Alex's Birthday...

This is my Little Angel right when he woke up the day of his birthday...

I also took a video of the birthday boy. This is how he wakes up every morning... always smiling...

This is Maria, Alex's Nana. She's a wonderful lady who takes care of him during the day while Noli and I work. He loves Maria!!!

Everyday before lunch, Maria combs Alex hair and makes this curl up in the middle of his head. Grandma Yoyi calls it "Alex's kikiriki". He looks so handsome!!!

We celebrated Alex's first birthday and at exactly 6:40 PM on January 30th (the time when he was born) we sang Happy Birthday and blew a candle. Alex was just as thrilled as when he saw Elmo cake # 1. Carlos and Richie showed up a little later and we sang Happy Birthday for the second time and we all enjoyed the delicious cake.

Showing off his ONE toothie...

The Real Deal

OK, I think I'm just being a little bit obsessed with making the perfect cake for Alex. A few weeks ago, I had baked about 3 different types of cakes and after finding the "perfect" recipe, I decided to go ahead and practice the decorating part. So the "prototype" Elmo cake turned out almost perfect. As for the other cakes... well, Noli ate one and the other one went straight in the trash. Yeah, it was bad.

So the plan was to make the real cake for Alex's birthday party that was scheduled to take place on Sunday February 1st, but unfortunately had to be postponed a week. To celebrate his birthday on January 30th, I made my second Elmo cake. I must say, I think it turned out a little bit better than the first one! So here are some pictures of the process... "How To Make the Perfect Elmo Cake"

Bake a 6" round chocolate cake and freeze it (it helps during the decorating phase). Trace the Elmo face on wax paper and cut out.

Place the mold on top of the cake and trace it with a toothpick.

Cut out the top part and to get the round shape for the eyes.

Carve the eyes a bit to give room to the mini white donuts. Trace the mouth with black icing. Start filling out the face with red icing.

Place the white mini donuts in the eye sockets.

Use Hershey kissed for the pupils.

I used Cheddar cheese for the nose (yeah... cheese). Carve to give it its shape.



TA-DAAA!!!

Alex Turns 1!!!

Our Little Angel's year in pictures...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!!

My Very First Basketball Game (Up Close and Personal)

My Daddy is the biggest Maryland fan ever. He hopes that one day when I'm ready to go to college, I will follow in his footsteps and go to school there. On the other hand, my mommy doesn't want to even think about it... "Alex going to college... it's a very very long time from now", she says.

Let me tell you a story... Because Noli is such a good Terps fan, last year while I was in the delivery room about to have our first child, he kindly (and jokingly) asked me to have our baby soon so that he and the baby could enjoy the basketball game together! And so the baby was born, and before we knew it, Alex was in Daddy's arms watching the Maryland vs. Virginia game. I don't remember if we won or not, but watching my husband holding our baby and enjoying the game is an image that will last a life time...

So Noli waited all these months to take Alex to his first basketball game. It did not turn out as expected. Although Alex likes people and he is a good sport with loud noises, being at the Comcast Center with thousands of fans cheering was a bit too much. So Grandma and I had to wait in the concourse area where Alex was much more comfortable.

Even Testudo came around to see us!!!

Getting Ready for the Big Day!!!

My little baby turns 1 in a couple of weeks. In trying to keep the good habit of eating healthy, I decided to make Alex's First Cake! The Internet was a great place to find a few recipes for baby's first cake. So I tried a couple and found the one that we liked.

Alex LOVES the Sesame Street characters, so we decided to go with that theme. One of Alex's favorite is Elmo, so I ventured out to make an Elmo cake. I found that places like Michael's sells Elmo cake pans (didn't even know they existed), but after checking it out I thought the cake would be too big. So I bought a 6 in round pan. After hours of good reading in the net, I was able to get a pretty good idea on how to decorate it. For a beginer cake decorator like me, I'd say I did a pretty good job.

Then of course, Alex himself had the final approval... It was a success!!!!

In football terms... it was a TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!