Cutie

Being in Sydney, it's been hard to update the blog because, although I have some photos saved from before that I want to share, I can't upload large photo sizes because of slow hotel internet connections. However, this one is quite small so, after several attempts... it works!! This is a very cute photo I really like because it captures how happy and sincere Natalie can be :)

Boo boo

Natalie had her first little boo-boo. It's a skinned knee. She was very brave and didn't cry, but she did tell us "Pain!" after she fell. We kissed it better for her and she was fine.

Disneyland!

We took Natalie to Disneyland for the very first time this weekend. We had great weather and, although there was potential for wafulness (the car had no batteries by the time we left!) a good samaritan helped us out and we left feeling great!

When the gates opened in the morning, we raced to line up and take photos with Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Here is Natalie getting a hug and kiss from Mickey.


Surprisingly, instead of being scared, she LOVED it! Mickey Mouse even played peek-a-boo with her.


Later, when she was telling Clark and others about her trip to Disneyland, we found out meeting Mickey was the highlight of her day. She also saw Goofy and Donald Duck, but didn't get the chance to take photos with them.


We went with Lisa and Vanessa and Victoria. They go to Disneyland all the time and are pros. They showed us around the place. Here they are taking photos with Mickey and Minnie, too.

The kids taking a short fruit break. It was sunny so everyone wore "princess" hats. Vanessa had a big Cinderella on her hat and Natalie had the 4 princesses.

Here are Lisa and Vanessa enjoying the merry-go-round. Vanessa is such a big girl riding by herself. Victoria loved it, too (riding in a car). Natalie cried.

The one thing Natalie really didn't like were all the rides. She tried the dumbo flying elephant ride and the merry-go-round and cried at both and told me they were "Scary!" and that she wanted "Down, Mommy, down!" The only ride she enjoyed was "It's a small world."

Later, exhausted, after eating rice and noodles, Natalie takes a nap in her stroller.

Vanessa loved ALL the rides! Here she is on another one with Lisa yee-yee, while Victoria and Natalie napped.

Natalie-isms

Natalie has become very good at reasoning! Here are some examples:

Natalie has finished her dinner and Clark is getting ready to meet friends for his dinner.
Clark: "Natalie, do you want to come with me to dinner or stay home with Ti-ti?"
Natalie: "I go with Ba-ba. I no hungry, I no eat."
She happily accompanies Clark to dinner, but doesn't eat.

Natalie and I are getting ready for bed and I tell her we can go see Mickey Mouse (Disneyland) tomorrow.
Me: "If it's a nice day, we can go. But if it rains, we can't go, ok?"
Natalie thinks about it and says: "If raining, I wear raincoat."
Me: "Um... yes, but Mickey Mouse doesn't like the rain."
Natalie: "Mickey Mouse no have rain coat?"

Clark and Natalie are on their daily, post-dinner walk.
Clark: "Natalie, where would you like to go?"
Natalie: "Go buy rubberband."
Clark: "Rubberband? What kind of rubberband?"
Natalie: "Natalie rubberband."
Clark: "What's a Natalie rubberband?"
Natalie: "For my hair."
Clark: "Oh! Why do you need a rubberband for your hair?"
Natalie: "Because I no have!" Clark has a sore throat and they have just returned home after their daily, post-dinner walk.
Clark: "Bye Natalie, I have to go see the doctor now. You stay home with Ti-ti."
Natalie: "I go doctor, too."
Clark (surprised): "Why do you need to go to the doctor?"
Natalie: "Because I coughing."
She coughs to demonstrate.

The next day, while out for a walk, Natalie is still coughing so Clark picks her up and rubs her back. She stops coughing.
Clark: "Do you feel better now?"
Natalie: "Yes, Ba-ba poh-poh (carry), I no cough."
Clark: "But you're not coughing now, so you walk."
He puts her down. Natalie coughs again.
Natalie: "Ba-ba, poh (carry me)! I coughing."

Look what we found in Natalie's toy box

The other day, while rummaging around in her toy box, Natalie removed some of her toys and then decided to climb in and have a seat.

"Natalie, are you a toy?" we asked her.


"Yes!" She said. "I'm a toy!"

Sorting letters

Natalie loves playing with a little alphabet puzzle. She can identify some letters and put the letters where they belong. Watch Video 255 of Natalie playing with her alphabet puzzle. At the end of the video, she says "P is for... poo-poo!". She stops sitting on the sofa because she really does have to poo!

(We are still keeping her in a diaper because when she is busy or distracted, she will still forget to tell us to put her on the toilet.)

Music video love

Watch Video 254 of Natalie totally mesmerized by the Black-Eyed Peas song "Boom Boom Pow". She loves dancing to this song, but when the video comes on, her mouth hangs open and she hardly blinks!

Cousins at the park

This past weekend, we had a playdate with cousins Vanessa and Victoria at Taikoo Shing Park. It is amazing there, with three separate parks divided by a little walk-way. As you can imagine, Natalie was super tired after chasing her cousins around all the equipment!

Vanessa and Natalie holding hands with Vivo Yee-yee on our walk to the park.


Natalie is now able to climb up onto some of the springy cars and animals by herself. When I try to help her, she says, "No, Mommy, I do myself!" She's really growing up!


She really loves to sit on these things, especially when she's tired from running around. (Me too!)


Natalie also really enjoys playing "driving" with all (and I mean ALL) of the steering wheels she can find. If it's really "fun", like this one in the train, she'll go back to the same one over and over again.

Victoria wanders over to say "Hi!" to Natalie.

Later, Natalie and Vanessa found this "twin" slide and decided to play one on each side together.

Natalie actually likes going down slides now. Sometimes she says a big "Yay!" after she makes it to the bottom.

Also, we laughed so hard because the static from the slide made her hair stand on end!

Here they go again. Natalie is laughing while watching Vanessa "swing like a monkey".

"Dennis yee-jurn, look at us go down the slide!" Natalie really really really loves playing with her older cousin Vanessa.

Here's another shot of Natalie's hair on end. It was sooo funny!

New Elmo Shoes

Natalie received a pair of Elmo Crocs for her birthday from Uncle Hans. Thanks Uncle Hans! They were a little too big for her to wear at first, but when we recently tried them on, they fit! Of course, she LOVES them. She wears them whenever she can (when we let her). Here are a few pictures of Natalie happily trotting around our area in her new crocs.


Natalie walking up and down steps by herself without holding anyone's hand or a railing. Her balance has gotten much better.


Natalie says, "Elmo can climb stairs!"


Whenever she runs, she also likes to tell us that "Elmo run so fast!"

She's also been getting a lots of attention from her cousins and people on the street who give her nice compliments on how beautiful her new shoes are.

Baby Shower

Natalie is going to have a new play-mate soon! Last weekend we went to Auntie Vee's (her name is Vanessa but we don't want Natalie to confuse her with her cousin Vanessa) baby shower. Natalie dressed up like a little lady and played with some other tots while there.

Natalie clutching a little pig mug she "won". She won it by being herself :)


This square flower vase filled with water and floating duck candles was the favourite "toy" of the day. All the little ones loved to play with it, even after all the duck candles were lit and their heads burned down.


Natalie posing with Auntie P ("P" for Priscilla, but she's Vanessa's sister so she goes by the initial, too).


Here is Natalie when we first arrived at the party. There were a lot of strangers around so she was more comfortable hanging with her daddy Clark and observing for the first few minutes.

Later she was brave enough to wander by herself.

They ordered 400 beautiful cream and yellow roses for the event!

These photos (stolen from facebook) were too pretty to pass up posting.

First ever report card

This week, Natalie received her VERY FIRST report card and she got checkmarks all the way down! We're so happy she's doing well in school! It was all in Chinese, but a friend helped to translate. Natalie can:

• Line up
• Push in her chair
• Say "good morning", "teacher" and "good-bye" in Mandarin
• Wash her hands independently after using the toilet
• Follow music, singing, and dancing
• Color and stamp and paint
• Have a good spirit during class

Just to name a few. Awww... so cute! I wish I could be a little fly on the wall in her classroom. We also got a call form the teacher who told us Natalie is doing well, that she used to be very shy and quiet but has been opening up more now. We're so proud!!

Natalie proudly displaying her first ever report card.


Look at all the check marks!

Natalie can sing the WHOLE Alphabet Song by herself!

Watch Video 253 of Natalie singing the entire alphabet song by herself! She gets a little impatient at the end and starts to sing faster.

More school photos

Look what we found! A collection of photos from Natalie's class. We discovered recently that Natalie's teacher has a facebook page, which is awesome. Of course we logged in right away and found lots of pictures of Natalie in the classroom. Here they are:

The kiddies sit here for story / song time. Don't they look so well behaved?


Here they are listening during "English" time. Every day, the English teacher comes in and speaks English to them for 20 - 30 minutes. Summer was a lucky girl today... she got to sit on the teacher's lap!


Every day, the students also participate in some "arts and crafts". This looks like like a colouring piece. Natalie is busy checking out Summer's work.


Here is another class photo. Aww... the whole class is really very cute together :)

Another day of English (you can tell it's a different day because the kids were allowed to wear their "normal clothes" to school (I think for "mid-autumn festival").

Natalie looks very attentive and eager here. We're sooo happy it looks like she's enjoying school!

Not sure what's going on here, but Natalie was picked out to be in the middle. I think they may be dancing!

Looks like they're supposed to copy the teacher. I think Natalie has her hands up. Yay, go Nat!

So cute, some of the students are holding hands with their little classmates!

School photos

I came across these photos from Lily's facebook album and stole them (Thanks Lily!) They're photos of Natalie in school with her very good friend Summer (and hopefully some new school friends, too).

The 3 adults are her teachers. I have spoken with all of them and they are all super nice. When I ask Natalie if she likes her "Lao Shi" she says, "Yes!"


Can you find Natalie? Summer is super cute with her hands in the air.


Every Tuesday and Thursday, the students have to wear their P.E. (physical education) uniforms and spend time in the playroom getting exercise. Natalie really loves playing with the toy cars, especially opening the door and climbing out and closing the door, and then re-opening the door, climbing in and closing the door (and repeat).

Getting new things

Like just about everyone, Natalie really enjoys getting NEW things (toys, clothes, etc...). She was really happy and excited to receive a new Dora backpack and a TON of new clothes from her Nai-Nai and Yeh-Yeh!

Watch Video 252 of Natalie opening her new presents (longer video approximately 5 minutes).