Nainai and Yehyeh

Nai-nai and Yeh-yeh were in Hong Kong with us for two weeks and it was so great for us to all spend time together, especially over the Christmas holidays! 

Ashley got extra love and attention from her Nai-nai and Yeh-yeh while they were here.  Thank you for helping to care for Ashley at night, especially when everyone was sick. 

There was a noticeable improvement in Natalie's Mandarin while Nai-nai and Yeh-yeh were here. It's amazing how easily she can flip between English and Mandarin and she's great at helping to translate for me, too!

After watching Junior MasterChef Australia, Natalie is more open to learning how to cook and she had the chance to wrap her own dumplings with Nai-nai.  The fried dumplings on the right are Natalie's own creations. 

Ashley really enjoyed her new bed of Yeh-yeh's comfortable arms and listening to his low, soothing voice.

We hope you are enjoying your trip and see you soon!

Christmas Time

So what did we get up to over the Christmas holidays this year?  Photos and videos below:

Video 420 - Lauren is only two years old and just beginning to get her first real taste of Christmas.  Here she is happily receiving presents from "Santa Claus" (really just her uncle Dave dressed up).

Video 421 - On Christmas Eve, listen as Natalie explains what needs to be done to prepare for Santa's arrival that night.

We went shopping (of course!) and briefly watched the Christmas performance at CityPlaza mall.

 We visited my office where we took a family photo (sans Ashley) with Santa - ho ho ho!

While at State Street, Natalie got to participate in various crafts and, in her own words, "I didn't have a good time. I had a GREAT time!"

Lauren also got to do some crafts with Clark's help.

Natalie had a Christmas celebration with her class. Below photos were sent from her teacher via What'sApp.

On Saturday, Dec 22, we had a Christmas party and dinner at Lisa Yee-yee's house. We had a visit from "Santa Claus" (uncle Dave) who handed out presents. 

Natalie had her nails painted in honor of the Christmas parties we were attending. Here she is showing off her pink nails with white flowers.

While at Lisa Yee-yee's, Natalie decorated gingerbread cookies from Annie Yee-yee. 

On Christmas Eve, Natalie was very excited to help prepare everything for Santa Claus, including leaving him milk, snacks and a note.

Lauren wore her new fleece jacket from Amy and Dave. Thanks Changs!

On Christmas Day, Carol, Nicholas and Michael came over to spend some family time together. Nainai and Yehyeh were with us as well (more photos to come on that).  It's so great to spend Christmas with family!

We enjoyed a Christmas lunch of turkey, stuffing, gravy, mash potatoes, grilled veggies and home-made cranberry sauce. Yum!  

And of course we opened the presents from "Santa". Natalie was super excited to receive the gift she had written to Santa about - the Mimi's bag dollhouse. She also thinks Mrs. Claus did a great job helping Santa to pick a gift for Lauren.

What did Ashley do for Christmas? She did her usual thing... sleep through!

Cousins Rave

We finally downloaded some photos from our "real" camera (not iPhone quick snaps) and found images from the past few months on it. More to come! For now, below are photos from the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival on October 1, 2012.  We bought glow sticks for the kids and they had a great time playing with them.

Natalie, Lauren and their cousins Vanessa and Victoria playing with glow sticks.

They created wearable glow sticks of bracelets, anklets, necklaces and belts.

It was so much fun playing together in the dark playroom in our apartment.

Later, a slow shutter speed captured "light art" created by the kids. .

All four waved bracelets and anklets around in the air to create "light flowers"

Here, Natalie, Lauren and Vanessa put on a light show.

Cousins' rave scene!

Natalie wore red and blue bracelets and created purples circles. 

Vanessa wore bracelets, anklets and a necklace and jumped up and down.

She also made a light butterfly with her bracelets.

Not sure who this is, but looks very cool!

Victoria made Olympic rings by linking several glow circles together.

Natalie's School Performance

Today Natalie's school had their Christmas school performance.  Clark, Nai-nai and Yeh-yeh attended the event and said Natalie made them proud. After the event, they had a small celebration in the classroom.  Photos and videos below:

Video 418 - Natalie did such a great job learning the choreography and dancing along with her classmates to the song Jake and the Neverland Pirates. It was a long dance sequence and the entire class remembered it so well.

Video 419 - Watch and listen as Natalie sings and actions various Christmas songs at her school performance earlier today. Well done, K3E class!

Natalie seated while she and her classmates wait for their turn in the spotlight.

Lining up as they prepare for their performance. Natalie looks excited.

After the show, the little performers line up on stage for the parental moss pit paparazzi.

As a hundred flashbulbs go off at the same time... smile!

Later at the in-class party celebration, the kids feasted on corn, bread, chicken wings and juice. Here Natalie poses with her food and Nai-nai.

Natalie with Nai-nai and Yeh-yeh.

Natalie is her pretty costume with her teacher, Li Laoshi.

Getting fatter

Newborns really aren't that interesting. All they do is sleep (most of the time), cry (briefly, if you're lucky), drink milk and fill their diapers. Another thing they do quite well is grow and get fatter :)

See the double chin forming? Here Ashley holds her Ba-ba's fingers.  Her hands are still pretty small compared with his thumb.

Another sleepy grin from Ashley.

The chubby cheeks are also coming in.

You'd be grumpy and confused too if you had to wear a hat that's two sizes too big.

Ashley giving us attitude. "Girlfriend, I know I be looking fine in this pink sweater."

This Past Week

Video 417 - Lauren understands more and more everyday and has become very playful. Here she is doing a war-like cry with her Ba-ba Clark.

With two cribs (one in the living room and one in our bedroom), it's easy to keep an eye on Ashley who continues to sleep pretty much all the time. It's become a bit chillier. Here she is with a hat on in the small crib.

Ashley has become chubbier - her cheeks and double chin have begun to emerge :)

As she continues to grow, her smaller clothes no longer fit and we've been moving her to bigger sizes. Here is a super cute outfit from the Dangs.  Thanks JC and Que!

Last week, we signed Lauren up for swimming lessons at Standford Swim School. It was a big FAIL as she cried at the teacher and refused to get in the water.  

Me and my Wang girls. 

The Wang sisters are pretty in pink :)

On Friday, the girls checked out the gigantic lego exhibit at Times Square. Natalie loved the Santa lego man. There was so much to see the girls kept pointing things out to me and saying "Look!"

The girls peer out the lego house windows.

Serena Yee-yee also came for a visit on Friday.  Here she is posing with Ashley (and also Natalie and Lauren's legs).

So great to see you Serena Yee-yee!  Thanks for coming by!

On Saturday, Lauren had her K1 interview at KCS.  It was an EPIC FAIL because she refused to talk or interact with the teacher. Here she is in the play area waiting for her turn.

Natalie came along, too. This is the "waiting area" at the school. Can you spot the two sisters?

Here they are playing in one of the toy houses. Lauren screamed and cried at a little boy that tried to help her open and close the windows she had already claimed for herself.