Eliana Nakamoto

I'm Eliana Nakamoto (née Barranco), a 26-years-old theatre performer, professional dancer, dance teacher, wife and mother of two children. I'm happily married to Ryoichi Nakamoto, and we are located in Rosewood Park, living close to the beach and close to family. We love it here! After talking to my mother, I decided to follow in her footsteps with my own blog. This will not be your typical parenting blog, as I also love to explore the world and take photos, so I might share some of that as well! ♡

[eliananakamoto]

Birth: 5lbs 2oz, 18in. Now: 14lbs 0oz, 24in.

Good afternoon, everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve made an update on our baby boy. The last update was when he was just one month old, despite saying I would update regularly. Well, it's been crazy since he was born, and finding time for the blog has been hard. But now I'm here. Yuuto is four months old, and it's INSANE how much he has changed! He now weighs 14 pounds, so that means he has gained a little less than 7 pounds since his one month update. He’s looking more like a little child now, and less like a wrinkly old man, and I just love looking at that cute little face. Definitely his Dad’s clone, am I right? Ryo’s parents said he looks nothing like his father as a baby, but that’s on them if they can’t see it like everybody else can. But regardless of who he looks like the most, he’s seriously the cutest little baby. Same goes for his big sister, of course—she is also the cutest. Now, despite being born premature (33+2 weeks to be exact), he is reaching milestones like you’d expect from a baby born full-term. As a preemie myself, we were prepared for him to take some time to learn certain skills, but not our Yuuto. He has become more social, and he loves to babble and copy sounds that he hears. He can hold his head up without support, and push up to his elbows when lying on his stomach. Not fully able to roll over onto his back yet, but he's getting there. Definitely something to keep our eyes open for, for as exciting as it is when your child is learning new skills, it is also horrifying. What if you look away for one second, and your child has rolled over onto the floor? Thankfully, that hasn’t happened to us, and we do our best to have him in a secure enviroment, but the fear is still there, you know. Anyway, I will try my best to make an update on him like this more often from now on. If not once every month, then at least every two months. Will not forget his SIXTH month, so be sure to see an update on him when the day comes. But until then, this will have to do. We hope you’re doing well, and hope to see you again soon, whether it be on here, or on my instagram. Oh, and a HAPPY NEW YEAR. Hope 2022 has been good so far, and will continue to be.

[eliananakamoto]

Good afternoon, lovelies. How are you doing? It’s been a crazy few months, and I’m a little sad that we haven’t been able to update much for a while now. We were doing pretty well, and then we disappeared (whoops.) I’m hopeful that 2022 will be different, but for now, we wish you a Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays. We know that not everyone celebrates Christmas, but we wish you a lovely time regardless. This time, for us, is a time to spread Happiness, rather than a religious celebration, and Christmas Eve is celebrated more than Christmas Day. We will be spending Christmas Eve with my in-laws this year, so with Ryoichi’s family. It will be a little different from what I am used to, but we’re all very excited to spend time with wonderful people. As for my family, we did have a “Christmas Lunch” with them last week, so we do our best to spend time with all family during this time. And tomorrow, Ryo’s younger sister and her sons will be coming over to exchange presents and let the children play together. Her oldest son is a month older than Kei, and her youngest is now old enough to play with them, so I’m sure it will be so much fun. Keiko loves her sweet little cousins.

Anyway, even now, I can't say when we will be posting again. Hopefully soon, but if I don’t post for New Years, I will try to at least get one post up for Yuuto’s 4-month update. But for now, much love ❤

[eliananakamoto]

Ah, TWO years ago, this adorable little blessing entered this world, and changed our lives in the best way possible. I can remember holding the positive test in my hands. It was an overwhelming feeling. It was scary. Would I be a good Mom? Was I even ready to become a Mom? Many worries filled my head. But most of all, I was so happy. Ever since I was very young, I knew I wanted to become a Mom one day, and now it was happening. It was little unexpected though. We weren't trying to get pregnant, but it's the best thing that has ever happened to us. Nine months later, this sweet seven pounds, nine ounces baby girl was born. The first month was exhausting. It took a little longer for me to adjust than expected. Plus, I was in a lot of pain, but it was all worth it. Now, she’s the most adorable two-year-old, who loves unicorns and rainbows. She’s a sweet and funny, and sometimes stubborn little girl, and the best big sister to our little boy. She makes us so very proud 💜

[eliananakamoto]

Hello everyone, and yes, I know we’re “late to the party,” but here are some Halloween photos—or the photos we took shortly before going to my parents’ house. As you can see, then we weren’t super creative with costumes and such this year, but despite that, we had a really good time. But now with Halloween out of our schedules, we can now focus on Keiko’s Birthday this Sunday. Can you believe she’ll be two years old? Time passes too fast, and looking through our family albums, it’s crazy how she used to be so small. She now weighs 25 pounds and is around 33 inches tall, and considers herself to be a “big girl” now, haha. But I think that’s it—I just wanted to post these photos. Hopefully we can find time to update the blog, or at least make a post for Kei on her birthday. Take care, friends.

[eliananakamoto]

Oh, hey there 👋🏼 How are you doing? Did you miss us? Just kidding, but we have been “gone” for a little while—or at least from the blog that is. We are doing great though, and I hope you’re doing well, too. October is a busy month for us, but I’ve finally found some time to update. It won’t be a huge update, but I suppose a small update is better than nothing? The pictures are from this past Monday, so six days ago, when I had the pleasure of baby-sitting my favorite “bonus child,” Miki. I’ve posted her on the blog before [x], so she’s obviously no stranger. Kei’s best friend, definitely. But moving on: with my husband back at work, I was alone with three children, and as we were starting to feel pretty bored at home, I decided to call my Grandpa to ask if we could come by and grab a few pumpkins. After picking a couple small ones, he and Grandma offered the girls some hot cocoa (cooled before served, of course), and we ended up watching a few Disney movies before heading back home in the evening after dinner. Despite having a newborn, I still get bored easily at home. Kei is the same, so on the days it’s not raining like crazy, we spend most hours outside. But again, I hope you’re all doing well. There’s a chance I won’t post again until after Halloween, but not much I can do about that 😅

[eliananakamoto]

Birth: 5lbs 2oz, 18in. Now: 7lbs 3oz, 20in.

Good morning everyone, I’m back with a PROPER update on Yuuto. After all, he is now one whole month old, and the last post I made barely had any words on him despite also being a “baby update.” Time went by quickly, and it's a little hard to comprehend that he is ONE MONTH old already, but speaking from experience: Babies really do grow damn fast! He has gained 2 pounds and 1 ounce since birth, and is now a whopping 7 pounds and 3 ounces, so he is gaining weight well. His sister was 6 ounces heavier than this at birth, so he's not there yet, but very close. He is such a sweet and affectionate baby who prefers to be glued to one of us at all times. He loves cuddles, and will often fall asleep holding on to your finger as if he's making sure you won't try to "escape," haha. He still got dark brown eyes, though his hair can't really decide if it wants to be black, or dark brown. And speaking of hair, it is growing out SO FAST. I mean, the whole baby grows fast, but his hair looks longer every time I see him. He's definitely looking overall a lot chunkier, too. I do see a lot of Ryo in him, and am sure he'll grow up to be his father's mini. But that's about it for now. One month olds don't do a lot yet, so there's not so much to update on. We will try our best to do an update on him every month, so they should be getting more interesting as time passes. For now, have a lovely day.

[eliananakamoto]

Good afternoon, and Happy October—my favorite month of the year, thanks to my mother for always making a huge deal out of this lovely, colorful, spooky and fun time. She is, and has always been EXTRA excited around this time every year, and even invited us home for Halloween SIX months ago, and do we have plans for costumes yet? Not at all! But we still got some time to get that sorted out, so wish us luck, haha. Personally, I’m not so sure if it’s October itself for me, or the beautiful Fall that I love so much. Yes, it’s starting to get a little colder, and we have more rainy days, but the colors, playing with leaves, pumpkin patches, blankets, hot cocoa, and pumpkin pies—ah, I love it. Plus, we always spend LOTS of time with family every October, and I’m really looking forward to spend more time with my parents and my siblings. I haven’t really seen the quadruplets much this year, so I’m definitely excited! On another note, today is October 3rd, so that means: Yuuto is one month old! He has finally reached 7 pounds, and is still such a sweet, happy and easy baby. Ah, I love him so much.

Are you guys excited for pumpkins, colors of Fall, and Halloween?

[eliananakamoto]

Good morning beautiful people. Today is going to be busy. It is my husband’s day off of work, and our friends, Yuri and Jun, and their daughter, will be coming over in a few hours. The plan is to hopefully make a post about that in a few days, but let’s see how things go, and if I’ll be able to find the time. But on to this post, I can’t even begin to describe just how happy this moment with my little girl made me. And look at how adorable she looks in her little outfit and my old ballet shoes. As a dancer, it really warms my heart to see my child interested in dance—something I always hoped for, but would never force on them. Keiko loves to dance and we often see her dance around the living room (or anywhere as long as there is music playing.) Dressing up is one of her favorite activities so it was perfect, and I became quite emotional, I must admit. Maybe in a year or so, if she’s still interested in dance, we might sign her up for lessons, but for now, it’ll just be a fun activity for us to nurish at home.

[eliananakamoto]

Hello everyone. As “promised,” or not really, here is another house tour post. This time it is mine and Ellie (and Yuuto’s) bedroom, and like Keiko’s room, it is not huge. It’s quite nice, and got a pretty comfortable amount of space. We do have one more room in the house, which will later become Yuuto’s personal bedroom, but for now, he will be staying with us. Pictures will come when that time comes, of course, but this is the last house tour post until then. I don’t think there’s much to say about this room—this is where we sleep, so it’s pretty simple. But I hope you are doing well, and take care.

[eliananakamoto]

Good morning, how are you? It’s now three weeks since little Yuuto joined the world, and he’s filling our hearts with so much happiness on a daily basis. He’s so cute, and pretty content all the time. Though still small, he looks chunkier than he is. He now weighs 6 pounds and 10 ounces, so he has not even reached his sister’s birth weight yet at this point. But regardless, he is healthy and he is happy, and that's all that matters. His hair has darkened a bit, and now leans more towards black like his sister and dad's, than dark brown. His eyes are obviously dark. I'd be very surprised if we ever have a child with anything than brown eyes—Ryo's genes are pretty strong. He looks pretty happy all the time, as you can see. He's just so adorable, I never get tired of looking at him. But I think I'm done rambling now—though I could talk about him all day if given the chance. The next baby update will be when he is a month old, and then we’ll try to make an update on him once every month. Take care 👋🏼

[eliananakamoto]

Good afternoon. I must say the blog has been doing pretty well, with many new blog posts this month. Of course, it’s much easier to keep it updated when two people are taking time out to update, and I’m very happy that my husband has shown interest in keeping the blog active. Though it’s hard to tell how things will be going in the future—Ryo is back at work, so that makes one less person to look after the blog, and as I’m busy looking after our children, we might start to become less active at some point. But enough about that, as mentioned in my last blog post, we are expecting quite a few visitors this week—most of them meeting our baby for the first time. My parents came by early yesterday morning, also to help with a few things around the house (bless them.) Then my friend, Yuriko, came by with her sweet daughter, Miki, who our daughter really like to play with. Watching them actually made me emotional. Call it hormones if you must, but just the realization of how much my little girl has grown, especially over the past couple of months, really got the emotions going. She'll be two years old on November 7, and the closer we get, the more excited I become. We haven’t made any set-in-stone plans yet, but Miki and her mom are both invited. But before we get too into the birthday preparations, we got Halloween next month, and growing up, my mom would get madly excited around this time of year. She invited us to celebrate with her several months ago (and with my father and all of my siblings, of course), so that’s what we’ll be doing. But I feel like I'm just rambling at this point, so I best be moving on. Thank you, Yuri, for coming by and for bringing along your beautiful daughter. Keiko and I (and Yuuto) all had a wonderful day with lots of fun. Take care ❤️

[eliananakamoto]

Hello everyone. Well, as I said we would show the rest of the house at some point, I decided to get some photos of Keiko’s room yesterday, and quickly put a post together before I have to work, but as you can see, this is where our daughter sleeps. She’s very much into books, drawing and plushies right now. Her favorite color is pink. The bedrooms are not particularly big, and we might have to make some minor "adjustments" at some point (the toy box is usually not in her room), but she seems to be pretty happy with it. She mostly just uses it to sleep in. As I mentioned in our previous blog post, Kei prefers to use the "play room" to play in, or the living room, so that's how it is right now. But that’s going to be it for now—I just wanted to show her room after all. Take care, and hope to see you again.

[eliananakamoto]

Hello there everyone. I’m aware that Eliana made an update on Yuuto just yesterday, and here's to hoping we won't get someone's hopes up, as updates probably won't happen this frequently from now on. But having most of my family live in Japan, and them constantly asking me questions about how me and my family are doing, I’ve decided to take the chance to post a quick update on our daughter. I don’t have time to be on phone 24/7 after all, but a few are curious about how she’s doing. She's taken the whole "becoming a big sister" extremely well, especially considering how little interest she showed during the pregnancy. It seems she just needed to meet him, and it’s like we’re seeing a different person. She's a pretty easy-going and content child as is, and she hasn't shown any negative feelings towards him—in fact, she's more involved that I would have imagined her to be. We were more nervous about her than we need to be. She's not even two years old, but has turned out to be more "mature" and understanding than we thought. She's pretty helpful, too, and will bring us his blanket or binky whenever she senses he needs them. I'm starting to get excited for when he’s old enough for them to play together, despite really enjoying the newborn stage right now.

On another note, I decided to throw in a picture of the kids' "play room," if you can call it that. Most of Keiko's toys are in her own room, but she seems to prefer playing in this one. It’s pretty much the space from the kitchen and living room, leading to their bedrooms, so we decided to use it for them. It's a pretty comfy room, to be honest, and I know Ellie likes to just sit and relax in there, maybe with a book or something. But I think that's it for this blog post, so take care, and hope to see you again 👋🏼

[eliananakamoto]

Good morning. It’s now been two weeks since our little boy was born, and quite a lot has happened since then. He has gained some weight since taking him home, and according to our health nurse, he is doing well. He still doesn’t cry much, so I suppose you can say we’re in luck when it comes to that. And how about myself? Well, I’ve pretty much been lounging around all week, just enjoying time with my husband and our two children. Ryoichi will be going back to working on his next project on Monday next week, so I will definitely miss having him at home with us all day. The mental stress is starting to wear off, and my body is slowly healing. I don't think I was particularly big this pregnancy, and it even ended early, but still changes have happened that I need to get used to. As for Keiko, she’s been the sweetest. She really adores her baby brother, and it’s just been a really happy and peaceful week with just the four of us together. Next week, while Ryoichi will be busy with work, I will be busy taking care of the kids in the hours he’s not around, AND we have family coming over to meet the baby—most of them for the first time since we needed some time alone. I’m actually quite excited about that, and I just hope that Yuuto will handle the attention well (same goes for Keiko), but I’m sure it will be fine. Not sure if I got any more to share right now. If I do come up with something, I will make a new update when the time comes. But until then, take care, and I hope to see you again.

[eliananakamoto]

Hello everyone, it’s Ryoichi here again. A while ago, Eliana talked about the house and all the stuff we needed done, and showing pictures as soon as things were getting into place. That time seems to have finally come, but since Ellie is busy with the baby right now (and my arm have woken up after holding him for almost two hours), we decided that I should take over the blog for now. Honestly, I feel that is pretty cool, but I definitely don’t have as much to say as my wife. The house, however, has come a long way. When we first bought it, we needed to do lots of painting, fixing the floors and walls, but in general, the house was in good shape. The kitchen and living room is one room. It’s needed a little getting used to, but I’m pretty happy with it (and yes, we do have a gate up at the top of the stairs, we just hadn’t put it up when I took the photos.) The house is definitely not huge, but it got enough space for us and the kids, and that is all we need right now. My favorite part is the backyard, but we’ve already shown pictures of that here on the blog, and not much have really changed. I very much enjoy spending time outside, and we got a little play area for the kids, a place to grow plants, and a good spot to enjoy meals, or just sit down and relax. Though the kitchen and living room might seem small to some, I personally think it’s a perfect size. As stated before, the house isn’t huge, but I’ve never been a fan of big houses—I need to know where my family is in case of emergency or I can’t relax. I don’t got time to get lost in my own home. We will be showing the rest of the house at some point later, but this will be it for now. Take care everyone, and hope to see you again soon 👋🏼

[eliananakamoto]

Good evening everyone, we hope you’re doing well. We’ve had a wonderful day, and with both kiddos now fast asleep, I’m going to take a minute or two to make a quick update on here. As I mentioned in my previous post, Keiko would be spending the weekend with my brother and his girlfriend. Well, it’s Sunday, and instead of picking her up early tomorrow morning, uncle and aunty decided to drop by our house to spend a few hours with us, and to, of course, meet the baby. Keiko has finally met her baby brother, and what a wonderful sight it was. She was a little confused at first and not really sure what to do, but after a few awkward minutes, she was all over him. She is so sweet with him, and I’m so proud of how well she is handling the situation—she’s only 22 months old after all. My brother was really excited to meet the baby, too, and so was his girlfriend. She’s a couple of years older than Tom, and had to confess she was experiencing HUGE baby fever, haha. And about how the baby and I are doing, I’ve been feeling much more at ease after coming home from the hospital, though I still do worry about the whole “did we bring him home too soon.” Yuuto is doing good, and seems to be responding to all the attention well. He only cries when he's hungry or needs his diaper changed, still sleeps a lot and is not picky about who holds him, so I'd say we’ve been blessed with a calm baby, at least for now. But as much as I would love to keep writing, I also have a few things I want done before I have to sleep (and pray the kids don’t wake up yet), so I’ll hopefully see you soon in my next update.

Also, a big THANK YOU to my brother for taking this sweet photo of the four of us together!

[eliananakamoto]

Hello everyone. So finally, after spending what felt like an ETERNITY in the hospital (it was only eight days), we are now home, and I can’t even begin to describe just how relieved I feel. Unfortunately though, we are not complete yet, as our daughter will be spending the weekend with my younger brother and his girlfriend, allowing us to spend some time alone with the baby and get used to things, before we do the big introduction, and we are so excited about that. Keiko hasn’t really shown much interest. She hasn’t asked questions, and she hasn’t seemed all that excited when seeing his pictures. Obviously, she might not even understand much of this yet—she’s just a toddler. Right now she’s having the time of her life with her uncle and aunty Aanya, while Ryo and I are trying our best to take care of a preemie. Yuuto is a whole different experience than when his sister was a newborn. He’s so small and I’m constantly worried about accidentally dropping him. He’s very needy, and is pretty much glued to my chest right now. I feel like I stress a lot more this time, too. Yuuto did lose quite a bit of weight due to some minor complications with feeding after birth, so I’m constantly up on my toes about that. I also keep worrying about maybe we brought him home too soon, even though the doctors at the hospital asured me he’s fine. Having a preemie is stressful, and I know my own birth story and how I had to stay almost two months in the NICU due to complications and being born at just 29+6 weeks, and I can't even begin to imagine how my poor mother must have felt at the time. I mean, here I am losing my mind over a few days in the NICU, when out of my parents' four pregnancies, three of them ended with babies having to stay in the hospital for WEEKS! Ryo is being such a great support though, and I'm so grateful to have him by my side. He's amazing—the best husband and father I could have ever asked for. He's able to make me feel at ease whenever I start to worry too much. Yuuto is much stronger than I give him credit for, and I'm sure he will be fine. But I'm sure you've gotten tired of my ramblings by now, so to end this, I hope you're doing well out there.