Charize is 6 Months Old

My niece Charize, recently reached her 6th (month) birthday. As usual, the family was joyful and a humble celebration was arranged. Just like Attila (AG), Charize is a new addition to the family having born just early this year. She is full of energy and very playful. She’s always smiling and her laughter is a source of happiness for everyone. My daughter Ceejay won’t let the week pass without seeing her. Her mother, Cha, single handedly takes good care of her since her father, Bojo (a member of the Tarlac Anglers), is in South Korea earning a living.

Charize at her tender age is very active and vigorous. She can delight everyone by her innocent antics and happy behavior. She is a master of showing different emotions while in front of people and yes, camera. It's very noticeable that Charize is growing so fast, really fast that she might over take her petite but beautiful mother in size in no time. :-) For the meantime, let everyone be amazed by her being a contortionist.

In an occasion like this, my mom and sister Ines (and partly Cha) with the kind assistance form Aunts Mileth, Lisa and Nene (my twin) are always happy to take care of food preparation. For all I know, they enjoy doing the chores a lot. In the family, the preparation and cooking in itself is already an occasion. It is at this time when they can freely engage in long talks on just about anything. Yes, that includes gossip. :-) Sometimes the most interesting and probably the funniest moments of the event happen during this period. But it’s a good thing that the food always turns out outstanding though.

For this celebration they prepared a few signature dishes of the family. This includes a sumptuous penne pasta in tomato sauce, tasty “lumpiang shanghai” (meat spring roll), all-time favorite “pansit bihon” (thin rice noodle in soy sauce), yummy garlic bread, delicate “sinokmani” (a type of Filipino sweet rice cake) and a refreshing black “gulaman” (jelly from seaweeds or agar). Complemented by store-bought pretty strawberry cake and some ice cream and the modest feast are complete.

Ines' pasta dishes are always a winner especially her sweet-style Filipino spaghetti. My mom’s “pansit bihon” as I mentioned before, is a masterpiece (for as long she’s in the mood for cooking) and likewise always look forward by attending friends and relatives. Everyone was just so excited eating and having their pictures taken that they forgot to take good photos of the food. This is a food blog for goodness sake! What were you thinking?

Just like during AG’s previous celebration, the two babies are again at it trying to outshine one another. I guess rivalry in offspring is a normal thing. But AG was kind enough to let the celebrant, his older cousin, took full pleasure of her day.

But from the look of his expressive eyes, it seems he was saying “somebody won’t be receiving something from my mom in Dubai while I still get my fair share from Seoul”.

While everybody was enjoying the food as well as the pose, nobody notice what Charize has been concentrating on. That she's probably wondering why no one is giving her a piece of the cake. She has been trying so hard to communicate “Mom, ate Ceejay, that’s my cake so please allow me to at least dip my fingers on that sweet soft icing, as you used to do when you were young”.

Probably out of desperation, she just let the grown-ups indulged on the luscious 2 layers strawberry cake with rich creamy filling and decided to just sleep.

So that she will grow more……….bigger...........bigger than her mom………so she will get her revenge………and eat all the cakes when she’s already big. c“,)