The Wang Gang Blog

We've Moved!

2010-10-07T17:23:00.002+08:00

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

2010-10-07T11:29:00.006+08:00

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...

2010-10-06T04:16:00.006+08:00

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!

2010-10-03T22:35:00.003+08:00

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

2010-09-28T16:10:00.003+08:00

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

2010-09-27T19:19:00.006+08:00

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

2010-09-25T11:57:00.000+08:00

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

2010-09-20T20:21:00.002+08:00

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

2010-09-20T19:57:00.007+08:00

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

2010-09-14T14:28:00.001+08:00

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

2010-09-08T20:57:00.006+08:00

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!)

How to hold a pen, pencil or crayon

2010-09-04T20:58:00.003+08:00

Natalie has learned how to properly hold a pen, pencil or crayon! Watch her drawing with a pen at home. By the way, the red knapsack is her very FIRST art work from her K1 class. Isn't it beautiful? She doesn't have much concentration when it comes to colouring tho... she gets bored and stops halfway and the teacher had to help her finish it.

"Look Mommy, I'm drawing letters!" Natalie says. She points out all the letters she's drawing with the pen.

Look at the great pen-holding technique!

Natalie concentrating while continuing to draw "letters" on her paper.

Play date at Clara's

2010-09-03T21:17:00.006+08:00

On Wednesday, Natalie and I went to a play date and had a chance to catch up with old friends at Susannie Yee-yee and Clara's clubhouse playroom. It was super nice to catch up with my mommy friends (rare day off work) and watch how the "babies" now really interact with each other and play together :)

Us mommies sit together and relax and chat while the kiddies run around in the playroom.

There was a lot to play with!

Natalie always loves to play inside "houses".

There was also this "fun wall" with activities for them to explore.

Later, we went outside to play on the podium. What a great view!

And what a great playground!

It was a little hot (for me) but the kiddies didn't seem to mind. They were running and climbing and playing.

Later, we asked them to stand together and pose for a photo. Here is Natalie with her little friends. So cute!

They interact really well together now and were singing songs together while we tried to take photos.

Welcome to new baby cousin!

2010-09-02T08:02:00.004+08:00

Congratulations to Carol Yee-yee, Dave Yee-jurn and little cousin Nicholas on welcoming a new little addition to their family! Baby Chen #2 was born yesterday and we paid them a visit in the evening. Natalie was totally fascinated with the little guy and is now even MORE excited to welcome her own little "mei mei" to the world.

Nicholas and Natalie both had a chance to carry the new baby. They also helped to pat-pat him when he was crying.

First day of school again!

2010-09-01T12:58:00.006+08:00

Today was Natalie's first day of school again. I took the day off and accompanied her. She was really excited to attend "regular school" again (after the summer break) and was happy and cheerful putting on her uniform in the morning. It was soooo hot walking to school (up a big hill) but Natalie walked all the way there and back by herself! She also assures me she likes her new teachers, which is great!

Natalie wearing her school uniform (front shot). She has a big smile on her face because she was really excited to go.

Natalie wearing her school uniform (back shot).

Natalie wearing her school uniform (side shot).

Natalie doing a little "before I go to school" dance.

More dancing. She was really excited to go (and put her uniform on way ahead of schedule).

Natalie's new classroom. She is still attending Kiangsu Chekiang Primary School (just up the street from our apartment).

Natalie sitting patiently and playing with some toys while waiting for other kids to arrive and the class to get started.

I never really noticed this before, but sometimes she sticks her tongue out when concentrating really hard!

The class is filling up with students and parents. We're almost ready to start!

Natalie's teachers are introducing themselves and giving a briefing to all parents. Natalie turns around in her seat to listen.

The male teacher is Mr. Ian who will be Natalie's English teacher. English is definitely still Natalie's most comfortable language because she perked up right away when he started speaking. Here they are singing (and miming) "Head and Shoulders" song. Natalie has almost disappeared behind the table while touching her toes.

Later, the teachers distribute song books and a CD. I love this idea because sometimes Natalie comes home singing songs in Mandarin and I have NO IDEA what song she's singing and what she's singing about. Hopefully, these books will help!

Snack time! Everyday, the students will enjoy a snack and drink together while at school. Today they had a bun and small carton of soy bean milk drink.

Everyday, the students must also line up and go to the little toilets together. It's very cute to watch them make a train (with hands on the shoulders of the student in front of you) and shuffle over to the toilets together. Natalie has perfected this and I stayed behind in the class to wait while she went with the other girls in her class.

Wang Baby #2

2010-08-26T11:39:00.004+08:00

We are now 33 weeks and 4 days pregnant and super excited about the coming birth of Wang Baby #2. Natalie is really excited, too, and after reading books and watching videos of herself as a newborn, she is all ready to become a big sister soon. She gives my belly kisses every day and is fascinated whenever she feels the baby kick :)

I went to the doctor's earlier today and discovered that baby #2 is already at 2.2 kg (almost 5 pounds) and, with over 6 weeks to go, she should be a good size at birth. Below is a blurry photo taken today. Poor baby hasn't had any good 4D pics because of her positioning.

We can't wait to meet you, baby!

Cousin love

2010-08-24T09:59:00.002+08:00

All of last week, Natalie spent every day (including Saturday) hanging with her Por-por and cousins Vanessa, Victoria and Nicholas. Clark and I had to work, but Suparti brought Natalie around to their places or the cousins came over to visit us, and they all hung out and had a great time! I was able to meet up with them for dinner most nights, too and it was great to see them interacting and really starting to play (and occasionally fight) together. Here are some pics (stolen from Carol Yee-yee, thanks!):

The kiddies waiting for the elevator and holding hands. It's so cute!

Natalie hanging with her cousins as they cluster inside a play house together.

Sitting on the sofa together at Carol Yee-yee and Dave Yee-Jurn's house. The leather sofa is great as all spills and crumbs and even pen marks can be wiped off easily (unlike our suede sofa which has seen better days...)

Brunch at Cafe Deco

2010-08-17T22:04:00.007+08:00

This weekend, we welcomed Por-por to Hong Kong with a brunch at Cafe Deco on the peak. We stayed there from 10:45am - 3:00pm and ate continuously while watching the kids play in the play area. Besides unlimited food and drinks, the restaurant also provided a balloon artist, fake tattoos and face-painting for the kiddies!

Natalie fell asleep on the taxi ride up and Clark let her sleep undisturbed while everyone started eating first.

Natalie and I enjoying our first round of food.

Natalie, me, Dave, Nicholas, Carol and Por-por digging in. We order at least 4 eggs benedicts between us and finished everything, including at least 3 rounds of food and dessert each.

Vanessa giving us her sweetest smile.

Victoria giving us her cutie-pie smile.

Lisa and Victoria. Victoria is great at smiling at the camera now. She's really grown a lot and is becoming a "big girl".

Porpor with Vanessa. Vanessa is definitely NOT a baby anymore. She is very mature and is the clear "leader" of her cousins.

Little Nicholas happily munching on some naan bread.

Natalie makes a funny face for the camera. She really enjoyed the meal and ate a lot of lamb sausage.

Victoria posing with her ba-ba Dennis. Dennis was a little tired.

Nicholas digging whole-heartedly into an ice cream cone. He LOVED it!

Nicholas and his ice cream moustache.

When Carol took the ice cream away, Nicholas was super duper sad!

Look at how sad he is... Carol, please give it back to him! Eventually, Carol broke off the end of the cone, put in a little bit of ice cream and gave it back to him.

A random photo of just me. I had a great time... very relaxing way to spend a Sunday!

Por-por and me. Natalie now knows that Por-por is my mommy.

Lisa being fed a tiny spoon of ice cream by Vanessa. Vanessa is very generous and willingly shares her food and toys with her cousins.

Victoria enjoying ice cream and jello for dessert.

She is a solitary eater, eating slowly and savouring her sweet treats.

"Yummy!" She says.

Por-por with her 3 daughters. I love it when we all get together :) The only person missing was Gong-gong. We miss you, Gong-gong!

Por-por with her daughters and 2 grand-daughters.

Later, Natalie asked to have her nails painted a "rainbow" pattern by two nice ladies dressed as tigers. She sat very still during the process.

Afterwards, she was careful to hold her hands up so they could dry.

We helped her carefully put her hands on the table so they wouldn't get too tired. She also helped to "blow" them dry.

"Look at my princess nails!" She said. All of her cousins also had face-painting or their nails done (except for Nicholas). They also got to put on some fake tattooes of Disney princesses. All in all, a great day!

Cooking class

2010-08-17T21:52:00.008+08:00

For the month after school ended, Natalie has attended a cooking class twice a week and has cooked some interesting food! Foods she's "cooked" include sandwiches, sushi, cookies, and even a yam cake (see photo below). The class encourages students to use their hands to explore and experience different foods and then "cook" them.

Natalie posing with her yam "cake". We boiled a yam for her to bring to class and during class, she used her fingers to peel and mash the yams. After playing with the yams, they shaped it into a "cake", put on some whipped cream and decorated with bugles, candy and chocolates.

Clark and I bravely tried a bite and it was... interesting! Natalie happily ate a small portion we gave her in a separate bowl.

Elmo and an Animal Farm

2010-08-14T10:19:00.001+08:00

Two weekends ago, Vivo Yee-yee treated Natalie to her first live show... Elmo and Friends Grow Up at the Wanchai Arts Center! Of course, Natalie loved it. After the show, Clark took Natalie to the Animal Farm at the AsiaWorld Expo while I took a nap at home :) Thanks Clark! Photos below.

I'm still figuring out how to use the new blogger designer so I uploaded photos in reverse time and also don't know how to add captions! But you can see her feeding animals at the animal expo and see how happy and excited she was to watch the Elmo show (below).

Watch Video 295 of Natalie feeding baby goats long stalks of grass from the animal expo.

Summer fun with Nicholas

2010-08-09T15:31:00.002+08:00

With Natalie officially on summer holiday and only attending various classes (art, cooking, sand, and gym) for a couple hours a day, it's been a great opportunity for her to spend more time with her little cousin Nicholas. Here are some photos and videos which I've stolen from Carol Yee-yee (thanks Carol!):

Video 292 - Natalie and Nicholas jumping on the bed together. It's so cute how Nicholas follows Natalie around and copies EVERYTHING she does.

Video 293 - Natalie playing a bit rough with poor Nicholas who's so much smaller than she is (for now).

Video 294 - Natalie and Nicholas crawling through a "tunnel" we created from a foam floor mat. They did this about 20 times. We also used the foam mat to drag them around Carol's apartment.

Here's Natalie and Nicholas enjoying a ride together at the Renaissance Hotel playground.

And I'm dancing with myse-elf...

2010-08-04T14:33:00.001+08:00

Natalie loves to dance and if we put on music at home and if she is feeling energetic she will start to dance by herself. See Video 291 of Natalie dancing. Sometimes she will even sign to herself and dance around the house.

Friends and Visitors

2010-08-03T07:31:00.000+08:00

Over the past few months, we've had friends over and gone out to see friends. Here are some older and some recent pics of Natalie with visitors and friends.

Natalie I with Maggie Yee-yee and her new baby Charlotte. Charlotte is soooo tiny compared to Natalie; it's hard to believe Nat was ever that small!

Natalie with Annie Por-por at City Garden Hotel. Natalie is beginning to "get" that EVERYONE has a mom and I think she got that Annie Por-por is Uncle Gerald's mom.

Natalie at dim sum with her friend Kaitlyn who is close to her age. Kaitlyn is so cute... what a great smile!

The girls share a big hug! So cute!

Natalie with the Wee family (Uncle Derrick, Auntie Kelly and little Kaitlyn).

Chatterbox

2010-07-30T07:30:00.002+08:00

We recently installed a landline phone located low to the ground (at Natalie's height) in the living room and Natalie has found a new love. She LOVES the telephone! She is the first to pick it up when it rings screaming "I get it! I get it!" as she scrambles to get there first, and wants to talk to whoever happens to be on the other line.

Here is Video 290 of Natalie chatting (mostly in Cantonese) with Por-por while lounging on her little sofa and a blanket. Normally, she has to squat next to the phone to chat, but on this occasion, Clark helped to set up a very comfy "chatting" area for her. She also likes to sing songs into the telephone.

Now that she's on summer vacation and has more time at home, feel free to call her any time for a quick chat!

Natalie lounging in her little sofa while chatting.

2010-07-28T07:16:00.000+08:00

Here is a brief Video 289 of Natalie in the pool at Renaissance Hotel. She has become very comfortable swimming and floating by herself in a swim tube. We keep a close eye on her, but she generally likes to kick and make her own way around the pool.

Our Weekend Stay-cation

2010-07-27T18:22:00.000+08:00

This weekend, we booked ourselves into the Renaissance Hotel in Hong Kong for a relaxing "stay-cation". We had amazing weather (sunny and hot) and spent almost 4 hours in the pool on Saturday. It was perfect, we highly recommend it!

Clark and Natalie getting ready to hop into the water. It was hot and sunny, perfect for a day by the pool.

Natalie swimming with Clark. She's well protected from the sun via layers of sun block and a hat.

Natalie being playful trying to hug Clark and splashing him while I'm trying to take a picture of them.

Finally managed to snap a good one!

Natalie swimming with me.

Wang Gang family photo!

Natalie stayed in the pool for almost the full 4 hours. She LOVES to swim and is really comfortable in her little float-tube. And it's great exercise for her!

Look at the amazing pool. It stretches between the Renaissance Hotel and Grand Hyatt (it's a shared pool).

It really felt like a vacation! See Nat still swimming with Clark in the lower left corner.

There was even a waterfall.

And a great view of the harbour.

We managed to coax Natalie out of the pool for a few minutes with the promise of french fries. Here she is relaxing with Clark on a lounge chair.

We tried to get her to nap on the lounge chair, but she was having too much fun.

Here she is lounging with me.

Clark looking happy and relaxed during our stay-cation. It was a really nice get-away!

Natalie is really comfortable kicking around and splashing in the water by herself in her little swim tube. Of course, we keep a very, very close eye on her and we never let her swim more than a few meters away us.

Here is Clark pulling Natalie along (faster, Ba-ba!) across the length of the pool. It's a loooong pool and Clark got lots of exercise, too.

After swimming, with Natalie's fingers and toes turned into little prunes, we went to the really nice playground at the hotel (photos to come) where Natalie played with her cousin Nicholas. Nicholas and family joined us for dinner at the Golden Bauhinia where we feasted on peking duck among other yummies.

After a good night's sleep, here's a quick pic of our hotel room and the remains of our room service breakfast.

Natalie posing by the great view of the harbour from our room window.

All in all, a great stay-cation!

Graduation photo

2010-07-21T19:34:00.001+08:00

And finally, to wrap-up the school year, here is Natalie's graduation photo. She is wearing the graduation gown and cap and looking very "mature". *sniff* We're so proud!

More School Photos

2010-07-19T19:41:00.007+08:00

Natalie's teachers have posted the last batch of school photos from the 2009 - 2010 school year. Natalie really has had a lot of wonderful and different experiences while at school!

Students learn about cooking.

Here is Natalie playing with the water toys. She loves playing with water and enjoys bath time.

Group photo during "white" day. Approximately once a week, the students learn a new color and are asked to dress in that color (or bring a toy of that color) in to share with fellow students. Can you find Natalie?

Once a month, the students celebrate the collective birthdays of the students born in that month. During birthday celebrations, all students are allowed to wear "normal" clothes for the day instead of uniforms, and the birthday students have special hats they can wear.

Natalie and her classmates learning to fold and throw paper airplanes. Here's a great shot of Natalie in mid-throw. Looks like a good one! Look at the concentration on her face.

The students also did a lot of creative art work and Natalie frequently bought home her masterpieces to show us. Here she is painting something blue with scrunched up tissues.

One of the last "color" days at school was Rainbow Day. Natalie wore her blue dress with colorful butterflies on it.

Another pic from Rainbow Day.

And here is another birthday month. Yes, it's June! This time, Natalie is wearing the special birthday hat and gets to stand behind the birthday cake for the photo.

Here the students have made and put designs on their own foam hats. Natalie brought her hat home, but we haven't had a chance to wear it out yet.

More hat-day photos of the students mingling. I find these less-structured, more-chaotic photos quite cute!

On this day, students were asked to bring in healthy snacks to share to celebrate the last week of school. You can see all the delicious snacks on the table. Natalie brought in cut fruit to share with her classmates.

She's made so many great friends from school and we are still in touch with many of them. We hope to see them again next year in kindergarten!

Last Day of School

2010-07-17T20:58:00.002+08:00

Friday was Natalie's last day of school. To me, this was a huge milestone because it means she has finished her very first full school year (with a certificate and graduation photos, too!). Although I tried to explain how important the day was to Natalie, she didn't quite get it. After I went to pick her up, when she came out of the classroom, she was in a good mood and she told me, "The teachers are crying! How come?" We went back in to take some phots with her teachers (below) but even when I explained again, she looked confused as to why this was important enough to make ALL her teachers cry as she kissed and hugged them good-bye.

Natalie and her good friend Summer posing with her teachers Ms. Lee and Ms. Ngan. You can see they are still a bit red-rimmed around the eyes. They made me tear up, too!

Thank you so much to Natalie's teachers. You have been a truly positive, supportive and caring presence in Natalie's life. She has really learned a lot from you!

After we picked up the kids from school, Lily Yee-yee and I took Natalie and Summer for a quick lunch at a nearby canteen. Here they are holding hands while Natalie makes a funny face.

And now it's Summer's turn to make a funny face!

Weekend boat trip

2010-07-15T20:45:00.000+08:00

On Sunday, we went on the Simmons boat and had a really nice day (perfect weather) out on the waters. Natalie was super excited to go on a boat ("Just like Dora!" she said) but in reality, the fast speed and bumpiness on the water scared her and she spent most of the travel time with her face hidden in Clark's chest. She also wasn't a fan of the salty water or the waves when we swam in the ocean. However, she was proud of herself for being on a boat and we all enjoyed a wonderful seafood lunch on Po Toi Island. All in all, a great trip!

Posing with Clark and Serena, here is Natalie happy and excited to be on a boat. We bought a new life-jacket for her which she wore happily for most of the day (except during lunch).

Also on the boat were Jackie yee-yee, Mandy yee-yee, baby Ava, me, and Wang baby #2 (in my belly).

Uncles Que and Dan came, too.

Our yummy seafood lunch. Natalie is not a fan of seafood (although she likes fish and shrimp) but she loved the salt-and-pepper fried tofu.

Baby Ava and her daddy Dan out on the waters for a swim. Ava is super comfortable out on the water.

After only a few minutes in the water (in her life jacket and water tube), Natalie didn't want to swim any more. She didn't like the salty water or the waves. Here she is clinging to Clark (and her hat) once safely back on the boat (while I enjoyed a long swim in the water).

Clark and Natalie take a quick nap on the way home.

Success at the Dentist

2010-07-12T22:40:00.002+08:00

On Saturday, we took Natalie to see the dentist and we are so super proud of how well she did!

The dentist can be a scary experience, with a stranger putting long, metal objects inside your mouth. To prepare her, we read books and talked about the dentist. We also poked and scratched at her teeth with toothpicks and q-tips (and a mirror so she could see what was happening). She also had the chance to "be the dentist" by putting toothpicks in our teeth (which was kinda scary since she's not super coordinated) but in the end, it all paid off. See how well she did below:

Natalie seated in the dentist chair with her mouth wide open and ready for the inspection and cleaning!

Natalie being super brave as the dentist and dental assistant started poking around in her mouth. He counted all her teeth (10 on top and 10 on the bottom which is the expected number).

She even allowed "Mr. Thirsty" (the saliva sucker) in her mouth.

She's so little, she had a special "booster" seat she had to sit / lie on. Overall, the appointment took about 15 minutes.

Here the dentist is scraping at her teeth with the metal hook. He was really excellent and told her exactly what he was doing and showing her every tool before using it. He also flossed all her teeth and suggested we help her floss every day as well.

Here he is polishing her teeth with strawberry flavoured toothpaste and the electronic polishing tool. She let him polish every tooth without complaint and was proud she could open her mouth for such a long time.

After the polishing, Natalie sat up and rinsed her mouth at the dentist sink.

She's very good at spitting out her toothpaste now (instead of swallowing it), even at home.

She also helped to press the button and clean the sink after the appointment, and received TWO stickers from the dentist for a job well done. All in all, the visit was a big success!

We're 27 weeks and counting

2010-07-12T16:48:00.003+08:00

We had our 27-week appointment at the doctors today and, despite her best attempts to hide (the baby is actually quite naughty and has also been kicking me at inconvenient times), we managed to take a 4D scan of the baby. Here she is!

Her arm is partially blocking her face, but you can still see her features fairly clearly. With that mouth and (according to the doctor) somewhat large-ish ears, she might very well be another Clark-look-alike! What do you think?

Also, Natalie has been very sweet about my pregnancy and frequently kisses my belly and says, "Hello, Baby!" She's also insistent that the baby is HER baby (I think she thinks it will be a great new toy for her!). I've been trying to tell her the baby is mommy-and-baba's baby and that she will be her "mui mui" but Natalie only shakes her head at me. She has also selected a name she likes for the baby... Clarka!

Enthusiastic Nat

2010-07-08T08:17:00.002+08:00

Although Natalie is still very shy when out with other people, when she is home, she is very energetic and enthusiastic! Below are some recent videos taken from home:

Video 286 - In this video, Natalie is jumping off the sofa and being caught by Clark. They played this game for about 20 minutes (until Clark was sweating!) last weekend and she loved it! Great exercise for her, too :)

Video 287 - Here is Natalie counting puzzle pieces as she returns them to the box. She can confidently count to 10, but after 10, she starts to make up her own numbers! Her favourite? Eleventeen, twelveteen...

Video 288 - Yesterday, I came home and Natalie immediately started singing... a mandarin song! She attends KCS, a mandarin-based school, and it is really amazing to watch her language development (even though we don't speak it at home).

Ant Farm

2010-07-06T22:26:00.000+08:00

Last month, we thought it would be educational to buy this mini and very cool-looking ant farm for Natalie from Toys R' Us. The idea was to create very cool "ant art" from the tunnels they would dig in the clear, blue gel. All we needed to do was catch some ants and put them inside. Easy, right?

Natalie was pretty excited to go to the park to try but it was not easy at all! First, we had trouble finding ants to catch. Second, once found, we had trouble actually catching them (without killing them accidentally). Third, they don't like to stay inside so when you open the top to put in more ants, the ones you've already caught try to escape.

In the end, Clark and Vivo Yee-yee managed to catch 7 ants BUT instead of a productive ant farm, the ants turned on each other and some were killed (due to us catching different species of ants). Instead of beautiful "artwork" ant farm, we ended up with this:

A battlefield of dead ants. There were a few survivors who lived a couple weeks. During that time, some of the ant corpses grew a strange, white mold on top.

One little guy made pretty good progress though! He dug about 1 inch into the gel before dying. Overall, Natalie was not very impressed with this little project.

Big Puzzle

2010-07-03T20:44:00.003+08:00

Another week, another birthday present opened. This time, it was a giant 40-piece puzzle! Clark and Natalie opened it on Saturday morning and spent almost 1-hour together completing. Natalie really enjoys puzzles and is actually pretty good at figuring out how to fit the pieces together with minimal help from Clark. Afterwards, we took some photos (see below) before cleaning it up. She did it again on Sunday :)

When Clark told Natalie to pose next to the finished puzzle, she immediately pulled a little stool over and sat down behind it (by herself).

Smile! We snapped a few shots and she jumped off the stool excitedly and said, "I want to see!"

Here's another angle of Natalie and her work. She's very patient when taking photos now.

Clark asked Natalie to lie down next to the puzzle so we can show everyone how BIG it is. We thought she would be smaller than the puzzle, but she keeps surprising us with how long (tall) she is! She is definitely not a baby anymore.

Bracelet Art

2010-06-29T21:51:00.003+08:00

We've opened another birthday gift and this time, discovered a fun and colorful bracelet-making kit! Natalie was very excited, especially because the kit came in a nice box with a clasp she could open and close by herself. Once open, she insisted on making ALL the bracelets at one time so she could bring them to school and give to her friends. So we sat down and made every bracelet in one sitting (over an hour). See photos below.

We've just finished making ALL the bracelets. Natalie proudly displaying her handiwork.

There were 4 "string" bracelets where she had to thread the foam "charms", and 8 flat bracelets where she could pick and choose from a large variety of foam stickers to decorate them with.

I told her I would use the flash on the camera to see if it looked better in the picture and she covered her eyes (but still kept smiling).

Natalie laughing while playing with the bracelets.

"Look at my bracelet eyes!"

Natalie's beautiful bracelet creations. In the end, she did not bring them to school because we felt it would be unfair if she didn't have enough to share with everyone.

Later, Natalie models as many bracelets as she can for the camera. She could only fit 10 on her little arm. This photo is a bit grainy because I used a high ISO setting on the camera to avoid using the flash. Then I turned on the flash...

"No flash, Mommy!"

Birthday parties!

2010-06-27T21:37:00.003+08:00

This weekend, we attended TWO birthday parties! Natalie really loves birthday parties and knows the whole routine now. We need to wear a pretty dress, buy and wrap a present and write a birthday card. When we get to the party, she needs to give the gift and a hug to her friend and say "Happy Birthday!" Later, there is always singing and birthday cake.

Watch Video 285 as Natalie dances along to "Head, shoulders, kness and toes" with other children at her friend's princess-themed birthday party this weekend.

Natalie at her school friend, Kelly's 3rd birthday party. She finally had the chance to wear her princess dress! She was the only Princess Auroro. There were at least 3 Belles and 5 Snow Whites!

On Sunday, we attended Jasmine's birthday party which had an Elmo theme. She had a BIG Elmo attend her party and an Elmo cake. Here she is happy and clapping as we sing the birthday song.

Natalie was SUPER excited to see BIG Elmo. She's now old enough that she's not scared and was more than happy to go in for hug after hug after hug with Elmo. Poor Elmo was so big sometimes he couldn't see all the kids milling around near his feet waiting to hug or dance with him.

Natalie with Clark and Elmo.

The Wang Gang with Elmo.

It was such a treat for Natalie to see Big Elmo. They took a polaroid shot of Natalie with Elmo and it has become her most treasured possession. She refused to give it to us for safe-keeping and insisted on holding it herself for most of the day.

After the party, brave and noble Clark took Natalie through all the tunnels and slides and fun of Play Town for another 1.5 hours while I sat down on a chair and rested. Needless to say, when we got home, we had a big family nap!

More Natalie-ism: Natalie the negotiator and little smartie

2010-06-25T11:11:00.002+08:00

Clark has picked Natalie up and is carrying her.
Clark: Natalie, you are a big girl now and getting really heavy!
Natalie (patting Clark's arm reassuringly): That's ok because you are big and strong.

Natalie has begun to sleep by herself in her own room. I've just tucked her into bed and have turned off the lights.
Me: You're such a good girl, sleeping by yourself! Good night, I'll come back in 5 minutes to check on you, ok?
Natalie (holding up one finger): How about you come back to check on me in 1 minute?

We've bought a box of chocolate-covered pocky sticks and are sitting outside waiting for Clark to come home.
Natalie: Mommy, can I eat the chocolate sticks now?
Me: You can have ONE chocolate stick. When Ba-ba comes home, you can have one more, ok?
Natalie: Can I have THREE chocolate sticks? Because it's so small, you see?
Me (thinking I'm being too stingy): How about you can have TWO now and ONE when Ba-ba comes home?
Natalie: How about I have three now and later, I have one more when Ba-ba comes home?

We've popped a bag of butter popcorn. We are sitting on the sofa waiting for Clark to finish transfering a video file so we can watch it together on the TV. Natalie has eaten about 20 pieces and LOVES it.
Me: That's enough, Natalie, not too much, ok? The TV show hasn't even started yet.
Natalie (in a sweet voice): Ok, Mommy. Can I give some to Ba-ba?
Me: Wow, what a good girl! Ok, you can give some to Ba-ba.
Natalie then starts to bring the popcorn to Clark, one piece at a time. On her way to Clark, she eats half of each popcorn piece before giving it to him.

Me: Natalie, it's bath time.
Natalie: But I'm not itchy.

Umbrella Painting

2010-06-22T21:15:00.002+08:00

Since Natalie's birthday, she has been opening about 1 present per week. I know, I'm such a mean mum! But this schedule means she is very, very happy every week when it comes time to choose another birthday present to open :)

This past week, she opened her umbrella art present from Mandy, Dan and Ava. After we opened it, Natalie happily hopped into the shower (sans clothes since the paint is non-washable) and finished painting the entire umbrella in one go.

Natalie just getting started with her umbrella project. She was really excited to be painting her own umbrella and was particular about picking which colors to use for each image.

Here is the finished product! She's only just begun to understand the concept of "coloring in the lines" which is perfect timing for this little project. You can see she tries really hard to color each image a separate color. Whenever she accidentally went out of the lines, she would look at me with concern and ask, "Is that ok?" (to which I always replied, "Of COURSE it's ok!"

She's also started to appreciate the use of multiple colors. I was kept very busy opening and closing the different colored paint tubs and washing the ONE paintbrush between color changes. I didn't mind, she was very patient, and she had a lot of fun :) She even sang little songs about what she was painting as she was painting it!

Fish eye lens

2010-06-21T09:34:00.003+08:00

Here are some photos from Nat's birthday party taken with Serena Yee-yee's fish-eye camera lens. It's a funny lens!

Natalie with a big head, little body, and funny expression.

Natalie again with a really big head, little body, and wearing her mask.

Natalie giving us a hug. The fish-eye effect is not as pronounced in this photo, but it's a great shot of our family and I couldn't resist posting :)

My first princess outfit!

2010-06-18T18:28:00.003+08:00

Today, in preparation for a birthday party next weekend (which will have a princess theme), we bought Natalie her first princess outfit. It's a sleeping beauty dress and crown. She LOVED it. Look at how happy she is. She spent many minutes (over half an hour) running back and forth to the mirror, turning around and admring herself.

See Natalie admiring herself in Video 284.

Natalie was all smiles in her new Sleeping Beauty princess dress.

It fit her perfectly (it has no buttons or zippers so getting it on was a bit of a trial, but good thing she was very cooperative!)

She was very patient posing and smiling for the camera.

A look at the back of the dress. It has a lot of little great details which Natalie loved such as little flowers sewn into the front, a crystal jewel in the crown and a little picture of Sleeping Beauty on the front brooch.

"I'm a princess!" She says (over and over again). It's quite cute how excited and happy she is over a princess dress :)

Photo shoot

2010-06-15T20:31:00.002+08:00

A couple months ago, Natalie's school asked us to submit 8 photos of Natalie (they use these photos to "label" Natalie's desk, her cubbyhole, and various other areas in the classroom). Instead of using an old photo, I tried to ask Natalie to sit nicely and take a proper school photo. Here's the result:

"Great smile, but can you sit up straight and do a smaller smile, please? Open your eyes!"

Natalie says: "Like this?" and I say, "Almost, sit up straight, please."

"Like this?" Natalie says, and I say, "Hands down, please." (She was clapping.)

Here was a pretty good shot. "Looks good, slightly bigger smile, please!"

Here was the best shot. "Now that's a GREAT smile!"

More birthday cake

2010-06-14T08:54:00.001+08:00

We had a big party for Natalie on Saturday, but couldn't resist another little celebration at home with just our family and an ice cream cake on her actual birthday on Thursday. Happy Birthday, Natalie!

Video 282 - Here she is singing the birthday song and blowing out her candles.

Video 283 - Here she is eating the actual ice cream cake. Of course, she loved it. She finished the entire piece!

Birthday Party Videos and Photos

2010-06-08T08:24:00.003+08:00

Natalie's 3rd birthday party on Sunday was a big success! Not only were there lots of family, friends, bubbles, hugs, food, cake and bouncy castle fun, we also enjoyed one of the nicest June days in Hong Kong ever (great weather)!

Most importantly, Natalie had a great time and has been talking about it non-stop at home. See all photos here.

Watch Video 281 of Natalie with her good friend from school jumping around in the bouncy castle. She loved it! (So did the other kids!)

This is my favourite photo from the day. It took some coaxing to get her inside the bouncy castle, but once she was in, she loved it.

Natalie's BIG OH-THREE Birthday

2010-06-07T07:26:00.002+08:00

Natalie turns THREE years old this coming Thursday, June 10th. Yesterday, we held a birthday party for her at Bishop Lei Hotel in Central.

THANK YOU to everyone who joined us at the party. We had a BLAST! It was great to see you all and thank you for helping to make Natalie's birthday a really special and memorable day for her.

Pics and videos to come!

Love,
The Wang Gang

Pizza Chef

2010-06-04T21:21:00.003+08:00

In May, we attended Nivana's 3rd birthday party at Pizza Express where Natalie became a pizza chef! She loves to cook (even pretend "cooking") and was especially happy to be making REAL food. Check out photos below (thanks Lily!):

We are just starting to press the dough into the pan. At first, Natalie was a little shy to touch the pizza. We had just arrived and there were over FIFTY other children there and she was still warming up.

Natalie helps me to shake-shake-shake the pizza sauce around the on the dough.

She's beginning to warm up and become intrigued by the process.

Natalie has warmed up even more and has happily agreed to put on her chef's apron. She has also helped to put on some pieces of ham (by herself).

I asked to put on olives and Natalie said I could put olives on my half of the pizza but not on hers because she doesn't like "black things". Natalie has asked for her chef's hat now, too :)

We've added mushrooms (to my half) and Natalie has spread some cheese cubes around.

Our pizza is ready for baking!

Natalie was really excited.

Look at our beautiful pizza!

"I cooked this pizza!" Natalie says proudly.

Later, after eating, an amazing balloon artist gives balloon ducks to Natalie, Summer and Olivia.

It's the first time Natalie has seen a balloon duck before. She's quite excited and asks if she can take a bath with it.

Summer is also happy with her duck. Isn't it cute?

The balloon artist was amazing. Look at this Arial Mermain she created.

And this birthday cake! This cake also doubles as a hat!

Lazy Sunday Bar-Be-Que

2010-05-25T07:31:00.007+08:00

A couple weeks ago, we had a lazy Sunday afternoon BBQ at our friend Mandy, Dan and Ava's rooftop paradise. Natalie had a great time! See photos below:

Jackie, Vivo, Natalie and Clark eating great food and enjoying the day.

It was hot and sunny. This is Natalie's hat. It doesn't quite fit me...

Mandy and Dan's rooftop paradise. Doesn't it look like Bali or some other tropical resort destination?

Dan has a dog named Dingo. Natalie really likes to look at Dingo, but she doesn't like to play with him because Dingo likes to lick Natalie's face.

When Dingo comes out, Natalie likes for Clark to carry her. She also likes to throw the toy for Dingo to fetch.

Little Toby was there as well, and he really enjoyed his first beer which was lovingly provided by his daddy Kevy. (Just kidding, of course he didn't drink any!)

Here is Toby being carried by Jackie yee-yee. He is so cute and cuddly!

The Simmons set up a little wading pool on their deck. Natalie came prepared with her swimming outfit and spent a lot of time in the pool. She loved it! Here she is playing with Vivo Yee-yee.

Auntie Esther joins in the fun!

We had to force Natalie to take breaks from the pool because she loved it too much and was getting all wrinkly from the water. Here we have enticed her out with some chocolate cake. Look at how relaxed everyone looks!

Natalie concentrating on getting the largest possible bite of cake.

Natalie finished the entire chocolate cake slice by herself (although she did generously offer me a few small bites).

Natalie is back in the pool and look who's joined her! It's baby Ava who is only 5 months old. She looks so small and Natalie is like a giant compared to her.

Natalie doing the "turtle" (that's what she calls it). She liked crawling around in the shallow water on her hands with her feet trailing behind her.

More turtling. It's crazy how much time she spent in the little pool!

Baby Ava enjoying the sun and warm water with her mommy Mandy.

Natalie trying to share the water balls with baby Ava. It's very cute to watch her interact with smaller babies because she can be very gentle and generous with them. She understands they are smaller and younger than she is.

Natalie's feet are almost unrecognizable after almost a full afternoon in the water. "Look at my raisin feet!" she says to Vivo Yee-yee who took this photo.

What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon :)

Nail polish

2010-05-22T22:40:00.004+08:00

With the bump growing bigger, it's been harder to reach my own toes and so a couple weeks ago, I had a pedicure and had my toe nails painted. Natalie noticed right away, pointing and asking, "Mommy, how come you have pink toes?" She also told me her english teacher "Miss. Lisa" (actual name, no relation) has pink finger nails.

And so, at a recent wedding, Natalie had the chance to paint her nails for the first time. I put on one little layer (in the middle of the nail only, not touching the sides) right before we headed off to dinner and wiped them off before she went to sleep. She loved it, but I told her it was a special occasion and she understands it's not for everyday use.

Natalie's beautiful red nails.

"I'm a lady!" Natalie says. "Look at my pretty nails!"

When I asked her how long she could have them for, she solemnly promised, "Only one dinner and no more." And later she was such a good girl and kept her promise and helped me remove the polish before sleeping that night.

Natalie-ism

2010-05-18T19:10:00.004+08:00

Natalie loves to talk and talk and talk. Everyday, she says something that is SO FUNNY I have to laugh out loud. Today, while I was helping her to undress for bath time, she suddenly said this:

"Hey look, my bum is eating the underwear!" (She points to her wedgy.) "How come the bum is eating the underwear? Because the bum is hungry, right? But I say, 'No bum, don't eat the underwear!'"

Aerobics Day at School

2010-05-15T22:18:00.006+08:00

On Friday, Natalie's school hosted parents and students during "Aerobics Day". Parents had to accompany the children to attend and it was sooo cute and fun to spend the day with the students at school. It was especially cute when we arrived and Natalie's classmates call out to her and waved and said "Hi Natalie!" and she replied, calling her classmates by name. I was super tired afterward, but it was absolutely worth it! Below are videos and photos of the day.

Watch Video 275 - the beginning of "aerobics day" at Natalie's school. Parents were allowed to participate and watch a show put on by the students. Here is the first video of their performance. They are just getting ready for the big show! Natalie is standing at the front of the line to the very left.

Watch Video 276 - this is the second video of their performance. They have started the show and Natalie is super cute as she dances along with her classmates and teachers. Can you find her? She is the 3rd child in the row furthest from the camera, with the little pigtails.

Here is Video 277 of the "free dance" period. Natalie and 3 of her classmates are dancing together holding hands. It looks like fun!

Here is Video 278 of Natalie dancing by herself during the free dance period. She is energetically moving around and taking her dancing very seriously.

Watch Video 279 - Out comes the parachute... all the students loved jumping and playing beneath it as the adults waved it up and down.

Here is Video 280 - the 6th and last video of Natalie's school aerobics day. Actually, the day has finished. Natalie was sooo tired she didn't want to walk. I have already carried her down the stairs and down the hill and now, being 4 months pregnant, I can't go any further so we take a break. You can see how tired Natalie is after so much exercise!

Here are photos from the day:

Natalie with her extremely adorable friend from class, Annabel.

Here we are going up the stairs and heading into the auditorium.

Once inside, the teachers organized all the students while the parents behaved worse than paparazzi, stepping over each other to take photos and videos.

There were three nursery classes participating in the day. All students are 3 years old and super cute.

Natalie was really happy to have me visiting her school with her. She introduced me to her classmates and teachers and was very well behaved (at least in the beginning, closer to the end she became grumpier and more tired).

Natalie hugging her friend Mia.

More hugging. So cute!

Natalie with her friend Kiara (whom I called "Clara" for a long time before realizing I had her name wrong).

Natalie with her friends Kelly and Kiara.

Natalie with me! I really, really enjoyed myself.

During snack time, Natalie very generously shared her cinnamon-toast-crunch cereal with her classmates.

And they shared their snacks in return, too. They are all such great friends!

Growing imagination

2010-05-14T08:00:00.000+08:00

Natalie's imagination is fully active now. She often plays make-believe with her toys and sometimes even with nothing! For example, a few times now, she has given me "flowers" she grew by herself in her "garden", but there's really nothing in her hand. I have to pretend to take the flower from her and tell her how beautiful it is, which makes her happy. We find it really funny!

Watch Video 273 and listen to Natalie pretending to talk on the phone with her daddy. She calls him Ba-Ba. She tells him she misses him and she asks 'you're not home? Ok!' and hangs up. Then she gets upset when I try to call Clark (for real) on my telephone. She insists I call him with her telephone.

Also watch Video 274 where Natalie has her "baby" (actually, her Elmo doll) in a sling (actually my scarf) and the baby is sleeping. This may be good practice for when her sibling arrives :)

At Megan and Angus' Wedding

2010-05-11T19:19:00.003+08:00

The whole Wang Gang turned out in our wedding best to attend Megan and Angus' wedding. Ba-ba Clark was one of the groomsmen. Here are some pics (courtesy of Serena yee-yee). Thanks, Serena!

Natalie with pigtails in her "day dress" with (left and right) Serena yee-yee, Marian yee-yee, and me.

During the wedding ceremony at the church, I had to bribe Natalie to keep quiet with an egg tart hidden in my purse.

After the ceremony as we waited while the photos were taken in front of the church, Natalie gets a very sweet kiss from uncle Zhi while drinking her lychee juice.

Later, we went to dim sum where Natalie met and was instantly enchanted and mesmerized with Ashley, a 6-year old girl who was very nice to her and who commented that, "Natalie's hands are sooo soft!" It's true, Natalie has really soft skin still.

Ashley willingly shared her toys with Natalie and later, Natalie kept asking "Where's Ashley?" (for the rest of the night).

Much much later (after we unsuccessfully tried to get Natalie to sleep), Natalie decided she wanted to dance on the stage to the band... by herself! She was turning and swaying to the music and climbing up and down from the stage for over 10 minutes.

Whenever our friends tried to join her, Natalie would insist that it was HER stage and all adults must stand to the side. Only other children (including Ashley) were allowed to dance with her. Here uncle Edwin tries to out-insist Natalie (but of course, nobody can out-insist Natalie).

When the bride and groom return to the stage, Natalie decides it's time to come down and go home. We didn't get home until after midnight... quite a long night for Natalie!

Shower fun with hair

2010-05-09T09:35:00.002+08:00

Now that Natalie has a little bit more hair (although still not growing at the front for some reason!), her daddy Clark likes to shape it into various shapes and Natalie likes it, too. Here are some photos from a recent bath.

Oompa-Loompa.

We had a little mirror to show her the "crazy hair". She liked this style.

The flash on the camera was a little bright.

Natalie with "really crazy hair"!

"Do I look crazy, Ba-ba?". She loves bathtime. It take some coaxing to get her out.

The two horns look. Although we think Natalie is actually a little angel.

We're really happy she likes to take baths. She will stay in so long her little fingers and toes become wrinkled and she will proudly tell us she has "raisins".

Smile! "But it's too bright, Mommy!"

Hanging with cousin Nicholas

2010-05-03T09:04:00.005+08:00

On Saturday, while the apartment was being painted (finishing touches on minor renovations to the "kids room"), we spent time hanging with Natalie's cousin, Nicholas. Here are some photos stolen from Nicholas' blog http://thechenden.blogspot.com. Thanks Chen Den!

Natalie and Nicholas holding hands while waiting for the elevator. Nicholas LOVED holding hands with his older cousin Natalie. It was really cute every time he reached out to take her hand. By the way, he's not sneering at the camera, this is the way Nicholas "smiles" at the camera... by scrunching his little nose!

Natalie and Nicholas playing in the tube together at the park. Gorgeous day for being outside.

Natalie crying when I wouldn't hold her hand (after she wouldn't hold Nicholas' hand). Poor Nat, I'm a mean mum! She has a really sad crying face and big tears. Don't worry, I made it up to her later :)

Nicholas so cute while playing peek-a-boo with his mommy, Carol.

Where did all the posts go?

2010-04-30T09:08:00.004+08:00

The past few months have been busy ones for the Wang Gang in Hong Kong. As some of you may know (or have guessed) the reason for the silence is ... we are expecting another baby! Tracy has been plagued with morning sickness (up until a couple weeks ago) and we have also both recently changed jobs . On top of this, we are also renovating our apartment (small updates to prepare for the baby).

Natalie knows that there is a baby inside mommy's belly and has been such a sweet girl being very careful around mommy's belly, but we don't think she understands the significance of what this means or how it will change her life. After every meal, she says, "Look at my BIG BELLY! Just like mommy!"

It's quite cute! But, because she is still young and time passes very slowly for toddlers, we'll wait a few more months before we break the news to her :)

Here are images taken from the last doctor's appointment. The baby is due in October.

Birthdays Birthdays Birthdays!

2010-04-21T19:36:00.002+08:00

Since our Mommies' Group is "April to June 2007 babies", we have suddenly hit birthday season! Natalie has been attending lots of birthdays beginning in April and of course she LOVES it. She loves to sing the birthday song and she loves to blow out candles on the cake (even if it's not her birthday cake).

We are also busy planning Natalie's own birthday party for June 6, 2010 in Hong Kong. Hard to believe but she is turning the big OH-THREE this year! We hope all our family and friends can join us at her party :) If you haven't received email from us, please email me for details.

Natalie and I love this picture taken (and stolen) from Summer's birthday party. Summer is hilarious and Natalie laughs every time she looks at this photo! Natalie is a little shell-shocked because we had just arrived at the party and she usually needs a few minutes to get used to new people and places.

Exciting toilet training update

2010-04-19T10:27:00.000+08:00

Natalie has been a superstar with day-time toilet training. She's really got the hang of it now (zero accidents over the past couple weeks!) and she's even learned to do a "wee-wee dance" where she hops up and down and stamps her feet whenever she has to wee-wee. (It's really, really cute, but hard to catch on film.)

Last night, we had another big break-through. At around 2:00am, Natalie woke me up with her whimpering and tossing and turning. She kept scissoring her legs and shaking her left foot and sounding very uncomfortable. When I finally roused enough to ask her, "Natalie, are you ok? Do you want anything?", she said, "I have to wee-wee!" I was so impressed because this means her control is getting much better! Here's hoping this is the beginning of the end of diapers for Natalie :)

Even more school pics!

2010-04-19T07:41:00.003+08:00

While surfing facebook, I came across even more school photos of Natalie. She really loves school which makes us very happy :)

Can you find her?

Making a big "O" with her mouth.

Posing with their teachers.

The week before Easter, the students had an easter egg hunt in the classroom. Natalie was very excited to show me the egg she found.

The students are becoming much more interactive. Everyone seems very happy and settled and you can even see that some of the (older) students are interacting with each other. Natalie is also starting to "socialize" with other children.

Can you find Natalie? She's half-hidden :)

Park on the Peak

2010-04-13T19:06:00.003+08:00

On Friday, on my last free day, I brought Natalie up to the park at the peak (I was there for doctor's visit). We had a delicious lunch of baked potatoes and beans (Oliver's) and hung out for a couple hours at the play area just outside the peak mall. No surprise, Natalie needed some encouragement to go on the slides and up on the equipment, but she loved to run around and explore the other fun and games by herself.

She really liked this turning wheel. She kept going back to this and turning the wheel to watch the little balls roll around behind the plastic circle.

Here she is explaining to me what's happening.

Natalie running around the park. She literally ran circles around the entire play area by herself. She would run back for a bite of food or sip of drink and then take off again. It was funny!

Natalie liked to sit on the friendly giraffe park bench. However, she did not want to sit on the crocodile bench because it would "eat her".

When inside buying food, Natalie insisted on taking a picture with these giraffes. She counted them out loud and said, "There are five giraffes!"

There's the 5th one hiding on the side. She's a very energetic and enthusiastic little girl now.

I took a series of close-up shots. Here is Natalie smiling for the camera.

More smiling... (kind of).

There, that's a nice smile!

"Is it enough?" She asked.

Natalie loves riding the springy animals. She climbs up and down and up and down.

Natalie is very expressive now, too, with lots of different expressions to express how much fun (or little fun!) she's having.

What a great view of the peak, too!

More school photos!

2010-04-09T08:56:00.008+08:00

I love how hip Natalie's teachers are. They do a great job taking photos and posting them to facebook! Here are some photos posted below showing the wide range of activities Natalie participates in while at school. No wonder she says she "loves going to school". She's in most of the photos (can you find her?) but not all because some were just too cute to not download :)

Natalie-isms and videos

2010-04-07T09:15:00.002+08:00

Although posting has been sparse over the past few weeks, Natalie has continued to grow and has really bloomed into an independent and opinionated little girl. Some of her favourite sayings now are:

"I know!"
"I can do it!"
"I help you!"
"Don't worry, I can do it!"
"No, I do it by myself!"

We think a lot of this optimism comes from watching Dora (we've loosened our tv restrictions and she watches 20 minutes a day most days). Only occasionally will she say, "Mommy / Ba-Ba, help me!" to open new toys or get snacks.

She's also become really fond of learning letters and playing games on her computer. Watch Video 270 of Natalie recognizing letters, and Video 271 of Natalie "spelling" with her computer.

Also watch Video 272 of Natalie dancing at home. She's become much more active and will run around the house now. She's especially active when playing with her Ba-ba.

Cousins under wrap

2010-03-05T19:11:00.002+08:00

It's been a couple weeks between posting... sorry! There has been a lot going on and I have not been feeling 100%. Hope things will pick up again in the next few weeks :) In the meantime, enjoy the below pics of Natalie hanging with her cousins and sharing a blanket during the unseasonally cold (really cold!) days of Chinese New Year.

After the kiddies are done with their meal, the best way for the adults to enjoy our meal is to pop in Elmo or Dora DVD and let 'em at it.

Look at the expressions of concentration. They really love their TV! They all really enjoyed "sharing" a blanket at well.

Later, uncle Dennis joins in the fun and we capture Victoria's attention just enough for a great photo with her daddy :)

And now Natalie gives a little smile (although her eyes are still on the television!)

Happy Chinese New Years!

2010-02-19T08:28:00.003+08:00

This year, Natalie wore a very pretty pink cheung-sam as her new year's outfit and she was quite the little lady, collecting red pockets left and right. See her below getting ready for school wearing her outfit.

We wish everyone a very Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year of the Tiger!

Natalie patiently getting her hair done by Suparti. She calls putting her hair up "putting on her long hair".

She looks so lady-like with her hands on her lap and her ankles crossed.

Here she is making her favourite funny face.

I tried to pose her by asking her to look a little off camera. The best I could do was have her stare at my wiggling toes. She was so patient, taking time to pose for me as I adjusted the camera and put her into poses.

Natalie checks out her own dress. She really loves wearing it.

More posing. This is me trying to get her to look "deh", but she doesn't bring her hands up.

A back shot. She really has become quite the little lady!

More Natalie-isms

2010-02-12T02:39:00.001+08:00

Natalie is picking her nose.
Natalie: Hey, I'm picking my nose! Look, I got a big booger!

Me: Wow, Natalie, your face is still really round! Do you have a round head?
Natalie looks a bit hurt.
Me (trying to make it up to her): Does Mommy have a round head, too?
Natalie: No, you have a square head!

Sometimes, when Clark is lying down on the bed or sofa, Natalie likes to climb up and pounce on him. She calls it "booming" Ba-ba.
Clark: Natalie, can you boom Mommy? (I'm lying next to them.)
Natalie: No!
Clark: How come?
Natalie: Because Mommy is small!
Clark: But how come you can boom on Ba-ba?
Natalie: Because Ba-ba is big and strong!

Me: I'm going to call Por-por on the telephone now. Do you want to talk to Por-por?
Natalie: How come?
Me: Because it'll be nice to talk to her.
Natalie: How come?
Me: Because she likes to hear you talking.
Natalie: How come?
Me: Because she misses you.
Natalie: How come?
Me: Because she hasn't seen you in a while.
Natalie: How come?
Me: Because!
Natalie: How come?
Me: No more how comes!

Natalie's favourite sleep murmurs (she talks in her sleep):
Natalie: "Hey, whachoo doing?"
Natalie: "I don't want! I don't want!"

Natalie is eating mangoes for dessert. They look yummy.
Me: Natalie, can I have a mango, please?
Natalie: Sure!
She picks up one of the bigger pieces with her fork and gives it to me.
Me: Yummy, thank you, Natalie!
Natalie (explaining and nodding her head): I give you a big piece because you are a big girl.

Winter school uniform

2010-02-11T08:15:00.000+08:00

Natalie is quite the little cute student in her little winter school uniform. Here is the complete set as modelled for us by Natalie herself in the morning.

The uniform is a white turtleneck, a plaid dress, and a red boxy jacket with grey stockings and black shoes.

As per her normal morning routine, Natalie gets dressed after breakfast and sits on her sofa to put on her shoes.

She can almost do it herself (although she still gets her feet mixed up).

I asked her to "smile!" for the camera and she did.

"I'm putting on my shoes!" She says.

Reading mandarin

2010-02-10T08:13:00.000+08:00

Since starting school in September, Natalie has slowly but surely been picking up more and more Mandarin. Watch Video 269 of Natalie "reading" from her school workbook with her daddy Clark.

Swimming School

2010-02-08T08:02:00.003+08:00

On Sunday, Natalie attended her very first swimming class! Last week, we brought her to the swim school so she could watch her cousin Vanessa attend and she was very excited to go, too. At first, things went very well and she was happy and excited to listen to the "swim school teacher". However, she cried for most of the second half of the class when the teacher started asking them to put their ears and noses in the water. Bravely, she has agreed to go again next week :)

Natalie excited and almost ready to head to swim school... by herself with no mommy and no ba-ba!

The swim outfit is complete with neoprene swim suit, swim cap and swim goggles! Later, when Natalie was crying, her little goggles filled with her tears.

Natalie has gone into the pool area by herself, lining up between her cousin Vanessa and her friend Ethan.

Ethan was a great little swimmer and very brave. He put his ears and nose and whole head in the water!

Reading her own bedtime story

2010-02-05T19:21:00.003+08:00

Natalie has really grasped the concept of "reading" a book and "storyline". Watch Video 268 of Natalie reading her own bedtime story about a bee who's lost her stripes and needs to find them again.

Christmas outfit

2010-02-04T19:24:00.000+08:00

Natalie's grandparents have really spoiled her with lots of beautiful new clothes. Here are some more christmas photos that I'm posting 1 month after the fact, but thought she looked too cute to resist :)

Here is Natalie posing next to a Christmas tree that matches her dress and headband.

Natalie is really festive compared to her parents who are dressed all in black!

Camera smiles

2010-02-03T08:30:00.000+08:00

Like all young kids, Natalie is constantly amazed by herself, her own reflection and her own abilities. She enjoys looking in the mirror and, whenever we go out for dinner and a mirror happens to be nearby, she is sometimes too distracted to eat because she is busy making funny faces at herself. She also likes the camera and has become better and better at smiling into the camera. Here we did a few practice shots at home:

Natalie says, "What's that, mommy? Is it a cam-rah?"

I tell her I'm going to take a few pictures of her and she sticks her tongue out like this.

I tell her to smile to look nice and she obliges.

I say "BIG smile!" and she gives a big smile, too.

Creative, not destructive

2010-01-24T08:00:00.002+08:00

As a little baby, Natalie loved to "destroy" things. First, she liked to chew and bite on things, then she liked to rip and tear paper, and finally, she enjoyed knocking things down and pulling lego pieces apart. This all happened because she was not yet able to "create". Now that she's older and her fingers are more nimble, she is really putting her creativity to good use!

Who built this beautiful city of blocks?

The creator is hiding just behind it. It's Natalie!

Here she is quietly and studiously building her little city. She is great at balancing pieces on their sides and can build it quite tall without knocking the lower pieces down.

More studious building...

"Look so high!" Natalie says.

She was very happy with her creation. And we were, too!

When it was time to clean up, for the first time ever (that I can remember), Natalie did not ask to smash it first before putting the pieces back into the box.

Natalie's house

2010-01-22T18:36:00.000+08:00

While cleaning the apartment, Natalie and I found this big empty cardboard box (from Kevvy and Vanessa). Since Natalie loves her doll houses (she has two for "Mimi" and "Licca" and occasionally likes to sit inside the doll houses), we decided to make the box into a "Natalie" house.

The finished product - a Natalie house complete with a little Natalie inside.

There's a roof (made with a ribbon and an old pillowcase) and a door that opens and closes.

"Hey, you have to knock on the door first!" Natalie says when I swing the door open.

But she happily smiles for the camera when I say, "Smile!" She LOVES her new house and asked to play in it this morning when she woke up.

See how happy she is? Also, Natalie has started to lose her baby fat and is looking more mature.

Some cool features of the house include this door stop (made of ultra high-tech duct tape) that keeps the door shut whenever Natalie wants some privacy.

Additional features: Reb ribbon that prevents the roof from falling in. Also note the personalized, decorative artwork Natalie created for her walls.

Daily morning routine

2010-01-22T08:01:00.000+08:00

Now that she's older, Natalie has fallen into fairly regular routine everyday. She seems to enjoy regularity so we keep it as "normal" as possible, especially during week days. Most mornings, Natalie will wake up around 7:30am. Since Clark has already left for work, she'll usually sit up in bed and say "good morning, Mommy" and give me a kiss and a hug (which I love!). I then take her outside where she patiently waits on her little chair at her little table while Suparti prepares breakfast for her. Her current favourite is peanut-butter bread, eggs and a cup of milk or water which she eats by herself in about 30 minutes (she talks a lot and will play between bites). While she's eating, I get ready for work. At around 8:00am, Natalie gets put on the toilet and then gets ready for school. At 8:20am, we all leave the house together.

Natalie seated at her highchair enjoying peanut-butter bread. This was taken a couple months ago when she was still happy to sit in her highchair. Lately, she's preferred using her IKEA table at home.

Natalie loves peanutbutter bread (her current favourite breakfast, along with eggs and a cup of milk). She also loves to make funny faces, too!

Christmas school photos

2010-01-21T08:05:00.006+08:00

Even though Natalie missed a few weeks of school around Christmas, she was still able to participate in many of the Christmas-themed days (which happened before she was sick). She now firmly LOVES Christmas and still randomly sings "Jingle Bells" while at home.

The children celebrated the lantern festival by making their very own lanterns.

Natalie brought home a beautiful, purple lantern which she liked to hold and swing around.

Everyday, Natalie's school has "snack time" where the kiddies eat something (sandwiches, crackers, fruit, etc...) and drink something (water, milk, juice, etc...) The kids learn to put their own plates and bowls away after they eat.

Here's another school photo. I steal these photos from Natalie's teacher's facebook page. I love how proactive she is in posting updates. Welcome back to Ms. Lee and congrats on the recent delivery of her baby :)

Here are the kiddies all bundled for a Christmas photo. It was really cold for a few days there! Can you find Natalie? She's the girl in the back picking her nose.

Whenever Natalie sees this photo, she screams "Santa Claus!!!" Can you find her? She also loves to look at her school pictures and tries to find herself.

Belated Christmas photos

2010-01-19T08:09:00.000+08:00

I stole these photos from Lisa and Carol's blog. Even though they are 3 weeks old, they were too cute to not share since Natalie is featured in them as well.

During the x-mas party at Lisa's place, the kid all got to decorate (and eat!) their very own gingerbread man. Natalie smothered her gingerbread man with sprinkles.

Natalie loves to read. Here she is reading a book with little Nicholas looking on.

The four cousins sitting together before the frenzy begins (before other kiddies and their mommies and daddies and helpers arrive!)

Here are all the kiddies posing with our very own Chinese Santa Claus! Natalie loved it, especially getting her own gift (she is holding up the red wrapping paper in this photo).

Here she is holding it up again, giving you a better view of her present.

This is when Natalie received her present from Santa Clause ("Because I am a good girl!"). All in all, a great Christmas!

Breaking News!

2010-01-15T07:32:00.000+08:00

Now that Natalie is feeling so much better (compared to her being sick for the past few weeks), we've decided to go ahead and continue with her potty-training and other "big girl" items.

Just last night, after a lengthy discussion, Natalie slept WITHOUT her pacifier for the very first time. Even though it was really difficult for her (she was whimpering and tossing and turning) she stubbornly persisted and finally woke up this morning and declared, "I'm a big girl! I no sleep with jur-jur!"

The reason? Last night, we spoke about how other babies in the world need her jur-jurs (her pacifiers). Now that Natalie is a "big girl", she doesn't need her pacifier and would she be nice and please give other babies her pacifiers so they won't cry any more? She thought about it and said "Yes" and later today, we are going to pack up her pacifiers in a big box and "mail" them to other babies-in-need.

We're so proud!

Videos videos and MORE videos!

2010-01-09T09:11:00.002+08:00

Posting has been sparse over the past few weeks due to work, holidays and visitors! We just said good-bye to Por-por and Gong-gong who flew to Toronto just yesterday. We'll miss you! Nai-nai and Yeh-yeh are also returning to Canada. It's been so great to have our families here and so fun! We took lots of videos but haven't had time to post them all. Here are some videos below:

Video 260 - Natalie enthusiastically cutting mangoes and feeding pieces to me and the camera.

Video 261 - Playing with her kitchen set and fighting with her cousins.

Video 262 - Popping plastic-wrapping bubbles with Yeh-yeh

Video 263 - Eating an orange. She LOVES oranges (without the "skin") and can eat two whole oranges in one sitting.

Video 264 - Dancing to black-eyed pea "Boom boom pow". It's funny because she's still not totally coordinated. And she is getting shy in front of the camera.

Christmas Videos

Video 265 - All the cousins distributing presents among themselves with Por-por. Watch littlest cousin Nicholas give out presents and try to take them back (he doesn't understand what's going on), and Victoria saying "No!" and giving poor Nicholas a little push. He's sturdy boy though!

Video 266 - More presents! Natalie is a little over-whelmed (and happy) about all her new presents! We still haven't opened them all (saving a few each week).

Video 267 - All the cousins are singing "Jingle Bells" together. In the beginning, Natalie says, "I farted, stinky stinky!" but everyone sings sooo loud you can't hear her any more :)

Christmas at TBLS

2010-01-02T10:04:00.006+08:00

On Christmas Day, we celebrated with our closest friends at chef Que Vinh Dang's new restaurant TBLS in Central. See photos below:

Christmas Day dinner was delicious beer clams, curried chicken, mashed potates and home-made yakult-banana ice cream... deeeelicious! Natalie sat at the head of the table and smiled for the camera.

Natalie playing with Vivo yee-yee and her Elmo-Cinderella story book.

Natalie says, "Do you like see-food?"

She was in a really great mood. She ate almost a WHOLE potato by herself!

Earlier in the day, we had lunch with Auntie-V and baby Toby. Natalie loves little babies and likes to look at them and kiss them.

Here she is showing one of the felt characters from her Elmo-Cinderella book. She can play with this book for a long time.

Natalie says goodnight to the camera before her nap. She wore a little red Santa dress and even her Elmo had a Santa dress, too!

Visiting mommy's office

2009-12-26T16:42:00.003+08:00

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!

2009-12-26T16:30:00.002+08:00

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!

2009-12-25T10:11:00.002+08:00

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

2009-12-25T00:08:00.002+08:00

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

2009-12-21T22:49:00.004+08:00

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

2009-12-21T22:43:00.002+08:00

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!