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On May 25, we went with friends to Top Deck on Jumbo for Jackie (JC)'s birthday. We were outside ALL DAY from 11:00am - 6:00pm. Tracy had to run to dragonboat practice for a couple hours, but otherwise, we didn't move from the table at all. Natalie was so well behaved, just like a little lady, and she gave her daddy a 2-hour break when she napped in her stroller. Below are pics from the day.Cutie patootie holding a piece of lemon. We know Natalie's full when she stops eating and all the food we give her becomes mushy toys instead.
Somewhere, somehow, Natalie has learned point her little finger at things that either interest her and she wants us to give it to her, or to where she would like us, her ever obedient slaves, to bring her. Here she is pointing at her ever-favourite the camera. This is pretty much the only thing she can't touch.
Natalie chilling out with Uncle Kevy.
Natalie hanging out while her daddy takes more picturs. That piece of lemon is officially becoming a piece of mush.
Natalie's happy little smile. It was a good day out.
Natalie running her little nails along the material of the sofa. It makes an interesting sound! Look at those strong, muscle-bound arms. Those little biceps are deceptively stronger than they appear.
Natalie laughing at the table of adults who are playing with her. All-in-all a great day to be outside. And don't worry, Natalie was mainly kept in the shade so she hardly tanned at all.
With her enrollment in Kindermusic, Natalie also has unlimited access to the play area downstairs in the QQ Club Center. It's sooo convenient because it's located literally just downstairs from us. She goes at least once every week to hang out and play with the toys there. They mainly have lots of toy cars (like those pictured below) and a reading center with lots and lots of books. The books are mainly the paper variety though, and we don't trust Natalie to quietly read them without (accidentally, of course) tearing out a few pages here and there, so for now, she really enjoys playing with the more durable cars; walking and pushing them around, and sitting on them and checking out all the little buttons and knick-knacks and do-dads. See Video 121 of Natalie walking while pushing the car. She pushes it for a little bit and then I think she wants to sit down on it, but can't figure out how, so instead, she pushes it back the other way. In the end, we help her back on and she plays with the buttons for a while.Below are pictures of Natalie on her current favourite car.
Natalie is starting to really "talk" now and is experimenting with new syllables and stringing them together. Her favourite word so far is "da do!" She says this over and over and over again every day. We're still trying to figure out what it means, but I suspect Natalie is saying "Thank you!" because that's what we say to her A LOT, especially when she gives us things or when she "maht day" or when she hi-5's us or when she kisses us (which she can now do with a delayed kiss sound by putting her head against our head and then pulling away and doing a high-pitched "smkkt!" sound with her mouth). Clark's not so sure and thinks it might be something else. I still think it means "Thank you" because this morning, she was blowing kisses good-bye to me through the gate and after she blew a kiss, she said "da do" so I'm pretty sure because whenever I blow a kiss to her and she blows a kiss back to me, I always say "Thank you", hence she would say "da do" (pronounced dah-doh). Also, every morning when Natalie wakes up in our bed (we bring her over to sleep with us whenever she wakes up in the middle of the night) she'll sit up in between us and start chatting to her sleepy (and sometimes still sleeping) parents. She may smack Clark in the face a few times to get his attention, or pull my hair. And of course, when we look at her groggily and mumble to her "What's up, Natalie?" she'll look at us and say "Da do".Lisa Yee-yee passed on this really nice family photo of my parents (the grandparents) with their three grand-daughters Vanessa, little Vicky, and Natalie.
Today Natalie, her mommy and daddy, her cousin Vanessa, auntie Lisa and auntie Carol all went for a dip at the four seasons hotel pool. We had great weather (not too sunny, not too cold) and it was the perfect opportunity to try out Natalie's floater swimsuit (with foam pad inserts all along the body) and Vanessa's life jacket. Tracy was a little under the weather so didn't swim as long as the others, but she did enjoy the heated pool. Watch a brief Video 120 of Natalie and Vanessa swimming.Natalie keeping her head above water. She was awesome in the water and didn't seem to mind at all when water got on her face. It was a bit chilly at first, but she's wearing three layers!
Natalie going for a swim ride on her Daddy's back. She likes it!
Natalie and a cute little pout. How come my swimsuit's so bulky! 
Natalie posing with her daddy. Look at the great view behind them.
\Auntie Carol and Natalie with Daddy Clark swimming in the middle of the pool. Mommy Tracy sits on the side and takes pictures.
A bit of water on the lens, but you can see still how much fun Lisa, Vanessa, and Carol are having. Vanessa was a real star in the water today. She loved it and was kicking and splashing water. Her life jacket is a perfect fit.
Carol laughing while Natalie hangs out.
Natalie, Carol, Vanessa, and Tracy. Vanessa's expression is hilarious, very cute :)
The kiddies love playing with Mr. Frog. If you wind him up, he kicks his legs and swims around the water. 
Daddy Clark underwater while holding Natalie. Natalie is holding Mr. Frog.
Natalie is out of her bulky-but-safe floater swimsuit while relaxing in the warmer waters of the jacuzzi. The bubs all had a dip in the jacuzzi to warm up after swimming the cooler waters of the bigger pool.
Vanessa closing her eyes in anticipation of a big splash. Not much happening here, but look at the water movement we captured.
Watch Video 119 of Natalie waking her daddy and reading.When Clark closes his eyes and puts his head down, Natalie will crawl over and smack him on the face. We know we shouldn't be encouraging her, but we find it hilarious! Not sure how or when she learned this, but she did it a few times before we finally decided to take out the camera so you only see her do it once more. Also in this video, we think that all the time we put in reading to her is paying off. Watch her select books from the bookshelf and start flipping through her current favourite bedtime book. We hope Natalie will grow up to enjoy reading books.
Natalie is so sweet and peaceful when she sleeps. It's been a while since we last took pics of her sleeping. Here she is:
When you buy a toy for Natalie, you never know if she'll really like it or not. She has her own way of deciding what toys are fun and worth her time. Which is why we love it when she likes playing with a regular "house-hold" object. Watch Video 118 of Natalie concentrating and then giggling while playing with a green bottle cap. She likes to take it off, then put it back one, then take it off, then put it back on...
As is already well documented, Natalie loves to eat. But we didn't know she would eat just about anything until we gave her a slice of lemon yesterday. Watch Video 117 of Natalie happily munching away at a lemon slice. She even makes the "whoa, this is sour!" face, and then keeps going. 
Have you noticed how kids have feet that look too big for their bodies? Kind of like puppies who have big floppy ears and huge paws. Eventually, they grow into them. Natalie's feet have grown a lot. We still remember when they were little chicken nuggets and now they are more like hashbrowns.Also, today we also took Natalie's measurements for a custom dress that's being made for her. She is now 28" tall with a 19.5" waist and 10" in seam. So it may sound like her legs are only 1/3 of her body (definitely not model proportions). But an interesting thing to notice is that she is only 21" from shoulder to feet which means her head and neck are 7"! 
Watch Video 116 of Natalie copying Lisa Yee-yee and her Por-por by stomping her feet on a flashing toy. She also gives her crying baby cousin Vicky lots of loving kisses. Below are a few more photos of Natalie being cute :)Watching her daddy making bagels. Is it just us or are her eyes getting bigger?
When Natalie laughs, she has a shy giggle where she lowers her head and waves her hands around.
Over the past three days, Natalie has been a very grumpy and unhappy baby. She had a low fever, runny nose, lots of drool, diarrhea, and often sat around with big tears in her eyes while making whimpery noises. She was not sleeping well and kept biting her lip (see below pics). Finally, we have confirmed she has two more teeth coming down from the top bringing the total of 4 top + 2 bottom = 6 teeth! But it's been a rough few days for her, poor girl. Natalie biting her lower lip to ease the pain of teething. Note the tear-filled eyes. She was really miserable for a while.
There wasn't much we could do except for the occasional shot of baby Tylenol to ease the pain and lots of hugs and cuddles.
While in Taipei, Natalie was on the bed, face-up, about to get a bottle when she looked up over Tracy's head to the ceiling and said, "Bah rooo!" Tracy looked up and saw 2 helium, heart-shaped balloons we had taken from Carol & Dave's wedding floating over us. Like all kids, Natalie seems to like balloons (at least for a little while). Somehow, while playing with the balloons, Natalie manages to get them get them wrapped around her leg. Natalie and her new friends, the bah-rooos.
Natalie loves looking out windows and watching people and cars go by.
The balloons are lifting up Nat's dress in the back. We see London, we see France, we see Natalie's... diaper.
