Football Club

Today, I took Natalie to the football club to hang out in the kids room while daddy Clark played a few rounds of squash. It's a fantastic kids room with bright colors, padded floors, lego walls, a ball pit, and more! As usual, Natalie was happy to be out and was very curious and wanted to get her little hand on everything.

When we first arrived, it was quiet, but later on, more kids came in to play and Natalie loves watching other kids play. At one point, while Natalie was standing at the lego wall, another little girl (maybe a few months older) stood next to Natalie and said "Oo ba looo la?" and Natalie replied "Da doh deek DEEEEK!" (very loudly and excitedly). The other girl kind of nodded and toddled away. It was very cute.

Below are pics from our time there (courtesy of my camera phone):

Natalie playing on the lego wall. As you can see, there are no lego pieces on the wall. Natalie prefers hanging onto the side of the bucket and picking out lego pieces and throwing them on the ground.


Natalie looking curiously into the ball pit before bravely diving in. At first, she didn't quite know what to make of it. And then, after watching another toddler happily playing, Natalie started waving her arms around and throwing balls around.



Natalie misbehaving. No climbing, Natalie!


Natalie playing house. She peeks out to check out what the other kids are doing.


Natalie hanging out with her daddy inbetween his games.

Phuket!

This weekend, we went to beautiful Phuket, Thailand to celebrate Jackie and Que's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and the whole Wang family enjoyed lots of fun in the sun. It was Natalie's first time to a "tropical resort" destination. We really wanted to see how she would fare on the beach and, although she loves the sun and water, she's not very fond of sand. In fact, every time we tried to put her down on the sand she keeps her little legs tucked in and will cry if any sand touches her at all. Natalie also kept very busy pointing out "woah woah" (dogs) and "baah" (birds) and "baah" (inflated water toys). All in all, a great trip! Below are photos from the trip. Videos to come soon.

We've arrived! It's 11:00pm and all the fuss with customs and immigration has woken the sleeping beauty (she was a star on the plane and slept almost the whole way there).


Our hotel room. Natalie fell asleep in the hour-long taxi ride to Evason Hotel. We put her down like this before unpacking and settling in.


The next morning, right on schedule, Natalie woke us up at 6:00am. We stumbled out of bed and went for breakfast.


Next to the eating area was a pond with lots of lilypads and real frogs hopping around on them and tiny tadpoles just below the surface.


Natalie in her highchair. All of us ate very little while in Phuket... it was too hot!


Natalie proudly displays her yoghurt moustache.


After eating, Natalie walked around the buffet area. Everyone loved her... she waves "hi" to people, smiles and laughs and blows kisses to them.


After breakfast, we head out to the private island. It's 15 minutes away by small, scary boat. Natalie didn't enjoy the boat ride (the engine was really loud).


Nap on the beach.


We pulled a mattress off the lounge chair and put it on the sand just in case she rolled over.


While Natalie sleeps, the parents play!


We went snorkeling, played with the underwater cameras (yes, we bought another one) and swam in the ocean.


Natalie wakes up. Look at those droopy, sleepy eyes.


Natalie loves the water. She'll smack the surface of the water with her hands and say "blah!" (splash!)


Back at our hotel room, we had lunch via room service on our balcony. Natalie ordered the mac n' cheese from the kids menu.


Yummy mac n' cheese! That's a lot of mac n' cheese!


Natalie watching intently while her Daddy helps her finish her mac n' cheese.


Later that day, we head to Jackie and Que's wedding. It was a beautiful (and fun!) wedding.


Tracy and Natalie at the wedding.


The next day, we went to hang out in the family pool with friends. Here's Tracy, Natalie, and Vanessa. Natalie looks grumpy here, but she really enjoyed the pool. We can sit her on the ledge by herself (and count her down to 3) and she'll launch herself into the water (and into our arms).


Here we are again.


Li-meng, Clark, Vanessa, Kevy, Tracy, and Brad. Can you find Natalie?


After swimming, we relaxed.


No, we don't want to go!


Natalie with her daddy, saying Bye to Phuket.

A relaxing afternoon at Top Deck

Tuesday was a public holiday in Hong Kong. Not only did we visit the zoo in the morning, but we also enjoyed a very relaxing afternoon at Top Deck where we met up with Fabiano, Caroline and their daughter (Natalie's new friend) the very cute Serafina.

Natalie and Serafina are well-fed and now wandering around, out of their highchairs.


Here they are with their daddies. Natalie is still not brave enough to let go of her daddy's hand.


Serafina is a good little walker. She's so stable she can run, and even step over obstacles in her way.


Here she is running away and making sure someone is following her (it's like a game to her). Her poor parents are constantly chasing after her :)


Fabiano with the Serafina and Natalie. Natalie was so well-behaved and didn't cry when other people held her. Don't both babies look so well-behaved here?


What about here?

The Hong Kong Zoo

Today, we took Natalie to the free zoo located in Central, Hong Kong. Natalie was very excited to be out and was looking at the animals in open-mouth amazement. She's never seen anything like this before! See photos below:

Natalie was really excited to be out and about.


You can see how hot it is by the way my hair sticks to my forehead.


Close-up of Natalie staring at birds in the aviary. Look at how focused she is, trying to make sense of what she is seeing.


The Hong Kong Aviary.


Like father like daughter, staring at lemurs in their cages.


There are lots of lemurs at the Hong Kong zoo. There were also lots of little baby lemurs clinging to their moms (born in March or April this year). Very cute!


Natalie is really good at sticking out her tongue. She does it all the time and will sometimes even blow spit bubbles off it.


More walking. Look at the happy determination on her face.


Whew, getting tired. And we are moving sooo... slow. Her steps are still very hesitant and each step is about 1/4 the length of an adult's.


Staring at a huge orangutan sleeping upright hanging onto the cage.


The huge orangutan.


A sleeping alligator. It was so hot even the animals dozed off.


Chinese porcupine. Very cool looking animal.


There were a bunch of large turtles together in one cage. Some of them kept trying to climb on top of the other turtles and the other turtles were getting annoyed and running away. Natalie cried when we tried to put her down in front of the turtle cage. She likes looking at the animals, but is scared of being too close.


Not sure what these are... more monkeys?


Funny gorilla.