More mandarin

Although Natalie doesn't speak mandarin with us at home, clearly she is learning quite a lot while at school.

See Video 332 of Natalie video chatting (and singing) with Nainai.

Also see Video 333 and Video 334 of Natalie singing even more mandarin songs with Nainai. Video-chat is great because Natalie really loves it and can use it to connect with her grandparents who all live in Canada.

Little Artist

Natalie has started to really enjoy drawing. We bought a little magnetized board for her and she carries it around with her everywhere and draws little pictures. We also bought her a big box of markers (5o colours!) which she loves and she has been using every day.

This is a picture of me and Lauren (according to Natalie). She always draws hair sticking straight up.

We love that we can now identify the things that she draws.

And this is her Christmas tree.

Funny face

Natalie loves squeezing her face to make funny faces. Here we are at breakfast the other day.

Squeeze! "Do you like my funny face?"

"Is it so funny?"

"Haha, I'm funny!"

Happy Lauren

Lauren has become a lot more smiley over the past few weeks. She's easily excitable whenever someone starts talking to her and will wave her arms and legs and smile and coo.

See Video 331 of Lauren smiling and playing with me.

School Christmas dinner party performance

Here's an oldie but goodie: Last month, Natalie's school held their annual school Christmas Party. The students and parents were invited to perform on stage.

Video 330 - Here is Natalie performing "Merry Christmas" in Mandarin with Clark. Can you find her among all the students? She's standing in the front and wearing a rainbow coloured outfit with a hood. Now can you find Clark? (He's the second tallest person on stage.)

Clark bringing Natalie up to the stage. Some lifting was required because they were a bit late getting up to the front.

He did a great job elbowing past all the other parents and kiddies and planting Natalie in the front and center of the stage.

Sweat head

Last week, Clark decided to roll Natalie up into a big burrito in our down blanket.

Here is Natalie the burrito. She was already a sweat-head from jumping off the sofa and onto a big pile of pillows and blankets earlier.

But she REALLY started to sweat in the hot blankets.

It's funny how kids work themselves into a big sweat just by playing at home.

Strong baby

Lauren is getting stronger every day. During tummy time, she can now hold her head up 90 degrees.

Also, see Video 329 of Lauren rolling over! She can only roll over from front to back and only in one direction, but it's a great start for a little 15-week old. Also, in the video, listen to how encouraging Natalie is to her baby sister :)

Two weeks ago, Lauren could lift her head this much. C'mon, baby, you can do it!

Good job, baby!

Yesterday, she could lift her head all the way up.

The world is so much more interesting this way!

Our girls together.

Natalie-isms

Me: "Natalie, that's enough lollipop. Please throw it away now."

Natalie takes it out of her mouth and tosses it in the nearest garbage bin.

She says: "Mommy, you know you can't eat too much candy or chocolate, right? Eating too much candy will break your teeth."

Clark: "Natalie, that's enough TV. Turn it off now, please."

Natalie obeys by climbing off the sofa and pressing the OFF button on the remote.

She says: "Ba-ba, you know you can't watch too much TV, right? Watching too much TV will break your eyes."

Clark is leaving for work. Natalie is quietly eating breakfast while watching some TV.

Clark: "Natalie, when I get to work, I will call you and you MUST turn off the TV, Ok?"

Natalie: "Ok, Ba-ba. Bye, have a good day!"

Clark gets to work and calls home. Suparti picks up the telephone.

Suparti: "Natalie, come talk on the phone. It's Ba-ba."

Natalie (heard by Clark in the background, along with the TV which is still on): "No! I don't want to talk to Ba-ba!"

Suparti: "Natalie, come talk to Ba-ba."

Clark hears Natalie coming to the phone. The phone hangs up.

I am feeding Lauren and realize I have left a chair in the middle of the living room. Natalie comes out from her room.

Me: "Natalie, can you please help me to put the chair back please?"

Natalie (looking surprised): "But I can't do it by myself. I'm just a kid!"

I am sitting at the computer and Natalie is sitting beside me eating blueberries. I take a few blueberries from her bowl and eat them.

Natalie: "Hey mommy, those are my blueberries."

Me: "Sorry, can I have just two more?"

Natalie graciously picks out two more blueberries for me.

Me: "Thanks for sharing, Natalie."

Natalie: "That's ok, but you can't have any more because eating blueberries will help me poo."

Natalie is in the bathtub playing with various plastic bowls and cups.

Me: "What are you doing?"

Natalie: "I'm cooking!"

Me: "Oooh, what are you cooking? It looks delicious."

Natalie: "I'm making tiramisu."

(She must have heard me mention how much I like eating tiramisu from before.)

Me: "Oh wow, I love tiramisu. Is it a dessert?"

Natalie (reproachfully): "No, Mommy, It's tirami-SOUP!"

Pizza chef

Natalie really enjoys cooking. She likes to pull a chair into the kitchen and stand on it to reach the counter while helping with various tasks to put our meals together. We don't let her near the stove or other hot appliances. Instead, she likes to wash vegetables, add dry ingredients into a recipe, hold ingredients we might need, or mix. This weekend, Natalie was the executive chef in the Wang kitchen as the head pizza-maker.

See Video 328 of Natalie putting toppings on our pizzas. She is super talkative now.

The final product. Yummy!

As you can see, we'd already devoured half our pizzas before remembering to take a picture.

Natalie happily eating her pizza. She only finished half her pizza because she likes to eat as she cooks.

Patience

It's amazing how patient Natalie can be for a 3.5 year old. Initially, she would do her best to play with Lauren, but didn't understand that a little baby needs a bit of extra time to respond. But now she's gotten the hang of it, she's great at cooing to Lauren and hanging around to make sure Lauren has time to focus and respond to her.

Natalie playing with Lauren.

When I try to take a video, Nat gets shy and stops. Here she's trying to tell Lauren to look and smile at the camera. Of course, Lauren just lies there.

Natalie says, "She's just a baby, she doesn't know!"

Interactive Lauren

Over the past couple weeks, Lauren has become more and more playful. When you look and speak to her, she gets really excited and starts waving her arms and legs around. Sometimes, she even tries to talk back, like in Video 327 where she gives us smiles and coos (don't mind my baby voice, please).

Lauren looking interested in everything I have to say.

Little smiles.

Lauren talking back to me. Her current favourite word is "goo".

Lauren looking confused when I talk to her in my "regular" voice.

Happy New Year!

Natalie says, "Happy New Year, Everyone!"

Natalie says, "Lauren can't say it. Lauren can't say anything, right?"