Natalie

It's been a while since the last post because we're in the process of moving apartments AND because on July 7, Natalie flew to Toronto to spend 8 weeks with her cousins and grandparents over the summer holidays.

We miss her and yet we're happy that she is having such a great time. See Video 362 of Natalie and her cousins playing in the backyard kiddie pool and Video 363 of the kids making jewellery together and Video 364 of the kids riding bikes and blowing bubbles in the backyard. Gotta love (and miss) Canadian summers.

Below are some recent photos of Natalie in Hong Kong.

Natalie wearing a mask and doing her fave pose: The "flamingo" (her own terminology).
Natalie and Ba-ba Clark creating a birthday present from Tristan and Tyler... a home-made kaleidoscope! Thanks guys! This is the 2nd present Natalie has opened (only one per week), so more photos to come.
During a school holiday, Natalie invited cousin Nicholas and her friends Siena and Olivia over to play.
Here the girls and boy are water coloring.
Natalie had her second-ever visit to the dentist and she was super brave. He even used the ultrasonic picky thingy to scrape her teeth and held flouride in her mouth for 2 minutes! She's also cavity-free. We're so proud :)
The completed kaleidoscope. Thanks again!
Here's Nat posing with a "cake" she made at school. She loved it and played with this for a while. Funny the things kids like...
Some school pics from the teachers. Thanks for taking such good care of Natalie throughout the school year!
Natalie posing with her "bread".
Natalie concentrating as she makes "bread".
School photo of Nat taken and printed for K2 class.

New Lauren Milestones

Lauren keeps growing up and can now crawl (kinda) in Video 360 and also feed herself in Video 361.

4th of July BBQ at Uncle Brad's

Today we celebrated the 4th of July at Uncle Brad's. As usual, we had a great time and ate way too much. The girls had a great time, too. Natalie even said to me that she likes coming to Uncle Brad's :) Below are photos exclusively taken by Serena yee-yee and stolen by me. Thanks Serena!

Me and the girls. Nat loves Uncle Brad's bow tie pasta.
Lauren can almost crawl. She's gets around by dragging the rest of her body around behind her. Somehow she manages to chew on a chair leg, a purse and the edge of Brad's sofa. Yum!
Lauren loved Auntie Esther and was totally calm and at peace in her arms. Auntie Esther didn't mind, not even when a drool trail dripped down to her elbows.
The girls hanging with auntie Esther and uncle Zen.
This is my new favourite photo. They are so sweet together!
JC, Clark and Que dig in to home-made cheese burgers. Dee-lish!
I whip up some heavy cream for strawberries.
3 pretty ladies. Natalie has developed a really lady-like smile.
Natalie and Auntie Esther.
Me with new mum Joy and her little husband --er, baby, Avery. Avery is only one month old and looks eerily like his dad so it's easy to get them mixed up.
Thanks again, Uncle Brad! Great way to spend the day :)

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.