New Earplugs for Natalie

Since having grommets put in her ears, Natalie needs to wear earplugs when she swims. It been over a year since we last had earplugs made for her and she's definitely outgrown her old ones! Today, we went to get new custom earplugs made for her.

We've Moved!

With Lauren as a new addition to our family, this blog address doesn't seem appropriate any more. We've now moved to "A Wang Gang" blog address:

http://awanggang.blogspot.com

See you there!

Tennis lessons

On Saturday, Natalie had her first trial tennis lesson. She attended the hour-long session at the HK Tennis Club along with her cousins Vanessa and Victoria. Everyone seemed to have a great time!


Video 299 - Watch a video collage put together by Ba-ba Clark of all the activities Natalie and her cousins enjoyed during their first lesson. They've signed up for more starting this Saturday :)


Natalie learning to hold a racquet.


Natalie learning to track and hit a tennis ball off the floor.



Target practice! The kiddies throwing tennis balls and trying to knock down the cones.



The kiddies learning to "catch" a bouncing ball.



More bouncing ball action.



Small-medium-big, patiently waiting their turn.



And carefully listening to the instructor.



Whew, that was fun!

And then we were four...

Lauren's Birth Story

On Friday, Oct 1 (my first day of maternity leave!) I wake up at 8:00am when my waters break. It's only a trickle and when I stand up it stops. I feel contractions but they seem minor and I don't want to go to the hospital too early so I take a shower, eat breakfast, pack up Natalie and Suparti and

9:00am - Head over to Lisa's for a play date with Natalie's cousins.

10:00am - Contractions get stronger and Lisa and Carol start to time them. They are coming every 8 minutes or so and lasting about 40 seconds each.

10:15am - We call Matilda but they tell us to time contractions for at least 1 hour before coming in.

11:00am - Contractions are coming faster now every 5-6 minutes and I get ready to go. Por-por decides to come with me to Central to pick up Clark from work.

11:10am - Lisa's apartment elevators are broken. We call down and ask the security to start them up again... hello, woman in labour!!

11:20am - I pick up Clark from Central and say bye to Por-por (thanks Por-por!)

11:35am - We check in to Matilda hospital. We are the LAST expectant parents to be admitted that day (whew! Otherwise, we would have had to go to Queen Mary!). The midwife checks me and I am 4 cm dilated soon after checking in.

12:30pm - I get a much needed epidural and the doctor comes around to check me.

1:00pm - I am 8 cm dilated. Almost there! I get a blast of oxytocin to help speed me along even faster.

1:30pm - After only 4 pushes, Lauren Wang is born :)

Today was Lauren's first full day at home. She is a very alert baby and when she's not feeding or sleeping, her eyes are constantly looking around.

Natalie has adjusted really well to being an older sister. She loves to help us take care of her and is constantly kissing and checking on her. She is really excited and happy to have us both home again.

Natalie has generously given her "basket bed" for Lauren to use.

Here is a photo of Natalie in the moses basket when she was only a few days old, too. It's like deja vu!

Welcome Baby Lauren!

Hi there, this is guest blogger Daddy-squared here on my first ever post. The Wang Family welcomed new addition Baby Lauren Wang to the world on 01-10-10 at Matilda Hospital in Hong Kong. Mom and Baby are both doing GREAT, are happy and healthy and looking forward to coming home TOMORROW!

Here's a video to say WELCOME to the WORLD BABY LAUREN!

More cousins play and belly pics

Here are a few more photos taken of our recent cousin's play date from last Saturday.

Natalie showing the camera the ball they were all playing with.

Vanessa with a sweaty head (they did lots of running around!) while drinking much needed water.

Natalie taking care of her little cousin Nicholas as we move from the grassy area to the playground.

Natalie happy on Clark's shoulders at the park. I love this photo!

Me and Lisa take a break on the bench as the kiddies run around on the playground equipment.

Natalie posing with me and her Mei-mei. I'm 38 weeks and feeling it!

More belly pics with Natalie and some cousins in the background.

The baby is getting big and hopefully ready for life on the "outside" soon!

One last angle. Thanks to Clark for capturing the belly moments!

Hanging with my cousins

At least once almost every weekend, Natalie gets the chance to play together with all her cousins. Sometimes we all go swimming together, sometimes we go to Jumpin' Gym or to the nearby park, and sometimes we just hang out in our one of our apartments (or sometimes all of the above). Now that the cousins (currently aged 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 years old) are getting older and really starting to play together, it's great fun for everyone!

See Video 296 of Natalie chatting and then playing red-light-green-light with Victoria and Lisa Yee-yee. It's so cute, when Victoria reaches Natalie she exclaims, "I got Na-ta-lee!"

Also see Video 297 and Video 298 of Clark getting hit in the head with a ball and all the cousins LOVING it. They think it's hilarious! In the last video, you can hear Clark say "No more!" (after about 5 times of getting hit in the head).

Natalie enjoying a train ride at Jumping Gym with Victoria and Nicholas.

The five cousins seated together.

Natalie and I holding little cousin Michael. He's only a couple weeks old here and it's hard to believe Natalie was once smaller than he is now!

Sleeping by myself in my new bed

For almost her entire life, Natalie has been co-sleeping with us. We LOVE it, but after she turned three years old in June and with a little sister on the way, we decided it was time for her to learn to sleep by herself. We told her stories about how "big girls" sleep by themselves and also bought her a new bed (a bunk!) as incentive. After a couple months (of sleeping on the top and then moving to the bottom bunk), she's really got the hang of it!

Every night, we do a big bedtime routine (bath, drink warm milk, brush teeth, wee-wee, diaper, read a book, sing a song, turn off the light, kiss her 3 stuffed animals good night, kiss her good night), then we tuck her in and leave her to fall asleep by herself. She's been sleeping by herself for almost 3 months now and we're super proud of her!

Natalie sleeping in her "big girl" bed. She always sleeps on the bottom bunk now.

The little helper that could

This weekend, my nesting instincts kicked into high gear and our whole family (especially Clark) helped to tidy and clean and re-organize our apartment. I feel SO MUCH better now! Natalie was a great little helper, too and helped to throw things away in the garbage and organize her books. She also helped to vacuum our sofa.

Natalie smiling while holding the vacuum and moving it back and forth across the sofa.

"I want to do it! Give it to me! I do it by myself!" She said when I tried to help.

Hanging with Ba-ba

Now that Natalie is a bit older, she is beginning to understand the difference between weekdays and weekends. Weekends are "family days" and she really seems to look forward to spending more time together with Clark and I. In particular, with my belly getting so big, Clark has been super proactive spending time and taking care of Natalie while I try to get more rest on weekends. Natalie is becoming a real daddy's girl!

Whenever we ride a taxi, Ba-ba will always carry me on his lap. Mommy's belly is too big and she always makes me sit by myself which I don't really like because the taxi goes so fast.

As you can see, I love being in a taxi with Ba-ba!

Ba-ba also reads me lots of books. I like it when we play "I spy" together because I can always find any object he names.

Ba-ba finds this quite frustrating. How come my eyes are so good?

Ba-ba also helps me to brush my teeth. Here I am having my teeth brushed.

Ba-ba is very gentle. It doesn't hurt. I'm just blinking!

He does a really good job brushing my teeth so they'll stay clean and white.

After brushing, I'm really good at rinsing the water around my mouth.

And spitting it all out into the sink.

All done!

More Natalie-isms

We're looking through a Men's Health magazine and Natalie is asking "What's that?" to almost every page. We see a football.
Natalie: "What's that?"
Me: "It's a football."
Natalie (laughing and covering her mouth): "It looks like poo-poo! Stinky stinky!"

I am trying to teach Natalie that she can eat as much fruit and veggies as she likes because it's healthy, but can only eat a little bit of cookies and candy because it's unhealthy.
Natalie (shaking her head and looking at me seriously): "But I don't like to eat veggies. I like cookies!"

I am applying eyeliner when Natalie comes into the room. She sees me pulling down the corner of my eye.
Natalie: "Hi Mommy, why you so ugly?"

Natalie is beginning to get a good sense of "right" and "wrong" and "reward" and "punishment". She is a goody-two-shoes and likes to tattle on her cousins.
Me: "Natalie, we're going to go visit Nicholas now, ok? Do you want to play with Nicholas?"
Natalie: "Yes!" (A pause and a sad look.) "But some times Nicholas doesn't share."
Me: "That's ok, you just tell him to please share with you, ok?"
Natalie: "Ok, and if he doesn't share, I tell Por-por and then Nicholas will need to time-out outside."

Natalie is also a very sweet and affectionate girl. When I come home after work, she is always super happy to see me.
Me: "Hel-looo, I'm home!"
Natalie (running to me and giving me a hug and kiss): "Mommy, mommy! I really missed you while you were at work today. I love you!"
(She does the same for Clark when he comes home.)

Natalie claims to dislike "boy" teachers. I am asking Natalie about her new school year.
Me: "Do you like your new class?"
Natalie: "Yes!"
Me: "Do you like your new teachers?"
Natalie: "Yes!" (Pause.) "But one teacher is a boy."
Me: "Oh really? What's his name?"
Natalie: "Mr. Ian." (He's the new English teacher.)
Me: "Are you sure he's a boy? How do you know?"
Natalie: "Because I checked."

Baby Shower at Tiffin Lounge

This Saturday, my girlfriends threw a baby shower for Wang Baby #2 at the Grand Hyatt Tiffin Lounge over tea time. Serena, Viv, JC, Amy, Mandy, Cindy, Lisa and my mom were there from 3:30pm and some of us lasted until 8:00pm! It was super delicious and relaxing, THANKS GIRLS! Also, baby #2 is now the proud owner of NEW items (not just hand-me-downs from her big sis). Photos below.

Lisa, Por-por and Natalie and her cousins (fondly referred to as "the zoo") came as well. Here are the kiddies all sitting nicely together.

It's really hard to get them all to look and smile at the same time. Hmm... imagine we'll soon have SIX kids when we go out together!

Mandy and baby Ava.

Here are some of the gifts we received. THANKS again, girls!!

You can see Natalie received some gifts as well, like the big hello kitty shirt which matches Baby #2 little onesies :)

This is an ice cream game that Natalie received from Mandy yee-yee and she LOVES it! She knows the rules of the game and actually understands "winning" the game now. It's fun to play with her :) (Don't mind Natalie's spaghetti mouth!)