaurant.

C-Mum was out for several days on a business trip, so C-Pop was forced to be creative with dinner; here, he brings the kiddos to a Latin joint for some seasoned meats (which, it must be said, they attacked like true carnivores).

Preschool

C-bao has started at her new preschool for several weeks now. With her array of experiences over the summer at various summer camps, C-bao was emotionally much readier than the C-folks had anticipated, though there were still some moments of sadness at various points during the first couple of weeks. Overall, though, our little one has adjusted to her new environment like a champion.

Both the art and music programs at her new preschool are areas of emphasis, which the C-folks really like.

So is hands on learning. Above C-bao collaborates with a friend to build a Magnatile tower.

The school also has an extensive playground in the back that is entirely covered with sand. We all know what this means: daily sand in the shoes, socks, sandwiches, car and everything else she comes into contact with.

Head Restraint

For a little 3-year-old girl, C-bao's appears to have quite a heavy head. Full of grey matter, C-Pop would like to think. The unfortunate consequence of that, however, is that when C-bao falls asleep on long road trips, her head ends up dangling forward at uncomfortable and seemingly even dangerous angles.

The below is a home-made contraption C-Pop set up on our last road trip to try and prevent any whiplash-like neck strains on our little one.

Sharing is Caring

C-bao attempts to eat a frozen dessert, only to be ambushed by her older sister. 

"Hmm...this looks pretty yummy"

K-bao: "What you got there, C-bao? By the way, you love me, right?"

C-bao: "Wait a sec, sis...just hang on one minute...easy there..."

#ASisterIsForever

Dancing on Water

C-bao grooves to her Aunt Catherine & Uncle James' iconic song Running on Water.

All moves self-taught (including the floor sprawl).

The "elbow freeze" is particularly inspired.

Medusa

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

(Who else?)

#ASisterIsForever

Royal Jigsaw

To celebrate meeting the princesses last week, C-bao put together the above puzzle this weekend (mostly on her own, the C-folks might add). She's come a long way with these puzzles over the past few months.

Princesses

C-bao's visit to Disneyland of course included meeting various princesses, including Snow White, Cinderella and Belle.

C-bao was quite shy, actually, and didn't appear to be overly comfortable with royalty etiquette. Luckily the princesses were all quite gracious and encouraging. Good training, Disney!

Here she is having a nice conversation with Cinderella, who complimented her on her blue shirt.

Disney

C-bao took her first trip to Disneyland this past week. What with August vacation month, the venue was as crowded as ever, and the merciless heat took at least a few shades of "happy" out of the "Happiest Place on Earth."

However, with (1) C-Pop, a.k.a. "The Mule," hauling her around from ride to ride on demand, (2) utter and complete sun protection what with C-Mum's specialty-ordered wide-brimmed hats, along with her patented 5-layer sunscreen application methodology (recall the Heliophobia post), and (3) even, on occasion, having one of C-Pop or C-Mum in line on her behalf while she relaxed in the shade, C-bao experienced all of the upside and virtually none of the downside of the famed entertainment park. Below are some of the action shots.

Underwater checking out the fish on the Finding Nemo ride

The view from the submarine

These hats are in addition, of course, to 5 coats of sunscreen

Waving to the characters on It's A Small World

"How do I get the It's A Small World jingle out of my head?"

"Hey Daddy Mule, I didn't say stop here"

On the slow train (Disneyland Railroad) around the park, C-bao clowned around with C-Mum, as shown below. Flashback to December of 2012 - de ja vu all over again.

Making my silly face with K-Mum

The girls on the Disney train

On the Storybook canal boat ride, the two girls got special seats at the front on the bow of the boat.

How's the air back there? 

The view from Tarzan's Treehouse

Hey, I can swing too!

One undeniable hit was the huge parade down Main Street at 8:30 p.m. The C-folks allowed C-bao an extra special late bedtime so as to be able to catch the parade. With plenty of lights, music and dancing, little C-bao was genuinely enthralled.

Disneyland's famed night parade

With a view from C-Pop's arms, of course

Sharing a couple of moments with Tigger

Day Two, with Pooh

Insisting on pushing her own bag

Paint

Here are the sisters enjoying some quiet painting time this weekend.

C-Pop: "What are you painting, C-bao?"
C-bao: "Can I drink this water?"
C-Pop: "No. What are you painting again?"
C-bao: "I am painting..." Takes a quick glance down where she is splashing some purple on several other colors..."Lion!" Naturally.

Pool Party

C-bao took a trip last week down to Uncle Calvin's (Xiao Jiu) place in the south bay. It was a scorching hot day, and C-bao joined her family for a dip. While she hasn't historically been much of a water gal, after seeing sister K-bao having fun splashing about, she was eventually convinced to get in the water, and ended up having quite a bit of fun. The below -- her doggy paddling on two noodles -- is as independently as she's ever swum. Baby steps.

(The water gun squirt halfway through is, of course, sister K-bao, who was trying to make sure it wasn't getting too easy for little sis)

Not to take any shots lying down, here's C-bao flexing back at big sis.

By the way, at 3 years old, C-bao has now swum all over the world. Below are a couple of action shots from her trip to Singapore late last year.

A Water Story

K: "It's not that cold, I promise you! It's a lot of fun! C'mon!"

C: "Ok, sis. I trust you."

K: "See, I'll even take you there myself."

C: "Tricked! Bamboozled!"

Lion Dance

We've had six straight posts about singing and dancing - why not another one? Last weekend after lunch in the Sunset, C-bao and sister K-bao stumbled across a Chinese Lion Dance in the streets and quickly decided to join in.

Feel that rhythm!

Roar

Another song that C-bao is partial to is Katy Perry's Roar (as C-Pop discovered recently, this is apparently not uncommon among little girls). In fact, she will take C-Pop's phone - without permission, of course - in order to locate the song on her own and play it.

When C-Pop asks what in the world she is doing, she is quite matter of fact about it.

"Press Goo-go! Goo-go Roar!" she cries in her fobby English, while swiping and tapping expertly.

In the first video, she does in fact get the Google voice search interface to show up, and confidently shouts "Roar" into the microphone.



Unfortunately, she doesn't see the results that she wants. As a result she elaborates to make it abundantly clear.

"Roar! Ro-ah ah ah ah ah-o!"

As a result, this is the kind of search history that C-Pop has on his phone:

Rambunctious

If it isn't clear by now, C-bao is into singing and dancing. Any song will do - she will happily join in even if she's never heard it before. And if she doesn't have a tune on hand, she's happy to make something up (as she does in the video below), and choreograph it herself to boot.

As to what she is actually saying in the video below? No one will ever know.

Jig

On a recent visit to C-Grandmum's home in Los Angeles, the two sisters perform a little dance to Taylor Swift's Shake It Off, which somehow infiltrated the family song list recently.

C-bao bunny hops vigorously in the back, providing some solid complementary moves to sister K-bao's boogieing.

Party Crasher

One of the great perks of being a younger sister is having access to a ton of parties that you aren't even formally invited to, but get to attend by virtue of association.

Just this past weekend, for example, C-bao found herself stuffing her face with ice cream...

...splashing around at a pool party in Napa...

...running around crazily on a trampoline at said pool party in Napa...



...mixing it up with the older kids to "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift...



...all at birthday parties of her sister K-bao's various friends.

Furthermore, at each such party, she typically gets a ton of attention from the older girls (and their moms), who all recognize her now and treat her like a little cute puppy.

As if that were not enough, C-bao generally walks away from these parties with plenty of swag. Today, for example, she snagged both a balloon and a sizeable bag of candy (which included candies given to her by older girls who felt sorry for the fact that she wasn't quite big enough to snatch up candies when they were scattered from the pinata).

Pretty good life, we'd say!

Fillmore Jazz

Aunt Carol's family was in town over the independence holiday, and after church on Sunday C-bao took her cousins Justin and K-K to the Fillmore Jazz Festival.

The largest free jazz festival on the West coast, the Fillmore Jazz Festival routinely draws 100,000 visitors. Legendary Fillmore Street is entirely shut down to traffic, and music lovers pack the road and listen to the latest jazz beats from the California Jazz Conservatory Ensemble, Kim Nalley, Blue Grazz, Jungle Biskit, Native Elements and many others.

This was C-bao's first exposure to live jazz, and she grooved it. Couldn't stop moving her feet. Below you can see C-bao bringing out the Feraba African tap dance routine, with sister K-bao jumping in on the action as well, followed shortly by Cousin K-K.

Negotiating an extra bite of froyo from C-Mum

Sister K-bao with her well-rehearsed "Studied Indifference" look

Sabbath

Last Sunday was a typical Sabbath for our little one. C-bao awoke bright and early and got herself ready for church, which over the summer has temporarily relocated to the beautiful Sherith Israel on California Street.

By the way, over the last month or so C-bao has finally (finally!) settled in to the drop-off routine with minimal fuss, and after an obligatory "You'll be back?" will now generally wave goodbye and obediently join the rest of her Sunday School buddies, albeit with a few sad looks. This somewhat new development has been a huge relief for the C-folks and a big step forward for our little one.

After church, lunch was enjoyed at Bun Mee on Fillmore Street, as shown above. C-bao tried a few bites of more adventurous fare - C-Pop's Caramel Citrus Rice Bowl - before settling in to her tried and true vermicelli dish.

Given the nice day outside, the fam decided to trek all the way home on foot afterwards. Full of zest, C-bao marched without complaint the several miles home, and still had plenty of energy to complete some fun workbook pages before bathtime, dinner and bed. All in all a restful Sabbath day ahead of a jam-packed week of summer camp. 

Seriously?

C-bao took one look at C-Pop's outfit and had only one thing to say.

Granted, she learned this reaction from one person in the household, and one person only. Not looking at anybody in particular, or mentioning any names, C-Mum. 

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!