Visiting mommy's office

The other day, while Clark was on a holiday, he brought Natalie over to have lunch with me and they popped into my office for a little visit. Here are pics of her (looking very girlie with her pigtails and hello kitty clips) sitting in my office chair.

Natalie finally gets to see what it means when "Mommy is working".


I love how cute and girlie she looks with her little pigtails. She calls them putting on her "long hair".

I want to wear my Christmas Party dress!

Natalie has a very long memory. Before getting sick, she was rehearsing for a Christmas play at her school. As part of the school play, she received a costume and was told she could wear it for the Christmas party. Unfortunately she was in the hospital, she didn't make the school party, but she never forgot about her costume. When we told her we were going to a Christmas party earlier this week, she looked at me, looked at her clothes and said, "I want to wear my Christmas party dress!". And so she did.

Natalie wearing her "Christmas Party dress" and posing in front of a small tree in Pacific Place mall. She LOVES it and thinks it makes her look like a princess. As soon as we put the dress on, she starting smiling and twirling around and her pose includes lifting up the many little layers.


You can see how happy she is to be wearing the dress. She was even willing to wear the "matching" headband.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Hope you have a fun and wonderful time with your family and friends.

A few weeks ago, Nai-nai and Yeh-yeh came to visit. It was a great trip leading up to the holiday season.


On Christmas Eve, the whole Tong family descended and we had home-made roastbeef with gravy (and tons more!) over dinner followed by a flurry of gift-giving where all the kiddies ended up with almost 10 presents each! (Videos to come.)

The Little Singer

Natalie LOVES Christmas! She loves Santa, snowmen, reindeers and especially presents! She also really likes the fun Christmas songs. Listen to her singing "Jingle Bells" in Video 259.

School photos

Here are more photos taken from the facebook page maintained by Natalie's school teachers.

I love all the great activities Natalie is exposed to while at school. Here is one where the students pass a ball around a circle. Since they can't throw (in the right direction) or catch, they roll the ball around.


Not only do they do different physical activities, but they also do various art work, too. She's coloured, drawn, painted, folded, glued, and glittered various masterpieces which decorate a wall in her room.


Every month, the class has a birthday day to celebrate all the birthdays that happen that month. The kids can dress in their normal clothes (not their uniforms), sing the birthday song, and eat cake! Here they are posing with the birthday cake.


Can you find Natalie?

Here are more photos

School pictures

Natalie's teachers are wonderful and post photos of the class on facebook every once in a while. Check out the Hallowe'en photos below.

Can you find Natalie?


She's the amazed cat sitting next to one crying snow white and an awed snow white.


Here they are enjoying some Hallowe'en snacks together. Summer, her friend, wore her snow white outfit (of course!).


Natalie poses with a cute little pirate boy. Her shoes really make the outfit work.

Some other kids posing, including Summer. Haha, it's like an ABBA pose!

Hospital

This blog has been very quiet for the past couple weeks because Natalie was sick. From last week Tuesday, Natalie started to to burn a fever (she hit a high of 41.4 oC!) and the right side of her cheek swelled up and became red and very firm. After almost 5 days in the hospital (Monday to Friday), we are super happy to have her back home, happy and healthy. Here are a few pics of her stay at Queen Mary Hospital:

This is the first night we checked in. You can (kinda) see how red and swollen her right cheek is.


Here we are the next morning. Natalie was tired and slept a lot.


A better look at her cheek. We could feel two lumps beneath the skin next to her mouth and a little lower (and she told us they hurt). We think her lymph-nodes became infected and swelled, but the doctors weren't sure what was wrong. Good thing anti-biotics helped alot!


Her pacifier was over-used and we had to buy new ones (the rubber changed color and became almost white from over-use since Natalie refused to part with it).

Our little corner of the ward.

Natalie's IV. She liked to call it her "robot arm" and give "robot fives" (up high, down low, on the side).

Clark brings Yehyeh's netbook and mobile internet to entertain Natalie. She loves watching "Wheels on the Bus" youtube video.

On day 4, Natalie is more alert and looking much better.

There's the little smile we miss! She spent the day playing in the crib, drawing, reading, and sticking stickers everywhere.

Natalie's appetite came back and she was allowed one night "home leave" before being formally discharged from the hospital the next morning. It's great to have her home!

Yoghurt Moustache

Watch Video 258 of Natalie eating yoghurt and giving herself a yoghurt moustache! She is so playful now and talks non stop all the time. Her observations can be very funny, too!

Natalie-ism

I come home from work (a bit late) and Clark is already at home playing with Natalie.
Clark: "Natalie, can you tell mommy what's in Ba-ba's nose?"
Natalie (without looking): "Ba-ba have hair in the nose. Eeew, gross!"
Me, laughing: "Does mommy have hair in her nose?"
Natalie examines my nose. "Yes. Eeew, gross!"
Me: "Does Natalie have hair in her nose?"
Natalie shakes her head. "No, only booger."

Natalie enjoys school

We are so happy to see that Natalie is really enjoying herself at school. She really looks forward to going every day and we even play "school" when we're at home!

Now that it's winter time in Hong Kong, all students have changed into their winter uniforms. See photos of Natalie below. Also, see Video 257 of Natalie ready to go to school. She was ready to go and really impatient to leave even though it was a little too early so I distracted her with the video camera.

Here is Natalie ready to go in her yellow PE (phys ed.) uniform.

"Open the door! I want to go to schoooool!"

I said, "Natalie, wait, it's still too early to go." and she said, "But I want to go to school."

Earlier this week, Natalie also posed in her "normal" winter uniform. It's a white turtleneck with a plaid dress. Then you have to add grey stockings, black shoes and a red boxy jacket.

Here's Natalie "smiling" for the camera. Not sure where she learned to put her hands to her face for a smile... maybe at school?

More visitors in town

This weekend, we also saw Li Meng, Mae and baby Kiera from Singapore! Natalie was very keen to see "baby Kiera" and to tell us that "Natalie is not a baby anymore, I am a big girl now." We've set the stage for her "big girl" activities like getting rid of the pacifier, sleeping by herself and using the potty!

Natalie, me, Vivo, Mae, Kiera, and Li Meng at yummy, spicy dinner. Clark, Que and Kevy were behind the camera, later joined by Amy and Dave.


Kiera has the cutest, sweetest face.

Al and the new Computer!

Natalie has a new favourite toy... a small, pink computer! She received it as gift from our friends Al and Zahra. Thanks Al and Zahra!

Al came to visit Hong Kong and we spent some time together over a weekend. Natalie LOVES her computer! She will show it everyone who comes over and will ask to bring it out or bring it to school. And, because she loves her computer, she also loves Al :) She reminds us that "Al give" and will pat her computer.

Natalie and Al became instant friends. Here they are chatting and reading together.


Natalie pointing out something important to Al.


Now they're turning the page together. Al was really patient.


Natalie doesn't usually take to someone so fast. She's usually very shy and reserved, although the computer may have helped a little. Remember, if you want kids to like you... bring gifts!

Eating out with Natalie

Natalie is really easy and great to take out to eat at restaurants. She loves sitting in highchairs (she calls them "Natalie chairs"), she can feed herself her entire meal and, most importantly, she can sit still for a long time (sometimes 2 or even 3 hours!). She is super patient when it comes to waiting for food to arrive and also when waiting for us to finish eating.

Here is Natalie entertaining herself with crayons and an activity paper at Tony Roma's.


Tony Roma's is great because they are really child friendly. They have plenty of highchairs and crayons and the staff are friendly towards kids.


The crayons were held together by and elastic which Natalie liked playing with. It was her bracelet.


Natalie gives a little smile for the camera. She seems to like eating out with us.


We love how patient she is :)

More Natalie-isms

We are downstairs in our lobby waiting for the elevator. A chinese woman is speaking very loudly into the telephone in mandarin. Natalie listens, fascinated. Then she hangs up.
Natalie: "Mommy, who's that screaming?"
Me: (I ignore her and pretend to be busy doing something else, hoping she'll drop the conversation.)
Natalie, even louder: "Mommy, who's that screaming?"
Me: "Um... The nice lady."
We later get in the same elevator with her.

Natalie is crouched behind a chair.
Natalie: "Look, I'm hiding!"
Me: "Why are you hiding?"
Natalie: "Because I'm silly!"

Natalie and I are preparing Clark's birthday surprise.
Me: "This is Ba-ba's birthday card. Will you draw on it?"
Natalie: "Yes!"
Me: "Ok."
Natalie (after a while): "This is Ba-ba's birthday card. I tell Ba-ba Happy Birthday?"
Me: "No no, don't tell Ba-ba. It's a surprise. Okay?"
Natalie: "Okay."
Me: "Good. So... what do you tell Ba-ba?"
Natalie: "Ba-ba, surprise!"
Me: "No no, tell Ba-ba nothing! Okay?"
Natalie: "Okay."
Me: "So what do you tell Ba-ba when he comes home?"
Natalie: "I say Ba-ba nothing!"
Me: "Umm... ok."

I am putting my shoes on, ready to leave for work. Natalie runs out from her room with no pants on.
Natalie: "Mommy! Mommy!"
Me: "Yes, Natalie, what is it?"
Natalie: "Stop! Come here! I want to kiss you!"

Decorating presents

Natalie really enjoys decorating gifts we've wrapped for our friends. We wrap the gifts in a plain, mural paper and she goes at it with markers, stamps and stickers! Here she is decorating a gift for her new little friend Tobias who was born only two weeks ago (the gifts were given during the past baby shower we attended).

Natalie loves to use all the colors in the marker pack.


And here she is using stamps to stamp different colored animals on the paper.


Later, we move to the sofa area for some sticker action.


Natalie selects the sticker she wants to use and then Clark helps her to peel the wax off the back.

And then Natalie sticks the stickers onto the present.

Natalie looking through her stickers collection with a little smile. She loves stickers!

Natalie pauses long enough to smile for the camera.

And then puts the finishing touches on her "masterpiece".

Chopstick noodle slurping

Natalie has continued to gain skillz as a chopstick user (with her trainer chopsticks). Watch Video 256 of Natalie happily slurping down noodles with her cousin Vanessa. They're both really great chopstick users!

Hallowe'en 2009

This year was Natalie's 3rd ever Hallowe'en. For her 1st one, she was a little pink monster. For her 2nd one, she was a little duck. Now that she's older this year, we let her choose what she wanted to be and she decided that she didn't want to be a butterfly and she didn't want to be a duck again. Instead, she wanted to be... a black cat. Here's presenting, Natalie the black cat!

Natalie loved being a cat.


Here we are testing the make-up for her black nose and whiskers. It went really well with her new black cat ears.


Clark wanted to try out the black nose and whiskers, too.


Not sure what Natalie thought about that, but Clark likes it!

Later, we put on the full outfit, including a velvety black dress which fit her perfectly.

Here is Natalie wandering the apartment and doing her thing with her costume on.

Here's a close up of her chubby cat face.

That's her cat tail on the sofa. With the dress, we couldn't figure out how to put the tail on!

Natalie got to dress up to go to school on Friday, Oct 30th and then spent Hallowe'en day with her cousins and at QQ club. She didn't ANY candy. All in all, a great Hallowe'en!