Professional Family Photos

On Saturday, March 17,  we took professional family photos with Por-por and Gong-gong and the entire extended Tong clan.  After two hours and about a hundred snaps, the final results are below (and already hanging in the Tong family home kitchen)!

The Tong cousins all together.  We love Natalie's "photo smile".

The Wang Gang.

More Wang Gang.. Lauren didn't like to sit on my shoulders so we had a cuddle instead.

Gong-gong, Por-por and their six grand-children.

The 6 cousins together again.  Lauren is doing her version of sign language for "more" (as in more treats that the photographers were very smart to have on-hand as bribes).

A super sweet kiss from baby Lauren.

A warm hug from Natalie.

Great pic of Clark and Natalie look-a-likes.

More cousins together - big to small.

The Wang Gang with Por-por and Gong-gong.

A sincere Lauren.

More Videos and Photos Catch-up

Still playing catch-up of the past couple months, sorry!  See more videos and photos below:

Videos

Video 386 - Lauren giggling as Clark swings her around.

Video 387 - Natalie and cousin Vanessa's "penguin" silly walk.

Video 388 - Natalie pushing Lauren around in a chair (they both love it and it's great to see them playing together).


Video 389 - Lauren copying big sister.  She copies almost everything Natalie does now.

Video 390 - Natalie singing the frog song in Mandarin.

Video 391 - Natalie and cousin Nicholas at tennis lessons.

Video 392 - Lauren and Natalie play and flub with their lips.

Photos

8 kids mesmerized by the television.

Cousins cluster around a window.

Lauren laughing with Nainai.

Nainai with her grand-daughters.

Natalie challenges Clark to a game of connect four.

A food butterfly Natalie learned to make from Disney Junior TV channel.

She had a lot of fun making it, but still didn't eat the veggies.

Kids stretching after tennis lessons.  Michael is also there copying the big kids.

Natalie and Lauren play with their tongues together.

Lauren in the hospital

It's been almost FIVE months since our last post (sorry!) and a lot has happened in that time, including two more hospital visits, one more surgery (on Lauren, poor girl), morning sickness, and moving apartments.  Over the next week or so, hope to catch-up on what's been missed.

Below are photos and videos of Lauren's hospital visit where a lump on the side of her neck was surgically drained and removed.  (I also spent 4 days in the hospital due to morning sickness in March.)

See Video 383 of Lauren one-day fresh out of surgery and already adapting to her new bandages and IV by playing with one hand.

See Video 384 of Lauren just day 2 after surgery.  The swelling on her face is already going down and she is beginning to look like herself again.  Also, she continues to learn and tries to click her tongue with us.

See Video 385 of Lauren sitting up, playing and smiling.  Because we were in the hospital for so many days, the IV has changed hands again and is back on her right hand.  She was a real trooper about it.

The below photos are of Lauren and her new friend -- "the lump".  As we get closer to the day of her operation, you can see the lump grows quite quickly, her face begins to swell, and we begin to think her friend has become a bad influence on her and must go.

The below photos are of Lauren after surgery.  Kids are amazingly adaptable and you can see she quickly returns to her cheerful baby-self again.  Two tubes remained in her cheek (which the doctor drained everyday) and so we stayed in the hospital for almost a week afterwards to ensure all the infection was gone and that she was recovering smoothly.

Lauren's Antics

Now that she's almost 1 year and 4 months old, Lauren has been learning and doing a lot more.  A big milestone she's finally reached is... she can walk!  Below are videos and photos of Lauren.

VIDEOS

See Video 378 of Lauren smiling and walking.

See Video 379 of Lauren dancing with her cousin Michael.  There's swaying, twisting, clapping and pelvic thrusts.

Also see Video 380 of Lauren laughing manically at Mud, one of the two cats we babysit for a few weeks.

At this age, Lauren loves to make a mess.  Watch Video 381 she throws and scatter markers on the floor and laughs about it.

Also see Video 382 of Lauren laughing while Clark motorboats her chubby neck.

PHOTOS

Lauren now likes to sit at the "kids table" with the other kids as opposed to being confined in the highchair.  Here, the kids enjoy breakfast with their Porpor.

Sometimes Lauren likes to fuss at the dinner table.  When Carol Yee-yee firmly told her "no more complaining", Lauren put on her sad face and looked around the room for support (she did this for about 30 silent seconds). When she got no support, she resumed eating.  

Lauren lets Serena Yee-yee hold her and even gave us a little smile.

Ignorance is bliss: Lauren cheerfully playing at the docs, waiting for a shot (MMR vaccine).

It hit 7 oC in Hong Kong a couple days ago.  Brrr!  To stay warm, Lauren wore Clark's hat and put on a pink faux fur shrug.

Here is Lauren posing and fascinated with Mud the cat.  She was constantly following Mud around.  The cats have since returned home with Keiko, Jas, Tristan and Tyler.

Natalie puts one of her necklaces around Lauren's head like a headband.  Lauren didn't quite know what to make of it, but didn't mind it.

One of Lauren's funny faces.