Energetic. Full of life. Goofy. Silly. Fun. Loving. These are all words that pop into mind when I think of Lizet and her huge smile that is always on her face. Lizet is part of my extended family, cousin-in-law, cousin by marriage – we were trying to figure out how to describe our relationship and we came up with all of these, but eventually settled on the fact that her future daughter will probably call me auntie and Taro uncle. Regardless of the title and name, Lizet is family and I am excited that her and Rich are going to welcome a baby soon.
Lizet is going to be a wonderful mother. This is how I know. At one of the parties we had at our house, Lizet was sitting outside when a squirrel fell from the tree. She wanted to take care of the injured creature so Lizet walked inside and grabbed a handful of nuts to feed the squirrel. There was this innate desire to care for it. Most people probably would have left the squirrel alone and just completely disregarded it; Lizet didn’t. Even though the story itself does not have a happy ending (Sadly the squirrel was torn to pieces from neighborhood cats.), Lizet cared for an animal that most people would stay away from or shoo away. This is what a mother does – nurse, care for, love, and shelter a little being who is trying to understand and take part in the big, open world.
Lizet looked absolutely stunning at her shower. She was making jokes, laughing, and rubbing her belly. I also thought it was cute when she would scratch around her belly and tell us how she was hot and itchy; it seemed like a typical silly action made by Lizet with the recognizable smile on her face. You could feel the excitement in the warm, spring air from Lizet, her sister, and her mother as they talked about the new addition arriving in early July.
Lizet, congratulations again on your pregnancy and Taro and I look forward to welcoming a baby girl to the family! We are so excited for you and Rich and know that this baby girl is extra lucky to have you two as parents!
Audrey, Rich’s sister, threw an amazing baby shower for Lizet. Audrey gave Lizet two options for the type of food that she wanted and Lizet selected fried chicken. The fried chicken was amazing and made entirely from scratch! When I arrived to the house, Audrey was busy battering the chicken and frying it on the stove. On top of that, she made biscuits herself. It was a southern-style feast and people could not keep their eyes or hands away from the spectacular spread! Check out Audrey’s blog for details about her homemade chicken.
The lovely chef in the kitchen:
Dessert was cupcakes from Dots:
The first baby shower game was measuring Lizet’s belly. I love her stance; she was ready to be measured and according to her, anyone who guessed too large would have to immediately leave the premises.
For the second game, everyone had to draw their own version of Lizet’s future baby…but on top of their heads on a paper plate! Some were a bit abstract while some closely resembled a baby. There were a lot of laughs as Lizet went through each image. I especially like how Lizet’s sister drew a baby farting since Lizet’s nickname is Stinky.
I love the expression on Lizet’s face in these two pictures. The first one has her holding up cute yellow shorts while the second one shows a look of shock when she heard how many diapers a baby could potentially go through in one day.
The last night we were in Hong Kong we saw the light show (quite overrated) and took a couple pictures by the Science Center and on Nathan Road. Even though we spent only a few days in Hong Kong, it was so much fun and made me realize that 1. I am a lucky girl to travel all over the place and 2. I have a great travel companion and partner, Taro. The whole entire trip, Japan and Hong Kong, was everything that I could expect it to be and I hope that one day, very soon, we can do it all over again. It is goodbye for now – a world that seems so far and in a dream – but I know we will be back soon…
Before we left Hong Kong, I really wanted to have squab, which I am a huge fan of. I could only remember one place that had it and luckily, it wasn’t too far from our hotel and it was open late. When we reached the restaurant (sadly I cannot remember the name), I then remembered how I wanted to try their egg tarts when I ate here with my mom, but was not able to because they sold out. I made a huge mistake again and instead of snatching the few that were left outside, I waited until the end of dinner and they were ALL GONE. I was so sad – thwarted again by the infamous egg tarts! Despite not trying one, Taro and I instead decided to try the crispy bun.
What is a crispy bun? Essentially it is just a piece of sweet bread cut in half with butter and condensed milk on top. It was disgustingly good. It was warm, buttery, and crunchy on the outside with the soft goodness of the inner part of the bread. At first I thought Taro would think it was just plain fattening and excessive, but he loved it. He enjoyed it so much that we ordered another one. This time it had butter, condensed milk, and peanut butter. We demolished it – and were really curious to see what the other versions of the crispy buns tasted like, but we just could not do it. I could feel the pounds adding up and was thankful that we had to walk back to our hotel.
The crispy bun was a treat, but next time…portuguese egg tart!
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