Bento

Natalie has been staying at daycare all by herself for almost a month (my nanny used to stay there with her before she resigned). Besides she doesn't like going to daycare (I have been avoiding to talk about this topic because this is a very long one to blog ), one of the challenges is she doesn't eat her lunch. Sometimes she eats only a few bites and the lunch box looks untouched, sometimes she eats about half of it. So, every night when I prepare her lunch box, I try to put in many varieties and hoping that she will be interested in at least one of them the next day. However, it is quite hard to figure out what she'll eat. I see her eating one thing one day, when I give the same thing to her again the following week, she doesn't eat it anymore .

I have also tried making the lunch looks cute (like the picture shown here). As you see, there's scallion pancake, pork w/ mushroom, sweet potato (cut in flower shape and bear shape), edamame and salmon rice ball. But she only ate about 1/3 of it, and most of what she ate was scallion pancake (she likes anything that's similar to pizza).

Sigh ... I guess I just have to keep trying until I have figured out a set of food items that she will definitely eat at daycare ... .

Our First Christmas Tree

From November2008

What did you do on Thanksgiving Day? We put up our first X'mas tree. This is not only Natalie's first X'mas tree, but it's also my first X'mas tree. I have never put up a X'mas tree in my life. It's a good time to put it up this year because I read a couple books to Natalie about X'mas that have X'mas tree in them. She got interested in X'mas trees and she always wants to check them out while we're in stores that sell X'mas trees. It was fun hanging the ornaments on the tree, we also asked Natalie to help hanging the ornaments. She seemed having a lot of fun with it .

What do you think about our first X'mas tree? Not bad, huh?

Goodbye Kwan Yee

From November2008

Kwan Yee was our nanny. Her last day of work was on November 26. But even about a week ago, Natalie had sensed that Kwan Yee would be leaving her for good. So, every evening when Kwan Yee went home, Natalie would hold on to Kwan Yee's finger and wouldn't let go. She would say, "Kwan Yee, Kwan Yee" sentimentally, and she would ask Kwan Yee to sleep with her. It was really tough for Natalie to lose her nanny. Even now (which is almost 2 weeks already), Natalie still sometimes says, "I want Kwan Yee" (in Cantonese).

On Kwan Yee's last day of work, she asked Natalie to sing for her. Natalie was really good and sang whatever Kwan Yee asked for (she sang about 5 to 6 songs). Below are 3 of them, one English song, one Mandarin song and one Cantonese song.

From November2008

From November2008

From November2008

School pictures - 2008

From November2008

It's Natalie's first time taking school pictures. Natalie started CCLC in mid October and she missed the official school pictures day, but she could still go to the make up session for the school pictures. I got the email for the make up pictures date and location. Then, I took Natalie there and realized that it was just a couple of photographers waiting for us in a park. They took some professional pictures of Natalie playing in the structure of the park (so, it's not really "school pictures" like what I thought).
Last week, I got the email for viewing the pictures. I have to say, they can take better pictures than both Kin and I. But geeezzz ... it's $13.75 for one 4x6?! This is so freaking expensive!
Please help me out here. Please help me viewing the pictures:
http://www.iclicksmiles.com
School code is makeup
Student code is 61657
, and let me know if you think it's worth ordering any of them? I have to order them by November 21.

Thanks.

Family Fun

My parents, my sister and her boyfriend came to visit us for a few days at the end of October. At first, I was a little worried that Natalie might not be comfortable to be surrounded by so many people in the house. Then, it turned out that I worried too much. She was a little uncomfortable the first day, but after the first day, she realized that it was so much fun to have so many people playing with her. She enjoyed the attention and she liked my sister so much that she called her name every 2 minutes.
Here is a video of my sister playing "flying rug" with Natalie:

From November2008

Here is a video of Natalie singing with her new mic:

From November2008

Natalie's first Halloween Parade and Trick or Treat

Natalie was enrolled to CCLC since October 13. Since then, Natalie has been going there part-time, and accompanied by our nanny. Hopefully, Natalie will feel comfortable there by herself before our nanny leaves :(
Anyways, this year is Natalie's first time contributed in a Halloween parade. She does not seem to enjoy the parade, but the parents surely enjoy seeing all these cute little people in their cute costumes.

From October2008

At night, we got the Kan's, the Yeung's and "Big Ian" came over to go Trick or Treating in our neighborhood. This is Natalie's first time going to trick or treat. She got scared by some of the Halloween decorations out there. But I think it was a fun experience for her.

From October2008

Natalie 語錄

Natalie has been able to give us simple commands for a while, such as:

• 落去
• 上 (mean 上去)
• 出街街

etc.. Pretty straight forward. And whenever we ask her a question, she can answer with "好" or "All done" (also means No)﹐or "係"﹐or "冇". But recently, she started saying more complicated phrases.

A couple weeks ago, she happily ran into the gated kitchen behind us. Then, raised both of her hands and said, "搞搞震". Both Kin and I were cracking up when we heard it.

Yesterday, she again happily ran into the gated kitchen and was trying to open the cabinets. I went to hold her and said:

"你又想搞搞震﹖"

then, she continued my sentence, "冇幫襯"

The past Sunday evening, we let her drink water from her straw cup while both Kin and I were preparing our meals in the kitchen. A few minutes later, we found that she spitted water out and also poured some on herself and on the floor. Her clothes were all wet. I took her upstairs to change her clothes. While I was changing her clothes, I said:

"你睇下你﹐做咩飲水飲到濕晒 ga ﹖"

She replied immediately, "好玩呀"

(my reaction was: "下 ? ? 竟然識咁答﹖, then I could not stop laughing)