Pacifier Love

Natalie loves her pacifier. She loves it so much, some times she will use two at the same time.

Farewell to good friends

Last Saturday, Natalie's good friend Stella and her mommy Katie left Hong Kong to move back to the US for good. We miss them and are sad to see them go. We had a last lunch with them at Caffe Vergnano in IFC for old times sake. Olivia and Debbie (who moved to Singapore) were also here for a visit so we got to see them, too! See photos below:

Ethan, Natalie, Olivia, and Stella with her mom, Katie.


Ethan and Natalie were sooo cute together. Look at how close they are. Natalie looks very happy to be next to her friends.


Now that the babies are getting older, they are starting to "play together" and interact more. It's fun to watch their clumsy social interactions. They give each other raisins and toys, and some times they'll fight and cry over a toy.

Fearless Natalie

The other day at dinner, we ordered pigeon and, in typical Chinese style, the bird came with the chopped off head. We ate the bird and decided to make a "bird" for Natalie made of the head, an orange body and lettuce wings. Natalie loved it. She kept pointing to it and saying "Birh! Birh!" We didn't let her touch it though.

Natalie making animals noises

Watch Video 190 of Natalie playing with Clark and making animals noises.

She's become very verbal and vocal about everything now and can say full sentences in the form of subject-verb-noun. For example, "Nat-lee drink juice" when asking for her juice cup. Or, "Mommy help shoes" when asking for me to help her put on her shoes. Or "Dog eat bone" when reading a book and describing the scene.

Natalie loves the park

Over the past couple of weeks, everyday, Natalie says to us, "Natalie go pahk!" (Natalie go to the park). She loves the park. The week before she became sick, Clark and I brought Natalie along with her cousins Vanessa and Victoria to the park in Lei King Wan. Below are photos of their time there.

Natalie and Vanessa enjoying time (maybe 30 seconds tops) on the springy horses.

Vanessa was really good at climbing the chain ladders.

She enjoyed sliding down and climbing back up the big yellow slide.

Even little Vicky got in on the slide action.

She loved it.


Natalie preparing to climb the stairs. She can climb these long and flat stairs by herself because the railing is just the right height.

Clark hanging with Natalie and Vanessa at the park. Vanessa is hanging on to the railings with her feet tucked up. Natalie is watching in amazement.

Later, Natalie gets 1cm of air in a massive jump.

More hanging around by Vanessa.

Natalie loves to watch and copy everything her older cousin Vanessa does.

Later, she leaves Vanessa alone to take a break by the ladder. She tries to climb it, but the rungs are too far apart for her.

Clark hanging out with little Victoria.

Natalie being affectionately touched by both her cousins.

Cousins' hug!

Later Vanessa helps Natalie to drink from her juice sippy cup. What a good older cousin!

Play dates

Now that Natalie is getting bigger and learning to "play" with other babies, it's been more fun to arrange play dates with her and her cousins Vanessa, Victoria, and Nicholas. Sometimes they come over to play, or we go to their place.

We taped a large piece of paper to the floor and let Vanessa and Natalie draw on in together.


Little Victoria hanging out with her mommy Lisa.


Later, Natalie and Vanessa play with fruit halves that are velcro'd together they can "cut" with a plastic knife. Everything was fun and good for a while...

But Vanessa and Natalie are too young to understand the concept of "taking turns" and fighting for the fake knife broke out.

Good thing babies and toddlers don't have long memories or hold grudges. They were playing together again soon after and Natalie was once again following Vanessa around.

Later, during meal time, Lisa became super woman, feeding 3 kids at one time. Both hands (plus more) required.

And she made it look easy!

Natalie likes hats

When Natalie was younger, she hated hats. Whenever we tried to make her wear a hat or a hood, she would cry and try to tear it off. Now that she's older and sees Clark and I and other kids wearing hats, she wants to wear hats, too. Here she is with my hat (set on the smallest possible setting).

Natalie waves "Hi!" to the camera. She loves wearing my hats.


It actually kind of fits her.


She was a very good girl posing for the camera.

Motorcycle ride

Here is a quick photo of Natalie on the motorcycle ride at the Jumping Gym. She watched carefully while Clark put coins into the machine. Later, when the ride ended, Natalie pointed at Clark and said, "Ba ba!" and then pointed at the machine.

Playing Piano, Singing, and Swaying

Watch Video 189 of Natalie playing the piano, singing and swaying. She can only sing the "B-C" of the ABC's, but it's a great start!

Sick

Natalie has been sick for almost one week now. She started with a low fever and a runny nose (last Wednesday) and progressed to a high fever, coughing, and even more (green stuff) leaking from her nose every 5 minutes.

After our second doctor's visit, the doctor finally suggested we take Natalie in to the hospital for a few tests and an i.v. drip (she wasn't eating or drinking enough). We were there for 2 nights and Natalie finally came home yesterday. She is really happy to be home and is sleeping in bed as I type. See photos below.

Natalie loved the "nose plugs" I gave her last week. She showed them off to her daddy Clark and kept looking in the mirror.


At the hospital, Natalie was given an IV drip by the nurses. She didn't like getting it (imagine long and loud screams of "Noooo!" and "Mom-mmeeeeee!") but didn't mind so much once it was on. Here is her left arm all wrapped up.


Natalie learning to sleep in her hospital bed with her new robotic arm. If she accidentally rolled on her arm or on the cord, the little IV machine would beep in alarm and I would have to adjust her.


A close-up.

Natalie up and about, on our way to the hospital play room with her IV drip following along. See how skinny she is! She was fascinated to meet with other kids with robotic arms, too.

Here is Natalie learning to play with one hand.

Drawing on the chalk board was fun, too. And only one hand was needed.

More copycating

Natalie loves to copy us now. Whenever we are outside walking, she will copy as exactly as possible the way we walk. If Clark walks with his hands behind his back, she will put her hands behind her back. If Clark puts his hands in his pocket, Natalie will also walk with her hands in her little pockets. If I swing my arms while I walk, she will also swing her arms. It's very funny! Below are photos of Natalie looking like a big girl with her hands in her pockets, just like her daddy.

Clark and Natalie stop for a photo. And then they start walking again.

Natalie Videos

Have taken a bunch of videos over the past week and only getting around to posting them today. Check them out below.

Video 185 - Natalie has suddenly developed a great throwing arm. The ball actually goes forward now instead of just up or behind her or rolling out of her hand.

Video 186 - Natalie is very possessive of her toys. When she is playing with something, she doesn't want anyone else to touch them. Watch her crying when her older cousin Vanessa wants to play with her.

Video 187 - Watch Natalie cheerfully and forcefully pushing Vanessa around in a toy cart. She tells me she's "shtuk!" (stuck) and asks for "mommy, hep" (mommy, help).

Video 188 - Listen to cousin Vanessa sing the whole ABC song all by herself. Natalie watches her in fascination (because Natalie doesn't know how to sing yet). Later, Natalie and Vanessa both say hi and bye to the camera.

Teething pain

A couple weeks ago, Natalie went through her (hopefully) last bout of teething pain when her lower canines finally decided to make a s-l-o-w painful appearance. They took almost a week to come out and poor her she hardly ate anything (was back at the milk bottle) with the exception of congee which she gulped down and didn't need to chew. Anything that required chewing, even her beloved raisins, had her screaming and crying "Peh! Peh" (for pain) and putting a finger in her mouth and staring at us miserably. Fortunately, she is in a much better mood lately. See above videos.

Below are photos of Natalie on the bus with her daddy. She kept her mouth open like this the whole week she was teething because closing her mouth caused her pain. You can see she was swollen around the bottom of her jaw. Poor girl.

Natalie looking like a doofus with her mouth open. She was not a happy camper for almost the whole week.


This is her pitiful smile. We're so glad she is feeling much better!

CNY at the Wangs

Over a week ago during Chinese New Year, Lisa, Carol and their kiddies came over for lunch. We also had friends and their daughter Serafina come by, too. It was a zoo but a lot of fun! Check out the photos below.

The "Tong" mommies and kiddies gather up for a family photo.

Lisa was the feeding machine. She managed to feed Vanessa, Natalie and Victoria by herself. Victoria sat in the highchair. Natalie sat in the portable high-chair. Vanessa was old enough to sit in an "adult" chair. Victoria is fascinated with Natalie and kept trying to touch her.

Here Victoria is at it again. She loves to see what the other kids are holding. Natalie is trying to hide behind the sofa to prevent Victoria from taking her sippy cup. A split second after this photo was taken, Natalie burst into tears and started screaming "Nat-lee! Nat-lee! Nat-lee!" (meaning the sippy cup belonged to Natalie).

The only way to take a photo of them all sitting together was to turn on the television. You can see Victoria, Nicholas, and Serafina have zoned out into Elmo's World. Natalie did as well. Vanessa said, "Move out of the way, I can't see!" Kids love TV.