Tantrums

Natalie has learned the art of tantrum throwing. She's really good at it and will flail her arms, arch her back, throw her head back, and scream and cry and scream and scream some more. She can do this for a loooong time, too. It's hard to watch and we're sooo tempted to give in all the time. Where did she learn to do this? Not sure where it came from, but we're happy that at least this means she is becoming her own independent little person with her own thoughts, ideas, and opinions.

Today I found the long child sleeping on my bed. Hard to believe it's Natalie... she's grown so much!

Fun at Gymboree

Yesterday, Natalie, Por-por and I went to Gymboree during their free play time. Natalie was amazing! Usually, she will cling to my leg and suck her thumb for 15 minutes at the beginning while watching the other children play. Then, she will tentatively venture a little further away, but always keep an eye on her "home base". She also normally won't climb or go on any equipment but will pick up balls and wander around. But yesterday was a totally different story. As soon as she stepped into the play area, she took off to find her favourite balls. Then she was climbing and sliding and playing on the boat and other equipment... she hardly looked at me and was playing very independently. It was great to watch her in action (finally)!

Watch Video 155 of Natalie climbing and sliding on the equipment.
Watch Video 156 of Natalie sliding down the "slide". She loved it and Por-por had to lift her up again and again.

Natalie finally understands that to get through a "low" obstacle, she needs to crawl. Here she is crawling through the tunnel to Por-por.


That's her little feet and bum in her new jeans. That's Por-por at the end of the tunnel.


Natalie is now crawling through towards a little boy.


Actually, she only crawls in to retrieve her favourite toy... the ball.


More ball action happening. She was organizing the balls (again) but this time, she's also learned that she can flip the basket over and have the balls spill everywhere.


Some babies sat in the middle of the parachute while parents and other babies helped to fluff it up and down. Natalie loved it. When we tried to get her to fluff on the outside, she wanted to get back on the inside.


The other babies and adults leave to find other fun things to do. Natalie makes the "finished" sign. And we move on to other fun and games.


Natalie loved to stand on top of this plank and look down over her kingdom. She walked back and forth over and over again.


Natalie waves "hi" to me.


Here she is giving Por-por a huge. She can also say Por-por (it sounds like "poh poh").


Natalie crawling on the equipment. She's so smart and knows to duck her head to avoid hitting the ceiling.


Natalie sitting under the equipment watching other kids playing (this was near the end of the session and she was getting tired).


The little boy entices Natalie with an orange call.


Natalie laughing and playing along.


More laughing and screaming.


Natalie turns around to watch the other kids in the boat. Later, she joins them and we all sing "Row row row your boat". All in all, a great time!

Girly girl

Despite her lack of hair and her mommy making her wear blue clothes (while at home), Natalie is very much a girly-girl. She likes to carry around her pink hello-kitty "purse" (a cloth bag) and put things in and take things out and "shop" around the apartment. I find many interesting things in her purse, including her toys, my hair tie, my hairbrush, bits and pieces of tissue and paper and crayons.

Also, Natalie enjoys studying herself in the mirror. She's known for some time that the little baby staring back at her is actually herself (she will touch her face when I put stickers on it), but lately, she's taken her fascination with herself to a whole new level.

Watch Video 154.

Drawing with Daddy

As Natalie continues to grow up, we are noticing more personality and character traits about her. Watch Video 153 of Natalie drawing on her easel board with her daddy. First, notice she is right-handed and will always draw with her right hand. Second, she is starting to test her limits by throwing markers and trying to draw outside the easel (to which her daddy tells her "no-no"). And third, she is a very clean baby and is a little disturbed when she notices she has marker marks on her right hand. She needs the "dir-tee" to be wiped off before she continues to draw.

Half cute toddler, half... monster?

While Natalie was innocently munching on an apple slice the other day, I found these old funny socks at the back of my drawer and decided to put them on her.

Natalie standing there, wondering why I'm laughing so hard.


This is why...


I think they felt funny so she almost didn't want to walk around on them.


Another close-up. These actually fit me, too.

Merry-go-round

This one is a little old (from our August visit to Ocean Park). Watch Video 152 of Natalie not enjoying her first merry-go-round ride. She was a little over-whelmed and just wanted to get off.

Natalie looking anxious on the merry-go-round.

Magnets

Natalie loves to play with the magnets on Lisa Yee-yee's fridge. Every time we go over for a visit, she will spend at least 5 minutes removing magnets, sticking them back on, throwing them around, and re-arranging them.

Natalie wishes she were taller and could reach the magnets higher-up.

Reading together

Today, Por-por (Gramma Tong) and Carol and Lisa with Vanessa and Victoria came over to hang out. We had a nice playgroup together with the babies hanging out and reading together.

Por-por brought new books from Canada and distributed one to Vanessa and one to Natalie. Then they all sat down to read together.


Vanessa is so smart, pointing out the pictures to Por-por and Natalie.


Vanessa and Natalie quietly reading together.


And turning the pages.


Natalie looks up when I call her name.


Vanessa helps Natalie to identify objects in the pictures of her book.


Victoria hanging out in her sling. What a cutie!

Playing the Raisin Game

Like most toddlers, Natalie LOVES raisins. She can eat them all day and becomes very excited when she sees the raisin box. One of her favourite games is "find the raisin" where we extend our hands, fists closed and she will pick a hand one-by-one to find the raisin hidden in our hands. Watch Natalie play this game with Carol Yee-yee and Por-por in Video 151. Yesterday, Natalie learned to play the game herself by closing her little fists, too.

Our 1.5 seconds of fame...

Over the weekend, Natalie, Clark, and I attended the Baby Loves Disco event at Tribeca night club in Wanchai. It was a music-filled and actioned-packed day with a baby dancing competition and spray-painting and balloon animals and bubbles and more! We all had a great time, sipping baby-friendly mocktails and dancing with the other kiddies.

Also present at the event were photographers from local media and very nice articles were printed about the success of the event. Natalie is also in a couple pics... she's famous! Check out the Apple Daily article to see the photos (also below).

Natalie is the little girl in a white dress staring up in amazement at the bubbles shooting out from the bubble machine on the raised platform. That's me standing beside her, making sure she doesn't fall off the stage.


This is the mommy-with-baby dancing competition. Near the back and left of center, you can see Natalie's white dress (red trim on the bottom) and the back of her head. You can also make out Clark who has his hands up in front of him, encouraing Natalie to "Dance, dance!"

Natalie loves her new sofa chair

Lately, Natalie has really enjoyed perching on our knees when we sit with our legs crossed on the floor. Our knees are the perfect height for her because she's not sitting on the floor and she can get up and sit down herself easily.

Yesterday we went to Toys R' Us and bought Natalie her very own sofa. She loves it! She takes books out and will sit on the chair and flip through it and will stand up and sit down and stand up and sit down again. She also uses it as a handy step ladder onto our sofa. Below are some pics:

Natalie seated on her new sofa with book in hand.

She sits down and stands up and sits down and stands up. Hard to get a clear shot.

Here she is sitting down and reading.

Then she abandons her book and examines her chair a little more closely. She tries to move it around (it's made of light styrofoam).

She climbs up.

And up! You can see how happy she is with her new sofa.

Gymboree play

On Thursday, Natalie, along with cousins Vanessa and Victoria went to Gymboree for some free play time. Natalie is just starting to get used to being around other children again and was not very adventurous. She hung out with me alot and did not appreciate it when I tried to "encourage" her to climb up ladders or ramps. She also took the time to watch the other children play and even though she did not play around too much, I'm sure she's learning how-to play by observing.

Eventually, Natalie did wander away from me to... clean up! At home, I've been teaching her to "put back" things and when I point to certain objects, she will happily return things to where she got them.

Natalie spent about 10 minutes wandering around the play area collecting balls two at a time.


She would toddle back to this blue basket and deposit the balls inside. She wandered far and wide to find the balls and collected almost all of them.


Meanwhile, her big cousin Vanessa had a blast climbing and jumping on all the equipment.

Sleepy baby

Poor Natalie has been grumpy again with another molar coming out, this time on the top left side. This brings her teeth total to 10! She hasn't been eating or napping well, but yesterday she improved and was almost like her cheerful self again. She had a nice long nap in the afternoon. Below are some pics.

Sound asleep in her crib with her bum in the air.


It's her signature sleep move.


She likes having bedtime bear in the crib with her. Sometimes, she even hugs him when sleeping.


She's really long now. When she stretches out, she almost fills the length of the crib. We may need to upgrade soon!


Sometimes, Natalie will also take a short rest on her daddy Clark.

Fun at AMC

Natalie and I spent the entire afternoon at the Aberdeen Marina Club hanging out with Debbie and Olivia, Lily and Summer, Annie and Ethan, and little Jonathon. First was lunch at the Deck which was relaxing and great for chatting and catching up, followed by fun in the toddler play area (see below photos), followed by fun in the "big kids" area (fun for mums), and finally followed by a dip in the warm waters of the wading pool. Natalie was exhausted and fell asleep in the short ride home and ate a lot at dinner. Yay!

Yesterday, we had another day out and spent a very chill and relaxing time at Amanda and Becky's place along with Elena and Max, Anna and Noah, and Amy and Moorea. Natalie seems to really like hanging out with her little friends again :)

Natalie loves the ball pit. When I take her out to explore the other play areas, she'll toddle back and ask to be put back in it.


Natalie likes to throw the balls. They land a whopping one feet away from her.


Jonathon and Natalie try to peek over the platform. Air vents cause the balls to "float" leading to minutes of open-mouthed wonder.


Ethan joins in the fun with his cute smile.


Natalie blows a kiss to the camera.


Each of the babies went down the slide a few times... on their own! We lie them flat on their back (so their head won't hit if they fall back) and send them down. Most of them LOVED it... Natalie tried it 3 times, but was undecided.


View from the top of the slide.


After the toddler play area, we went upstairs to the "big kids" play area. Each of the moms jumped on a mat and slid down the big slide. Fun for the whole family!