Chilling at Ching Bu's

And now back to our program of pics from Taiwan and Carol & Dave's wedding :) On Sunday, we spent half a day chilling at Ching Bu (Natalie's great-grandmother)'s home in Taipei. It was great to spend time with family and (we like to think) everyone loved Natalie. No seriously, she was totally cute and energetic, hamming it up for everyone (and was totally exhausted later and napped for two hours).

Natalie loves pens and spoons and forks and chopsticks. She prefers playing with anything that's long and pointy, preferably made of hard material like plastic or wood. Ya, she likes to live on the edge.


Natalie really enjoyed playing with this box. Putting things in, taking them out.


In goes the pen.


Natalie smiling and encouraging all the adults to play with her. She'll pull herself up to standing position and then cruise over closer to them and smile and babble.


More pen action. She won't let it go.


Natalie hamming it up for the adults. You can see them all smiling and laughing at something she just did.


Cutie patootie taking a break on the floor. All that standing can be tiring.


And she's up again. This coffee table is the perfect height for her.


Natalie discovers the toy drawer. This drawer had gone through two generations of Wang family babies and is filled with all sorts of different knick-knacks and toys for Natalie to play with. This keeps her busy for over twenty minutes (almost a new record).


While going through the drawer, Natalie held onto this one (notice it is long, pointy, and made of plastic).


Natalie playing mahjong with her Yeh yeh.

Who knew tissue waving could be so fun?

We interrupt the coming photos from Taiwan with a brief video taken earlier today by Lisa Yee-yee. Watch Video 115 where Natalie is having tons of fun waving around two tissues with her cousin Vanessa. She's really happy to be able to do what her big cousin can do!

Breakfast on Daddy

This weekend, we were in Taipei for Carol and Dave's wedding celebration. We stayed at the fabulous Grand Formosa hotel which came with our favourite things... breakfast buffet! There are tons more pics to come, but here are a few to start with Natalie chilling on her Daddy at the breakfast buffet. It's a series and you can see she's become much more interactive and will actually yell and smile to get people to look and play with her. She also hams it up for the camera.

Hanging out with family

Since Tracy started work again, we've really missed having Lisa, Vanessa, and Vicky over. So on Sunday, they came over and all the bubs hung out together.

The bubs chilling with Lisa.

The bubs with Tracy

Lisa with Victoria and Natalie.

Tracy with Natalie and little Vicky. Natalie is looking at her cousin's little tiny feet.

Victoria doing baby exercises. Work those abs!



Natalie loves her little cousin and always has a lot to say whenever she's around.


I'm trying to take a picture of Victoria when Natalie's hand gets in the way.


Victoria's feet are sooooo small compared to Nat's. So cute!


Vicky is a cutie.


Saved the best photo for last. Doesn't Vicky look surprised. Look at the little chin.

Natalie and Vanessa

Natalie is very curious about her cousin Vanessa. She follows her and watches what she does. She tries to play with the same toys Vanessa does, and copies her. We think she is trying to learn from her older cousin. Here are some pics of them hanging out together (below).

Also, Natalie is very good at giving people things. But if you take it from her, you must either do something interesting with it or give it right back. We've figured out that Natalie only gives people things to see what they do with it. Then she'll hold out her hand so she can get it back and try to do what you did with it. For example, her daddy Clark puts the phone to his ear and says "Hello? Hello?" and she will take the phone back and put it next to her head. So I'm not sure we should all be saying "Thank yoooo Naataaaleeee!!" with so much enthusiasm whenever she gives things to us because really, we are her science experiment.

Natalie watching Vanessa playing with her new walk-aid toy. Notice the green toy in Natalie's hand.


Vanessa trying to get Natalie to wear a bucket hat. We can't even get Natalie to wear a normal hat. As you can probably guess, Vanessa didn't have much luck with the bucket hat.


Three babies together. As usual, Natalie is watching Vanessa. And she is still holding the green toy.


Uh oh, somehow Vanessa got the green toy. Vanessa is only holding the toy and it's not very interesting so of course Natalie wants it back.


But Vanessa won't let go of the toy so Natalie starts to cry.


Natalie bounces up and down in frustration. Vanessa is quite fascinated when Natalie cries. And she refuses to let go of the toy.


Later, we bring out more toys so there's enough to go around and the bubs are happy again. Kind of. Natalie still wants the green toy. We give a blue toy to Vanessa because blue is her favourite color and peace reigns again (at least for a little while).

All Babies Birthday Party

Natalie celebrated her first birthday party ever at the JWT gym with our mommies group joint 1-year babies' birthday party! We had so much fun playing on the equipment, singing songs, and munching on pizza and cupcakes we were totally pooped afterwards. Even the dads got in on the action :) But we only managed to catch a few photos before our battery gave out on us. If other mommies and daddies took photos, we'll post the link up once we have them.

Natalie chilling on the soft carpet. She's just warming up.


Natalie being greeted with applause by all her little friends. Her mouth falls open in amazement as she stares at all below her. Are they all clapping and waving at me?


Enjoying a dip in the ball pool with her friends. Can you find Natalie?


There she is! This angle is a little better. Here she is frolicking with her friends Becky, Stella, Sienna, Nana, Holly, and Parker.


Natalie in the tunnel. She was a little hesitant to crawl in by herself. (BTW, that's a string hanging in front of the camera, in case you're wondering).


But what's a girl to do when your parents put you inside? Natalie didn't mind at all. She just chilled, explored a little and when she was done, she crawled right back out :)


Here are a couple more pics courtesy of little Becky and her mum and dad (from their blog). Thanks!

Just the mummies and babies for the cupcake and candle blowing ceremony.


Group shot of all the babies and mummies and daddies together.

Cafe Deco with Yehyeh and Nainai

On Sunday, we went to Cafe Deco champagne brunch with Yehyeh and Nainai. We ate sooo much food. Natalie did, too. She loves to feed herself now.

Natalie aggressively eating a melon piece.


Natalie is happy to be out. See her "performer's" smile (she's a real ham now!).


Natalie with her Nainai. Like twins!


Yehyeh watching and playing with Natalie in the play area.


Nainai with Natalie in the play area.

Evana's Moon Yuet

On Sunday, we went to Evana Jang's (or Evang Jang?) moon yuet. She is one month now and a real cutie.

Tracy with the sleeping Evana. Look at the round face. She's a good mix of her mommy and daddy.


The Wang family with baby Evana. Natalie is more used to little babies now that she's been around her baby cousin Victoria so much.


Natalie is like a giant compared to little Evana. Even tho Evana is a little closer to the camera, look how long she is compared to the little baby!


Natalie wearing auntie Michelle's colourful bracelet. So pretty!


Natalie with auntie Michelle. The bracelet fits much better on her.