Sisterly Love

It's so great to see Natalie and Lauren getting along and playing together. Aww, sisterly love!

See Video 359 of the sisters playing together. With Suparti's help, Natalie waves a shawl over Lauren and both of them absolutely love it.

Father's Day

Natalie says to Clark today: "Baba, do you like the tie I made for you?"
Clark: "Yes, I love it!"
Natalie: "Then how come you don't wear it to work?"
Clark thinks about it: "Well... because I will be the only one to have such a nice tie and then everyone will want one, too."
Natalie (nodding thoughtfully): "Ya... and I can't make one for everyone because then I will be so tired."

More Lauren

Lauren is 8.5 months now. It's cliche to say, but time really flies! She's gone from a skinny, mewling newborn who only drinks milk and sleeps to a chubby, screaming baby who eats solid foods, sits up by herself and can play with toys.

Lauren happy after a bath. She loves to bathe and will cry when you first take her out.
Look at her thigh-to-calf-to-feet ratio. Those are some massive thighs, girl!

Although Lauren is pretty chubby, she's still much smaller than "The Beast" Michael who is 1 month older. Lauren with her hair carefully combed and parted to one side.
Looking handsome, babe :) The thigh-to-calve-to-feet ratio is pretty obvious here, too.
Lauren with her usual hairstyle back and an unusually shaped balloon.
She enjoys eating now, too, and will usually cry once the last bite is finished. We try not to feed her too much though as she tends to eat until she vomits!
Lauren with her little friend (also named Lauren). The other Lauren is just 1 month older than she is.

Lauren gives the toy corn a little nibble.
Nope, definitely a carnivore. This donkey is delicious. Sitting pretty in her exersaucer with her little hat. Her onesie reads "Mom thinks she's in charge". Both used to belong to big sister Natalie.

Happy or scared?

We tossed Lauren gently in the air to see if she would like it. We didn't even let go of her.

Is this the face of joy and excitement?

She liked it so much, we did it again.
(Ok, we admit we just liked her terrified expression.)

Headband sisters

Everyday Natalie tells me how much she loves her little sister. She likes to play with Lauren and make her laugh. It is super duper cute.

Natalie kindly lent Lauren her Hello Kitty headband while she donned her own pink flower one. They sat on the sofa and posed for some pictures together.

Here big sister Natalie is giving little sister Lauren a nice hug.
Look at how long Natalie is compared to her sister. It's really amazing how big she's grown!
The girls have a ball reading together, too. Natalie will turn the pages and show Lauren the new page. Then Lauren will grab the book and Natalie will say, "No, no, Lauren! If you grab the book, I won't read to you any more!"
More hugs and smiles.

The girls sleeping together.
They are so sweet together.
Natalie really is almost double Lauren's height.

"Lauren is short and I'm tall! Right?" says Natalie.

Natalie's 4th birthday party at Pizza Express

This Saturday, Natalie celebrated her 4th birthday party with family and friends at Pizza Express. All the kids put on chef hats and aprons and made their very own pizzas! Afterwards, we chowed down on pizzas and cakes. All-in-all, a great day. Thanks to everyone who came and for your birthday wishes to our little girl who is now officially a "kid" (and not a "baby" or a "toddler" any more).

See Video 358 of the "Happy Birthday" song.

See more photos from the party by clicking here.

The next round of Junior MasterChefs making pizzas.
Natalie's finished pizza. It was delicious! I'm actually eating a slice now as I'm typing this :)
Natalie and her cousins Victoria and Vanessa wore beautiful princess dresses to the party. The girls are decked out and ready to go!
The Wang Gang family photo during cake time. If Lauren looks grumpy, it's because I pulled her into the photo as she was getting ready to sleep, poor girl.
Sisterly love. Natalie gives Lauren a big hug at the party.

Hanging at home

It's very cliche to say, but kids really do grow up so quickly! Natalie continues to surprise us with how much she understands and Lauren, just 8 months old now, is pretty good at sitting up and also knows how to reach, grasp and play with toys already.

See Video 357 of Lauren sitting up and playing with toys.

Also see photos of both below.

Currently my favourite photo of Natalie and Lauren. They're so sweet together!

Natalie loves her little sister. Lauren always looks surprised.
Lauren sitting and playing with a selection of toys. Many of her toys are the same ones Natalie used to play with when she was a baby, too.

Natalie loves to wear dresses and will try to insist on only wearing dresses when we go out, when we stay home, and even to sleep!
Natalie and Lauren sitting on the couch together. This is from about 1 month ago and Lauren couldn't sit up by herself yet.

Big smiles!

Lauren sleeping. She loves to roll herself over to her tummy now.

Swimming it Wright

Natalie attends swimming lessons every Saturday at the Harry Wright Swim School at CDNIS and she loves it. She's already made a lot of progress over the past few classes, including jumping in by herself, putting her head underwater and propelling herself through the water. More importantly, she's becoming a lot more comfortable just being and playing in the water.

See Video 356 of Natalie kicking across the full length of the pool (almost) by herself with a frog-shaped flutter-board.

Photo of Natalie's swim school in action. She and Clark are in the center of the photo.

Lauren got a bit sleepy watching her big sis swimming and took a quick nap in the viewing gallery.