Love Letters to Natalie
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Year of the Dog
Dearest Natalie,
I'm feeling all excited now. We have finished packing and we're all going to Taipei tomorrow morning! Yes, with your gong gong, por por and jiu jiu. This is our annual family holiday as our family business only permits us to go on long leave together as a family during this festive period. This year, your por por has really slogged very hard during the past month and I feel really guilty for not being any help at all. Therefore this holiday is for her, I hope she'll have a fun time in Taipei.
The last time I visited Taipei was in 1996, when I was on a Rotaract Exchange Program. Tomorrow you'll be my good friend, Patrice and her family. She's the only one I managed to keep in touch with after all these years. Her family has kindly drawn up the itinerary for us and she'll be our tour guide for the next few days. The reason why I'm looking so forward to this trip is because I'm finally going to see her again! I'm also very eager for you to meet her. For the last 2 weeks, we have been going around buying souvenirs for them and I did the final shopping today after your class at Kindermusik. Everything is done now! We're ready for Chinese New Year in Taipei.
On a separate note, I have signed you up for swim class and music class. We went to Aquaducks and Kindermusik to attend their trials. I like the way the lessons are conducted and wasted no time in signing you up after seeing how much you like those classes. You especially like your music class, you know how to follow instructions and will giggle or wave/clap along happily. I've no intention to nurture you to be a prodigy musician nor the next national swimmer. I just want you to enjoy the process of learning something new and experiencing new things.
An important milestone you have reach this week is - you have started to walk!!! I'm so proud of you, my baby! For a long while, we all knew that you are ready to walk, what you lacked is the confidence. Weeks before you could walk on your own, you would grabbed our hands/fingers and made us roam around the whole house with you. Sometimes we will tricked you into taking a few steps on your own when you're conscious about it. Last Sunday is the big turning point. Por Por taught you how to fly like a butterfly and while imitating how a butterfly flies, you started to walk... 1 step... 2 step.. and 8 steps by yourself. You gained confidence and tried to walk on your own since then and walked quite steadily by Tuesday. Though you still wobbles a little when you walk too quickly, I'm very proud to say that you are doing very well toddling around now!
My walking Toddler
Since you started walking, Auntie Sandra and I brought you out to play with the neighbour kids a few times and the older boys adore you. You try to "run" after them each time we let you come down to play and we are all very thrilled by your loud laughter. As you couldn't run very well with your shoes, I gave myself the excuse to buy you a pair of sandals so that you don't have to go barefooted or go through the hassle of putting on your socks and shoes when you are taking a walk outside.
Mommy is tired now! I'm going to sleep now.
Love you lots,
Mommy
natnat's mom at 1:11 AM
