Food photography

Sweet potato cake

Zucchini and pea risotto

Sweet sausage rigatoni

Fish tacos

Easter cupcakes

Blueberry cake

I've been wanting to become a better photographer. I have a decent camera and I love to cook and bake so I've combined my two passions. Here are some recent shots.

Gracie turns 6 months old

After a meal of rice cereal and milk. Yum!

I guess it's time I learned Gracie's name. I keep calling her Sadie. But then again, I call Sadie Gracie all the time. Thank goodness we don't have pets. I'd never get any of their names straight.

Gracie turned 6 months old on March 22. I can't believe it! She's rolling over, sitting up and is so much fun. She's really a great baby. We started cry it out a few nights ago. And while it's difficult in the short term, it's so worth it long term. We did it with Sadie and she sleeps like a champ. The doctor says we should get Gracie a helmet to correct her misshapen head. The doctor does not recommend this for most patients, but she's encouraging us to go see a specialist. Once Gracie gets some hair, you won't even notice her head not being perfectly round, but I guess it can cause problems with her jaw. So off we go. With the hottest months coming up, I'm sure this will be a blast!

Her stats: 17 pounds, 1.5 ounces; 25.5 inches tall and a head circumference of 43 cm.

Gracie's sitting up!

Sort of.

Sadie turns 2

Sadie on her second birthday.

I know this is a bit late. It's mid-March and Sadie turned 2 at the beginning of February. However... her stats: 35.5 inches tall, 28.4 pounds and a head circumference of 49 cm. She's in the 90th percentile for height and the 70th percentile for weight. I'm not sure where she gets her height. Some say that if you double a child's height at age 2, that's how tall they'll be when they stop growing. That puts her at 71 inches or 5 foot 11. I'm a little skeptical, but I bet she'll be taller than I am (5' 6").
She just started potty training about 4 days ago and is doing very well with a few successes already. So proud... And so excited to not have to buy diapers for two members of our family.
She still has some trouble at the dinner table. She just won't eat sometimes. But the doctor says to provide healthy options and if she doesn't eat, she just doesn't eat. "Don't be a short-order cook," she said. And another article I read in the paper said that my job is to make sure she gets a wide variety of healthy food and that's it! The rest is up to her. I've never heard it put that way. It takes a lot of pressure off. She almost always finishes her vegetables. So I guess she'll eat the rest if she's hungry.
Otherwise, she's a healthy, happy girl and is actually starting to take an interest in Gracie or "Gracie Olivia" as she likes to call her.
I keep hearing from her daycare teachers that her pronunciation of words is really great. We still have to ask her "what did you say?" a lot. Most of the time she answers "thank you" or "please" thinking I've asked "what do you say?"
She's going through a mommy phase right now. It's kind of nice, but I'm fully aware that the daddy phase could be just around the corner. I guess I'll just hold on tight to Gracie Olivia then.

Gracie at 4 months

Gracie turned 4 months old on January 22. She's such a big girl now. Her stats: 25 inches tall, 14 pounds and 11 ounces and a head circumference of 41.4 cm. The doctor says she looks perfect except for her flat head. We may go and see someone about getting her a helmet. Eric and I don't want to and we'll only do it if it's effecting her face. She'll probably grow out of it and nobody will notice it at all once she gets some hair.

Just yesterday I tickled her and she giggled. And then she kept doing it. It was great! She has also started to stick her hands in her mouth. Drool city! But the doctor says she isn't officially teething yet. And the herky-jerky movements have begun as well. It's so funny to watch.

She's doing wonderful at school. She sleeps more than Sadie did while at school. Sadie would come home from school having slept 30 minutes total some days. She was just a social butterfly and didn't want to miss anything. Gracie will sleep for hours. And all of a sudden, she's one of the oldest kids in her classroom.

Gracie just loves her sister. She lights up when she sees her. It just warms my heart to witness that. Please, please! I just want them to be close as they grow older.

A baking fool

White cake with cream cheese frosting. It's supposed to look like a mini cupcake on a stick.

White cake with cream cheese frosting. I made them for Wendy's birthday.

Brownie cupcakes with walnuts and (you guessed it) cream cheese frosting.
Oh, and caramel drizzle. I made these for the daycare teachers' holiday party.

All I want to do these days is bake. And blog. And then bake some more. I finally made Bakerella's cupcake pops. My parents and brother visited in January. My dad just had his birthday and Sadie's birthday is Monday. So I decided to attempt making these cute little cakes on a stick (http://www.bakerella.com/chocolate-cupcake-pops/). She makes it look easy. It's not. Oh well. They were delicious, very sweet. Maybe next time they'll look better.

100th day celebration

Happy Gracie.

Eric with my sweet, precious.

Sadie, my silly munchkin.

Happy mom after a successful party.
Photos by Wendy Yang Brunk

It's a tradition in the Korean culture to celebrate the 100th day of life. It was thought to be a major milestone during the days when the infant mortality rate was high. Gracie's 100th day or baek il was on Dec. 30, a Wednesday. So we invited our friends to brunch at our place the following Saturday. We had biscuits, ham, quiche, fruit, coffee and juice... all very Korean, very traditional. =) Maybe one day we'll have a party with actual Korean food. But then again, I've been saying I will start to cook Korean for a long time now. Anyway, I digress... Eric and I look at it as a "thank you" to all the people in our lives who helped us get to day 100. All the support - meals made, words of encouragement, kind Facebook posts, offers to babysit - really mean a lot to us and we are so grateful.

My little girl is two weeks shy of being 4 months old. My, time really flies. She's all smiles lately and is such a good baby. She only fusses when she's hungry or extremely tired. It doesn't take much to get her to calm down most of the time. Since she's probably our last child, I can't help but just stare at her and try, try, try to not forget what she's like at this age. You see, I love little, little babies. I'd have two more if a certain husband of mine would agree to it. He says we can if we win the lottery. I'm pretty sure I already have.