How to hold a pen, pencil or crayon

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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!