Our Weekend Stay-cation

This weekend, we booked ourselves into the Renaissance Hotel in Hong Kong for a relaxing "stay-cation". We had amazing weather (sunny and hot) and spent almost 4 hours in the pool on Saturday. It was perfect, we highly recommend it!

Clark and Natalie getting ready to hop into the water. It was hot and sunny, perfect for a day by the pool.

Natalie swimming with Clark. She's well protected from the sun via layers of sun block and a hat.


Natalie being playful trying to hug Clark and splashing him while I'm trying to take a picture of them.

Finally managed to snap a good one!


Natalie swimming with me.


Wang Gang family photo!


Natalie stayed in the pool for almost the full 4 hours. She LOVES to swim and is really comfortable in her little float-tube. And it's great exercise for her!


Look at the amazing pool. It stretches between the Renaissance Hotel and Grand Hyatt (it's a shared pool).


It really felt like a vacation! See Nat still swimming with Clark in the lower left corner.


There was even a waterfall.


And a great view of the harbour.


We managed to coax Natalie out of the pool for a few minutes with the promise of french fries. Here she is relaxing with Clark on a lounge chair.


We tried to get her to nap on the lounge chair, but she was having too much fun.

Here she is lounging with me.


Clark looking happy and relaxed during our stay-cation. It was a really nice get-away!


Natalie is really comfortable kicking around and splashing in the water by herself in her little swim tube. Of course, we keep a very, very close eye on her and we never let her swim more than a few meters away us.


Here is Clark pulling Natalie along (faster, Ba-ba!) across the length of the pool. It's a loooong pool and Clark got lots of exercise, too.


After swimming, with Natalie's fingers and toes turned into little prunes, we went to the really nice playground at the hotel (photos to come) where Natalie played with her cousin Nicholas. Nicholas and family joined us for dinner at the Golden Bauhinia where we feasted on peking duck among other yummies.

After a good night's sleep, here's a quick pic of our hotel room and the remains of our room service breakfast.


Natalie posing by the great view of the harbour from our room window.

All in all, a great stay-cation!

Graduation photo

And finally, to wrap-up the school year, here is Natalie's graduation photo. She is wearing the graduation gown and cap and looking very "mature". *sniff* We're so proud!

More School Photos

Natalie's teachers have posted the last batch of school photos from the 2009 - 2010 school year. Natalie really has had a lot of wonderful and different experiences while at school!

Students learn about cooking.


Here is Natalie playing with the water toys. She loves playing with water and enjoys bath time.


Group photo during "white" day. Approximately once a week, the students learn a new color and are asked to dress in that color (or bring a toy of that color) in to share with fellow students. Can you find Natalie?


Once a month, the students celebrate the collective birthdays of the students born in that month. During birthday celebrations, all students are allowed to wear "normal" clothes for the day instead of uniforms, and the birthday students have special hats they can wear.

Natalie and her classmates learning to fold and throw paper airplanes. Here's a great shot of Natalie in mid-throw. Looks like a good one! Look at the concentration on her face.

The students also did a lot of creative art work and Natalie frequently bought home her masterpieces to show us. Here she is painting something blue with scrunched up tissues.

One of the last "color" days at school was Rainbow Day. Natalie wore her blue dress with colorful butterflies on it.

Another pic from Rainbow Day.

And here is another birthday month. Yes, it's June! This time, Natalie is wearing the special birthday hat and gets to stand behind the birthday cake for the photo.

Here the students have made and put designs on their own foam hats. Natalie brought her hat home, but we haven't had a chance to wear it out yet.

More hat-day photos of the students mingling. I find these less-structured, more-chaotic photos quite cute!

On this day, students were asked to bring in healthy snacks to share to celebrate the last week of school. You can see all the delicious snacks on the table. Natalie brought in cut fruit to share with her classmates.

She's made so many great friends from school and we are still in touch with many of them. We hope to see them again next year in kindergarten!

Last Day of School

Friday was Natalie's last day of school. To me, this was a huge milestone because it means she has finished her very first full school year (with a certificate and graduation photos, too!). Although I tried to explain how important the day was to Natalie, she didn't quite get it. After I went to pick her up, when she came out of the classroom, she was in a good mood and she told me, "The teachers are crying! How come?" We went back in to take some phots with her teachers (below) but even when I explained again, she looked confused as to why this was important enough to make ALL her teachers cry as she kissed and hugged them good-bye.

Natalie and her good friend Summer posing with her teachers Ms. Lee and Ms. Ngan. You can see they are still a bit red-rimmed around the eyes. They made me tear up, too!


Thank you so much to Natalie's teachers. You have been a truly positive, supportive and caring presence in Natalie's life. She has really learned a lot from you!



After we picked up the kids from school, Lily Yee-yee and I took Natalie and Summer for a quick lunch at a nearby canteen. Here they are holding hands while Natalie makes a funny face.


And now it's Summer's turn to make a funny face!

Weekend boat trip

On Sunday, we went on the Simmons boat and had a really nice day (perfect weather) out on the waters. Natalie was super excited to go on a boat ("Just like Dora!" she said) but in reality, the fast speed and bumpiness on the water scared her and she spent most of the travel time with her face hidden in Clark's chest. She also wasn't a fan of the salty water or the waves when we swam in the ocean. However, she was proud of herself for being on a boat and we all enjoyed a wonderful seafood lunch on Po Toi Island. All in all, a great trip!

Posing with Clark and Serena, here is Natalie happy and excited to be on a boat. We bought a new life-jacket for her which she wore happily for most of the day (except during lunch).


Also on the boat were Jackie yee-yee, Mandy yee-yee, baby Ava, me, and Wang baby #2 (in my belly).


Uncles Que and Dan came, too.

Our yummy seafood lunch. Natalie is not a fan of seafood (although she likes fish and shrimp) but she loved the salt-and-pepper fried tofu.

Baby Ava and her daddy Dan out on the waters for a swim. Ava is super comfortable out on the water.

After only a few minutes in the water (in her life jacket and water tube), Natalie didn't want to swim any more. She didn't like the salty water or the waves. Here she is clinging to Clark (and her hat) once safely back on the boat (while I enjoyed a long swim in the water).

Clark and Natalie take a quick nap on the way home.

Success at the Dentist

On Saturday, we took Natalie to see the dentist and we are so super proud of how well she did!

The dentist can be a scary experience, with a stranger putting long, metal objects inside your mouth. To prepare her, we read books and talked about the dentist. We also poked and scratched at her teeth with toothpicks and q-tips (and a mirror so she could see what was happening). She also had the chance to "be the dentist" by putting toothpicks in our teeth (which was kinda scary since she's not super coordinated) but in the end, it all paid off. See how well she did below:

Natalie seated in the dentist chair with her mouth wide open and ready for the inspection and cleaning!


Natalie being super brave as the dentist and dental assistant started poking around in her mouth. He counted all her teeth (10 on top and 10 on the bottom which is the expected number).


She even allowed "Mr. Thirsty" (the saliva sucker) in her mouth.

She's so little, she had a special "booster" seat she had to sit / lie on. Overall, the appointment took about 15 minutes.

Here the dentist is scraping at her teeth with the metal hook. He was really excellent and told her exactly what he was doing and showing her every tool before using it. He also flossed all her teeth and suggested we help her floss every day as well.

Here he is polishing her teeth with strawberry flavoured toothpaste and the electronic polishing tool. She let him polish every tooth without complaint and was proud she could open her mouth for such a long time.

After the polishing, Natalie sat up and rinsed her mouth at the dentist sink.

She's very good at spitting out her toothpaste now (instead of swallowing it), even at home.

She also helped to press the button and clean the sink after the appointment, and received TWO stickers from the dentist for a job well done. All in all, the visit was a big success!

We're 27 weeks and counting

We had our 27-week appointment at the doctors today and, despite her best attempts to hide (the baby is actually quite naughty and has also been kicking me at inconvenient times), we managed to take a 4D scan of the baby. Here she is!

Her arm is partially blocking her face, but you can still see her features fairly clearly. With that mouth and (according to the doctor) somewhat large-ish ears, she might very well be another Clark-look-alike! What do you think?

Also, Natalie has been very sweet about my pregnancy and frequently kisses my belly and says, "Hello, Baby!" She's also insistent that the baby is HER baby (I think she thinks it will be a great new toy for her!). I've been trying to tell her the baby is mommy-and-baba's baby and that she will be her "mui mui" but Natalie only shakes her head at me. She has also selected a name she likes for the baby... Clarka!

Enthusiastic Nat

Although Natalie is still very shy when out with other people, when she is home, she is very energetic and enthusiastic! Below are some recent videos taken from home:

Video 286 - In this video, Natalie is jumping off the sofa and being caught by Clark. They played this game for about 20 minutes (until Clark was sweating!) last weekend and she loved it! Great exercise for her, too :)

Video 287 - Here is Natalie counting puzzle pieces as she returns them to the box. She can confidently count to 10, but after 10, she starts to make up her own numbers! Her favourite? Eleventeen, twelveteen...

Video 288 - Yesterday, I came home and Natalie immediately started singing... a mandarin song! She attends KCS, a mandarin-based school, and it is really amazing to watch her language development (even though we don't speak it at home).

Ant Farm

Last month, we thought it would be educational to buy this mini and very cool-looking ant farm for Natalie from Toys R' Us. The idea was to create very cool "ant art" from the tunnels they would dig in the clear, blue gel. All we needed to do was catch some ants and put them inside. Easy, right?

Natalie was pretty excited to go to the park to try but it was not easy at all! First, we had trouble finding ants to catch. Second, once found, we had trouble actually catching them (without killing them accidentally). Third, they don't like to stay inside so when you open the top to put in more ants, the ones you've already caught try to escape.

In the end, Clark and Vivo Yee-yee managed to catch 7 ants BUT instead of a productive ant farm, the ants turned on each other and some were killed (due to us catching different species of ants). Instead of beautiful "artwork" ant farm, we ended up with this:

A battlefield of dead ants. There were a few survivors who lived a couple weeks. During that time, some of the ant corpses grew a strange, white mold on top.


One little guy made pretty good progress though! He dug about 1 inch into the gel before dying. Overall, Natalie was not very impressed with this little project.

Big Puzzle

Another week, another birthday present opened. This time, it was a giant 40-piece puzzle! Clark and Natalie opened it on Saturday morning and spent almost 1-hour together completing. Natalie really enjoys puzzles and is actually pretty good at figuring out how to fit the pieces together with minimal help from Clark. Afterwards, we took some photos (see below) before cleaning it up. She did it again on Sunday :)

When Clark told Natalie to pose next to the finished puzzle, she immediately pulled a little stool over and sat down behind it (by herself).


Smile! We snapped a few shots and she jumped off the stool excitedly and said, "I want to see!"


Here's another angle of Natalie and her work. She's very patient when taking photos now.

Clark asked Natalie to lie down next to the puzzle so we can show everyone how BIG it is. We thought she would be smaller than the puzzle, but she keeps surprising us with how long (tall) she is! She is definitely not a baby anymore.