Introducing Cupcake...

Meet the newest member of our family! Emilio Andres arrived on my scheduled Cesarean date of May 13 weighing in at 7lb 5 oz. Labor and delivery was easier the second time around because I already knew that I was having the Cesarean versus going through the anticipation of labor on any given day. Plus, Eric and I were able to schedule childcare for Elena and had my in-laws around to help us out. 

We had a wonderful stay at our hospital and I was already moving around my room 12 hours after surgery. I surprised my nurses and doctors by my quick recovery. It felt a little odd being away from our sweet Elena and I missed her terribly, but it was great to spend the time and focus our sweet baby boy.

Eric is so happy and delighted for his handsome son because he is no longer outnumbered at our house. (Girls rule no matter what though!) He is already planning sports activities and camping trips for both of our kids. 

We have been doing well transitioning into a family of four. It's a little difficult because I'm not allowed to carry anything heavier than Emilio, which means I can't pick up Elena for the next 6 weeks. Thankfully, my wonderful mother has been staying with us and helping us out. I haven't cooked much in the kitchen and will be slowly working my way in the time to come.

I love both of my babies and I think I may have grown another heart to love these two. I look at Elena compared to Emilio and it seems that she has grown up before my eyes. Emilio is the cutest baby, and cries up a storm whenever I'm changing his diapers. I'm so fearful of getting peed on, but we haven't had any accidents so far. He has been sleeping like a champ, and I get up usually twice a night. Breastfeeding the second time around is alot easier as well, and maybe that's because I breastfed Elena up until she was 11 months, too. As far as his looks, I think he resembles Eric more than me. He's longer and narrower in the face like his papi whereas Elena is round like me. He has a lighter complexion and has big eyes like his sister.

Elena loves her little brother and always has the biggest smile on her face whenever she sees him. She loves to give him big wet kisses and loves to pet him. My heart melts when I see the two of them together, and I can't wait for them to play together more when they are older.

I've been taking a little time off so I can enjoy both of my two kids, but I'll be back to regular blogging soon enough!

Elena's First Birthday: Growing "Up"

First, I want to thank all of my wonderful foodie friends that participated in cupcake's virtual baby shower yesterday. Please make sure to visit Eva Bakes for all of the scrumptious cupcake posts for my sweet little cupcake. He will be here sometime next week!Wow. It seems like it was just yesterday that I had announced my sweet little "cookie" aka Elena was born. I still remember the day when I went into labor quite vividly because I had literally started my maternity leave that afternoon and had pains and aches all day long that I couldn't shake off.

The moment Elena had entered our lives, our days and nights have been filled with so much love, excitement and pure bliss. Elena has the sweetest and most contagious smile, she's a ball of energy, and has been the biggest and best highlight of our year. She's definitely one of the best things Eric and I have "cooked" up. 

Since Eric and I were team green for Elena's pregnancy, we chose a neutral theme for the nursery. I wanted something playful, fun and a room that our child would love. One of my favorite Pixar movies was "Up" and I know the first ten minutes are the hardest part of the movie, but the overall themes in the movie celebrated so much that I adored. The themes of love, loss, loneliness, fear, excitement, adventure, inspiration and so much hope for life. 

Of course, I wanted to celebrate Elena's first birthday with the "Up" theme because it had meant so much to us. The balloons and the rainbows of color seemed like the perfect way to celebrate Elena's big day. Plus, it would be our little way of saying goodbye to it before we move her into her new room.  Her little brother will be taking over her nursery, but he is getting a fun playful Lego-themed nursery. 

Some of the simple decor elements included: An instagram collage of Elena from the year and a milestone poster to display some of her fave things. 

Since I was fully baked (37 weeks) at the time of Elena's birthday party, I knew that I couldn't handle too much work for her party. I didn't want her little brother to make a guest appearance! Thankfully, I had lots of help - Eric and my mom were the cooks that day and handled the majority of food prep. My girlfriend had came extra early to set up the decorations and my cousin/Elena's godmother, came over the night before to bake up Elena's smash birthday cake and cupcakes. 

We hosted a small family party for about 35 adults and kids, we have a large immediate family! We had a simple Filipino-inspired menu: Chicken adobo cooked on the BBQ, my mom's pansit noodles, steamed rice, mixed salad and lumpia that we had ordered from a Filipino bakery. Plus, for dessert the strawberry cupcakes and Elena's smash cake that we baked the night before. 

One of my sisters has a silhouette and was able to use of Elena's pictures and created a silhouette of Elena and we pasted it on an 8x10 canvas. I used this as guestbook thumbprint artwork for everyone and this will be displayed in her new room. 

The best part of the day was singing Happy Birthday to Elena. I sat next to her and saw her face absolutely light up with glee from all of our family singing to her. I literally choked up a bit and could barely sing along because I was fighting the tears. It was then that it hit me and I realized that my sweet baby was a big girl and officially a toddler!

My sweet Elena you fill my heart with so much love and joy that it literally explodes with happiness for you. You are definitely Papi's little girl and have him wrapped around your itty bitty finger because he melts like butter for you. But you will forever be my sweet baby Elena. We can't wait to see what the next year will bring. We love you Elena!

Vendor Information:

Up Invitations from Etsy: Spare Time Prints

Elena's custom flower headband from Etsy: Jameson Monroe

Birthday Onesie from Etsy: The Peachy Owl

Instagram Collage Prints from Persnickety Prints

Rainbow Tutu & Highchair Tutu: Made by me

Milestone Poster: Made by me using PSE

Sticky & Sweet Asian Meatballs

Happy Friday!

I know it's been forever since I have updated my neglected food blog. It has been a few hectic weeks and I'm finally getting caught up here. We recently celebrated Elena's 1st year birthday and baptism, and I plan on sharing some of my favorite birthday pictures next week. And more importantly, cupcake hasn't made an appearance just yet, we have 10 more days to go until my scheduled c-section on May 13....unless cupcake decides otherwise. I'm almost near the end of my second pregnancy and finally ready for cupcake to join our growing family.

Then I had the worst luck of them all and my computer crashed and I lost some precious photos from the past year and other files on my computer. Some stupid Windows update had malfunctioned or something, and my computer refused to cooperate. I usually back-up my data on my external hard-drive and it was on my agenda of things to do this past week but I never got to it. It was a tough lesson learned and I can't stop kicking myself in the butt for it either. Thankfully, Eric and I have been able to recover many of the lost photos but it's taken all of this week to configure everything back onto my computer. It's been very time-consuming and this time around I'm making sure that I back up everything.