Find Your Happiness

7.22.10 Cousins at Play Whack-A-Baby

This cake was for my nephew Daniel's first birthday party this past Saturday (24). It is my first time building a tiered cake and I am not taking full credit since a lot of help went into this: from baking, construction, and watching my baby or the cake while I take care of Nathaniel. It was a lot of work and I had quite a few epic fails. But I still had a great time making this and I hope to take a formal class soon.  8 inch white cake and 10 inch chocolate fudge cake covered in homemade marshmallow fondant Chocolate rice krispie treats "moon rock"; also covered in homemade MMF

Tomorrow is our last full day here in Indiana but the goodbyes have already begun. My grandmother left today to go back to the Philippines after spending a month with us in California and three months in Indiana. It is always difficult saying goodbye to her since we never know when we will see each other again. And I know it is much more difficult for her this time around since she now has two more people to miss: my son and my nephew. April 2010 Four Generations   ( Momentdia by Hery Sugianto)

Nathaniel is seven months old today! The little monster refused to smile! Instead, he kept giving me this look.

It was such a gorgeous day here in Seaside yesterday that Nathaniel and I spent the entire afternoon at the playground near our house. I also finally let him ride the swing like a big boy and he loved it! We met several new incoming moms and their children and Nathaniel is still the youngest and the cutest! --- but I'm probably biased :)  He looks so much like his cousin Daniel in this picture!

Inspired from Alton Brown's Scone Recipe with a little bit of minor changes: Ingredients: 2 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking powder pinch of salt 1/3 cup sugar 6 tablespoons butter (cut in cubes) 2 tablespoons shortening 3/4 cup heavy cream 1 egg handful of dried cranberries Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Mix well. Cut in butter and shortening (I like to mush it with my fingers instead of using a pastry blender). In a separate bowl, combine cream with beaten egg then add to dry ingredients. Stir in fruit. Turn dough out into a floured surface. Roll dough out and cut into 8 equal triangles (like pizza!). Round the edges for a softer look and sprinkle with coarse sugar (we didn't have any on hand). Bake for 17 minutes or until brown. This is a really soft, flaky, and not too sweet scone recipe. Very versatile too since you can exchange the dried cranberries with whatever you w...

When Nathaniel turned exactly six months old, we noticed that he all of a sudden developed stranger and separation anxiety. At first, he would only cry when people we do not see often held him but recently, he also cries even when it is with Daddy :( Our little one does not want anybody else other than me and while my mama-heart gets a little boost with that thought, cooking, cleaning the house, and bedtime have become quite an adventure. I can't walk away more than two feet before he starts crying. And Nathaniel will be fast asleep in his crib but as soon as I walk out the door, I hear crying. His pediatrician said this is expected around this age and should outgrow it in a few(!) months. We are flying to Indiana this weekend to visit family and friends for ten days and I want to make this easier for all of us, especially to his grandparents who rarely see him. Any suggestions to help baby cope with stranger and separation anxiety? And how long did it last?

Nathaniel had his six months old well baby visit today. We had plenty of questions about his constipation, stranger/separation anxiety, and waking up every two hours at night again :( According to his pediatrician, these are quite normal (except for the constipation) and are to be expected right around his age. For his constipation, we are going start giving him water on top of what we're already doing, which is eating prunes every other day. Last week, his constipation and grunting were so bad that his doctor told us to give him a suppository (and I made Dean do it!). Anyway, here are his stats: (Compare his last visit here ) Weight: 17lbs, 10oz (50 percentile) Height: 27 3/4 inches (90 percentile) --- no wonder his toes are curling up in his Sleep & Play clothes! Head Circumference: 44 cm (50 percentile) Buddha belly :) Paper makes an awesome toy! Also, Nathaniel finally successfully rolled belly to back three days ago! Yay!