Cupcake love

Natalie loves to eat cupcakes! She doesn't get to eat them often, so it's a real treat when she does. Watch Video 246 of the happiness a simple mini cupcake (with the icing scraped off) gives her.

Natalie can hardly believe it...


She's holding a chocolate cupcake in her hand and she's even allowed to eat it!


I'm going to eat it now!


Natalie takes a bite. Yummy!

Baby's got skillz

Natalie really enjoys feeding herself and can eat an entire meal by herself. It's awesome because it means we only have to cut up food into bite-sized pieces for her to eat and then we can eat and enjoy the meal together as a family :)

Also, she's a true Asian baby. Her utensil of choice is... chopsticks! She uses the training chopsticks we bought for her. Watch Video 245 of Natalie's precise chopstick skills.

Quotable Quotes

Now that Natalie is older, she is super funny! Here are a few notable quotable quotes:

I come home after a long day at work:
Natalie (very excitedly): Mommy, I bye-gun!
Me: Button?
Natalie (yelling): No… I BUY-GUN!!
Me: Button?
Natalie (more subdued): I buy dog, Mommy?

Natalie runs into the living room completely naked:
Natalie: I'm a naked baby!
Me: Hi, naked baby!
Natalie (stamping her feet and waving her arms): I'm a naked baby dancing!

We are toilet training her, so I show Natalie her diaper with a spot of poo in it:
Me: Do you see this? What is this?
Natalie (waving a hand under her nose): That's my poo. Stinky stinky pee-yoo!

We're walking down the street.
Natalie: Mommy, poh-poh ("carry me", in Chinese)
Me: No, Natalie, you walk please.
Natalie: Mommy, poh-poh, puh-lease!
Me: No, Natalie, you have to walk.
Natalie: But I'm too slow!

Clark comes home and sees that Natalie has put stickers all over our living room windows.
Clark (in a stern voice): Natalie, who said you can put stickers on the window?
Natalie (thinks about it): Ba-ba!
Clark: Did I say you can put stickers on the window?
Natalie: Yes.
Clark: Uh-oh, I think someone needs a time out…
(Natalie is quiet, knowing she is in trouble.)
Clark: Does someone need a time out?
Natalie (suddenly inspired, with a big smile): Tickle tickle, Ba-ba!
Clark: Are you trying to distract me?

I'm taking off my eye make-up with a cotton ball and my eyes are being pulled down at the corner:
Natalie: Mommy so ugly!

Vivo Yee-yee feeds Natalie some noodles and some noodles stick to her chin:
Natalie: Wow, so messy!

Vivo: Can you jump high like a kangeroo?
Natalie: No, cannot! I am smaller. Cannot jump high like a kangeroo!"

Taiwan!

From August 14 - 16, 2009, the Wang Gang was eating our way through Taiwan. It was an awesome vacation and one we appreciated even more when both Clark and I started work (full time) on the Tuesday after we returned to Hong Kong. We went with a group of friends and also had time to visit family.

We visited Natalie's Tai-por (Clark's maternal grandmother) on Saturday morning.


We had breakfast there and Natalie LOVED the mini meat buns Tai-por gave her. We even packed three to go! (Yes, she finished them all later at lunch.)


Natalie most especially enjoyed playing "phone" with Tai-por's cordless phone.

Clark called Tai-por with his mobile phone and Natalie was sooo happy as she patiently waited for the phone to ring and then jumped to answer it.

After Tai-por's, we went to visit Ching-bu, Natalie's great-grandmother (Clark's paternal grandmother). Natalie was taking a much needed nap when this photo was taken.

Later, we went to the night market and, after eating our own weight in food, we found a little plane ride for Natalie. It goes around and around in a circle and she LOVED it.

She gave us hi-5s when she passed us and told us, "I fly airplane!"

It was super hot. Natalie told us "My head is wet!" because she was sweating so much. The heat did not agree with her and she was a little grumpy until we found the airplane ride for her. We also bought a new pair of nike sport sandals for her and she was happy.

Here is Natalie happily sitting in her very own seat for the first time. This was the first trip where she was truly aware of where she was and what she was doing (riding on an airplane!)

The Wang Gang on our way home.

Playdates

Natalie's really good friends Sienna and Summer came over 2 weeks ago for a play date. Natalie loved having her friends over! We LOVE having friends over to play! And I was really proud of Natalie because, for the first time in her life, she was fighting with them for toys! I know it's a strange thing to be proud of, but it's a huge milestone for Natalie who is usually so reserved and shy around other kiddies.

Also, watch Video 243 of Natalie playing "house" by herself. Now watch Video 244 of Natalie playing house with Siena. She loves it :) Although, at the end of the video, she hits her nose on Sienna's head and cries (but only for a little bit) :(

Summer and Natalie watching as Sienna chooses a sticker from Natalie's collection.


Summer goes in for a closer look.


Later, Natalie and Sienna jump on the bed and are tempted to push the buttons on our printer/fax machine.


More jumping (and eating!) on the bed.

Later, Natalie and Sienna have a lot of fun playing in Natalie's "house".

Funny girl

Last week, Clark and I took Natalie to the park where she showed off how playful and funny she can be. She liked to crawl into the small space below the slide and say, "Ba-ba, you come!" so Clark would crawl in after her.

Natalie peeks out from under the small space to say "Hi!" to the camera. Baba tries to peek out, too, but it's a small space.


Natalie gives the camera a huge smile. She says, "Hi mommy, look at Natalie!"


Later, Natalie comes out from under the slide while Clark stays there. They play monster for a while. Natalie likes to be chased and likes to chase people now.


Later, when I'm pretending to take a quick nap on the sofa, Natalie comes by and says, "Mommy, you wake up?" Then she climbs up onto the sofa and puts her head on top of mine. She says, "Natalie sleeping, too! I sleep on mommy!"

Of course I don't mind!

Gambling and slow slider

Watch Video 241 of Natalie gambling at an early age at the nearby Jumpin' Gym. She puts in a coin, pulls the handle and shoots the ball into one of the spinning holes for tickets.

Also, here is Video 242 of Natalie sliding by herself down a steep slide. She is a slow slider but when I ask her, she says she's really fast.

Stylin'

Yo yo yo, B-girl Nat in da hoooouse!


Don't be hate-in' cuz I'm-a-stylin'.


Girlfreeend, I know I look good!

Welcome, dis is ma hood. North Point reprezzzent! Woot woot!

Playing with Cats

Natalie loves visiting the nearby pet store and playing with the kittens on display there. She sticks her finger through the little gaps in the glass door and makes faces at them. She also tells them to stop sleeping (if their eyes are closed) and to "c'mere cat!" so she can play with them.

See Video 240 of Natalie playing with the kittens at the store. In this video, you can't hear Natalie because I'm filming outside the store (on the other side of the kitten display).

Natalie loves watching the cats.


And enticing them to play.

Natalie feeding Nicholas

Watch Video 239 of Natalie feeding Nicholas water. She's very insistent that he drink! She's also speaking Cantonese :)

Hand holding

Last weekend, Natalie visited her cousins Vanessa and Victoria at Lisa Yee-yee's house. They went swimming and, on the way home, they held hands. Look at the cute cousins' train below :)

Can you tell which one is Natalie? It's small, medium, big. (Hint: Natalie is medium.)


It's really great to see them getting along and playing together :)


Sometimes, now that Natalie is so communicative, it's easy to forgot how little she is!

Self love

Natalie loves looking at herself. During dinner time, Clark turned the camera on and faced the screen to Natalie. She loved it! Here are two videos:

Video 238 - Watch Natalie as she watches herself in the video camera. She talks a lot now and her favourite question is: "What's that?" She asks it over and over and over and over and over again and again and again. Clark is so patient.

Video 239 - Here is another video. This time, Natalie is happily showing off her "corn nut" to the camera. And then she eats it and asks, "Where'd it go?". She also corrects Clark when he sings "Elmo's world" and says "Barney's world" instead.

Gymboree

After a few months hiatus, we finally returned to the Gymboree during free play time. It was great! Natalie's friends Summer and Max were there as well. Below are a few pics:

Natalie warming up. She sat here for five minutes watching the other toddlers play before joining in.


And then she was climbing and playing and exploring on all the equipment.


She jumped on the trampoline.


She climbed up and down on a rocker (she did this a few times).


She slam-dunked some balls.


Although the basket was only 2 feet off the ground :)

All in all, we had a great time!

Yay!

More ABC's

Here is another Video 237 of Natalie singing the ABC's. She has improved her singing (there's actually different tones now!) and knows almost the complete alphabet by herself. The only thing is, sometimes she still mixes the letters around. Also, you can see she's a cheeky monkey now!

Elmo Love

Natalie received this new Elmo doll from Uncle Hanh who was visiting from New York.

Natalie's eyes became super wide when she saw it for the first time and, since "Ba-ba Elmo" arrived (that's her name for this Elmo because he's bigger than all of her Elmo dolls), he has become her definite all-time favourite. Not only does she exclusively sleep with him (before she used to choose from among 4 or 5 different other Elmos and bears), but she also hugs him when she watches Elmo's World and plays with him even when not sleeping.

Natalie is focused and intent while watching Elmo's World.

She still only gets a few minutes of tv a day and loves every minute of it.

We think she likes this Elmo better because he looks like the "real" Elmo (fuzzy hair).

I love dancing, Mommy

This morning, Natalie told me to wake up. As I was trying to open my eyes, I saw her moving her arms beside me and suddenly, she said, "Ah love danshing, mom-mee!" (I love dancing). It was really cute!

See Video 236 of Natalie dancing on the toilet. When asked what she's doing, she proudly says that she's pooing and dancing! Later, she tries to tell me she's making circles but when I ask if she's saying "soccer", she kindly agrees and adds "soccer ball". Very considerate :)

Ethan

Natalie loves hanging out and playing with her friend Ethan. She's become much more interactive with other children. See Video 235 of Natalie putting cream on Ethan's face. He has the cutest giggle! Also, she's learned to say "stop it" from Ethan and says it all the time now.

Also, below are photos from their visit to the park recently.

Here is Ethan climbing up on the park equipment. He's a good climber!


While Ethan was busy exploring the park, Natalie was busy blowing bubbles.


She can dip the wand into the soap herself.


And blow a stream of bubbles out.

It's her favourite thing to do at the park.

Later, Ethan wanders over to check out the bubble-making.

Natalie kindly offers Ethan her wand to blow some bubbles of his own.

It's so cute to watch them playing together.

Ethan gives Natalie a pat on the arm to say thank you and wanders off. He much more interested in running around and exploring the equipment.

In order for Natalie to get some exercise, we take away her bubbles and put them on the side. She climbs up the stairs and does her second favourite thing... hanging and swinging like a monkey.

She can swing really high now. She swings until she's almost upside-down!

Natalie is amazed by something else she sees...

It's Ethan hanging like a monkey... by himself!

He was so strong and could hold for several seconds without holding on to anyone.

Good job, Ethan!

Natalie also discovered a new way to go down the slide... on her belly!

She and Ethan were sooo cute together!


Here they are sitting together at the bottom of the slide.

Later, Ethan discovers how fun it is to play with a stationary, blue, metal bar. He pulls and tugs on it, but for some reason, it doesn't move at all.

Natalie comes by to spend some time with her friend.

And while there, she decides to take a break using the blue bar as a convenient seat. It's the perfect height for her short legs.

Ethan, tired from trying to move the bar decides to take a break, too.

So they sit together for a while.

Uh oh... until Ethan falls and gets stuck! Help!

Ethan is quickly rescued.

You can see it was a really hot day (but not too sunny). Natalie and Ethan were sweating.

Later, when it's time to leave, Natalie goes to Ethan and takes his hand to lead him out of the park. Awww...