The Wang Gang

Since Lauren's birth, I was concerned we had been neglecting our duty of capturing every precious moment without having a complete Wang Gang photo of the four of us. I forgot that Lisa had helped us to take a Wang family photo just one day after Lauren's birth. Thanks Lisa! Here they are, the ones and only-for-now photos of our little family:

This is my favourite one. We're all smiling and looking at the camera and even Lauren looks like she's smiling (kinda).

This one is also nice, but Lauren has her mouth open.

Had to include this one because Lauren's expression is soooo cute :)

Lauren's Moon Yuet

My bad, this post is way overdue! Almost 2 weeks ago, we celebrated Lauren's one month "moon yuet" over dinner with our family in Hong Kong. It was a delicious and noisy affair to celebrate her 1-month birthday. Photos below.

Me, Natalie, Lauren and Nainai have just arrived at the restaurant and are settling in. Natalie is hungry and ready to go with her little trainer chopsticks.

We put Lauren down on the table for a few minutes and tried to leave her there while we started eating. She made a few noises but no worries, there were plenty of willing arms to hold her :)

Lisa and Victoria. I really like this picture.

Nainai playing with Lauren.

Lauren, me and Nainai.

A close-up of Lauren. She's gotten quite a bit chubbier since her birth.

Big yawn.

The Chen Den (little Michael is in the back in the sling).

Natalie and Vanessa wanted to sit beside each other. So cute how they are friends and have opinions about these things now.

Dennis and Victoria. Do you like see food?

Half-way through the long meal, the zoo got bored and we tamed them with a movie on the iPad.

Can you guess the movie?

There was waaaaay too much food! We started with roast young pig.

Seafood and broccoli.

Lobster with noodles.

Shrimp claws.

There was also a big pot of "monk jumping over the wall" soup, a huge steamed fish, a whole roasted chicken, a rice and a noodle dish. To finish off, we have red bean soup dessert and these yummy "birthday bum buns" below.

At the end of the night, we asked Natalie to pose with Lauren and Nainai. Natalie decided to give us her biggest smile which is really her "funny face".

Natalie showing her funny face to Lauren.

An even more extreme funny face!

Day at the Zoo

Yesterday, we spent lunch and all afternoon at a "Day at the Zoo" event put on by Deutsch Bank at the IRC in Happy Valley. It was a really well-organized event, perfect for kiddies. Pair a great event with a gorgeous day out and you can imagine why we stayed over 4 hours!

There was a petting zoo where guests could feed the rabbits some carrots.

But the rabbits weren't that hungry no matter how much coaxing Clark did. We think they were already pretty full of carrots!

Even if we couldn't feed them, Natalie was super excited to pet a rabbit.

We also took a family photo with the rabbit. (Lauren is in the orange stroller behind us.)

The petting zoo also had a small pen of goats. They also provided grass and bottles of milk to feed the goats with, but again, the goats didn't seem that hungry.

Natalie's favourite animals to visit were the dogs in the little dog exhibit put together by the Lifelong Animal Protection Charity.

She spent at least 30 minutes in there playing and petting the dogs and puppies there.

Even after we convinced her to leave and jump in the bouncy castles, she wanted to return asap to be with "her dogs".

There was also a pony ride but there was no actual "riding" because they didn't want to churn up the grass. That's ok, Natalie didn't want to ride... the pony's too big!

"But I can ride when I'm 4, ok?" She said.

Here is the shaded sitting area and behind it (under the 7 white tents) is the buffet spread by Conrad. Can you say yummy?

There were also various activity tents such as hat decorating, piggy bank decorating, face painting, fishing and growing-your-own-vegetables.

On the other side of the fence, they had games and a bouncy castle. I ran a potato-spoon race against Natalie and sadly lost. I think Natalie cheated by holding the potato onto her spoon tho :)

Lauren enjoyed the day but spent most of the time in her stroller sleeping.

All in all, a great day!

Sisterly love

Natalie has been a truly wonderful older sister to little Lauren. Not only does Natalie hug and kiss Lauren all the time, but she loves to be helpful, too, by helping to burp her, bathe her and running to tell me to feed her whenever Lauren cries.

Natalie smiling at Lauren while I change her on our bed.

Look at how much bigger Natalie is! She's a proud older sister :)

Here Lauren is resting comfortably in a little rocker that Natalie used as a baby, too.

Nainai

Nainai left Hong Kong on Sunday. It was super nice to have her here where she spent good quality time with Lauren and Natalie.

Also, since she's been here, Clark and I have been totally amazed by how much Mandarin Natalie actually knows. She has NEVER spoken Mandarin before but see for yourself how much she really knows and understands in Video 310 of Natalie discussing healthy foods and fruits with Nainai (sorry, a bit blurry as the focus was in the wrong spot).

Also see Video 311 of Natalie going through her activity sheets from school.

Nainai with a sleeping Lauren. Doesn't Lauren look comfy?

Nainai with Lauren and Natalie.

Nainai must be very comfortable as Lauren hardly ever fusses when she is carried by Nainai.

Elmo has... teeth?

Only when Natalie's feet are too big for her shoes...

One month

On Monday, it was Lauren's one-month birthday. Here are some photos and videos from home.

See Video 308 and Video 309 of Lauren chilling at home. Warning: These videos may only be interesting to her parents as she doesn't do much except wave her arms and kick her legs.

We're proud that Lauren seems to be getting chubbier. Look at that rounded chin!

She still looks like Clark a lot, especially with her eyes closed. When opened, her eyes are a little bigger and she has double eye-lids.

Here is the FIRST picture we've captured with both Natalie and Lauren smiling. It's a bit blurry, but we'll take it!
Here Lauren is being looked after by her enthusiastic older sister Natalie. Everyday, Natalie kisses Lauren and says "I love my Mei-mei!"
Lauren has also had some deep conversations with her Ba-ba Clark. Here they are discussing some of life's most perplexing mysteries and philosophies...

Bottle Feeding Lauren

Today is the first day out of Lauren's moon yuet and so I've decided to pump and test out how well she can drink from a bottle. First, I'm super pleased I managed to pump out 85 mL on my first try. Wahoo! As for Lauren, it turns out, she's a star bottle-drinker. She guzzled it all down in one go.

Watch Video 306 of Natalie explaining what's going to happen with the milk bottle she's holding.

Then watch Video 307 of Natalie helping Nainai feed Lauren with a bottle for the first time.

85 mL of pumped milk courtesy of Medela Symphony. Sooo glad we decided to rent instead of using a hand pump like I did with Natalie! Honestly, what was I thinking?

Nainai and Natalie feeding Lauren for the first time.
As you can see, Natalie was super excited and pleased to be able to help. When I mentioned in the morning that I would try to pump, she said, "And I will help feed Mei-mei by bottle, ok? Ok? OKAY?!"