I came home from school yesterday to this beautiful baby splashing away in her own little tub of water - she was having so much fun she barely noticed I had gotten home!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Dinner
Here are a few of the new recipes I've tried lately.
Monday, May 23, 2011
More Baking
As you already know, I have started baking and selling bread. Right now I only sell three types: banana bread, friendship bread, and cinnamon rolls. The banana bread sells like crazy; the friendship bread is almost like cake, but don't have a huge demand for it; the cinnamon rolls I have made twice now and everyone loves them. The only thing is they are a bit expensive. I am working on a way to adjust the recipe to lower my costs some and sell them for a bit less. 
Then it gets covered with the good stuff...
...and rolled up into a log. Then I cut it into the rolls and place them in the pan to rise for another hour.
Ready for the oven!
Here is the dough ready to rise!
After it rises for about an hour, I stretch it out in a rectangle (pretty big).
Here they are, out of the oven and covered with cream-cheese-butter icing :) Yummy!
Leyla
Yes, my baby's eyelashes are naturally that long and beautiful :) j/k, she likes to play in my make-up while I am getting dressed, so sometimes she plays dress-up too. Here she has mascara on!
Trying to dress herself! She has really started taking an interest in getting dressed lately. But, she wants to put everything on her feet - even her shirts, she thinks are pants! (Don't look at her dirty foot...)
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Mother's Day
My 2nd Mother's Day :) Being a mother is a wonderful gift. Leyla brings so much joy and life to our little family and I am so proud of her! She is an amazing little person and I feel so blessed to be her mother. I can't imagine life without her!!! I love her little hugs and how she pats my back, and plays with my hair with her arm wrapped around my neck, I love how she scrunches her little face when she cries, I love when she gets excited when she sees balloons, or a bird, or a dog...I love just watching her play and trying to imitate me or Marcos, I love her silly dance moves and her squeals when we play chase, I love her sweetness - how she hugs everyone/everything, and I love watching her sleep peacefully in my arms at night. Thank you God for giving me such a wonderful gift!
Here are the flowers Marcos bought me:
Here are the flowers Marcos bought me:
Leyla at 18 Months
Hard to believe Leyla is a year and a half already! She's almost two! Wow.
She is learning and growing like crazy. Her favorite game is transferring water between any cup or container she can find. She loves to "read" and is learning new words! On occasion, she will repeat after me her colors, purple, blue, red, yellow, and green: puh-puh, boo, re, eyow, and ree :) She is still working on those r's! Another new word of hers is "agua," which she says pretty perfectly since it sounds like a baby word anyway! She is learning to count but can't say her numbers yet; she just holds out her fingers and points to each one, saying "duh."
And, she is completely potty trained!! She goes all by herself - says "pee pee" and sits down to go! She jumps up and claps and sometimes even carries the potty to me to show me (that can be a little scary sometimes) so I can dump it in the toilet. She just uses a diaper at night now! It is so sweet, I am so proud of her!
Playing in a mall in Tegucigalpa.
She is learning and growing like crazy. Her favorite game is transferring water between any cup or container she can find. She loves to "read" and is learning new words! On occasion, she will repeat after me her colors, purple, blue, red, yellow, and green: puh-puh, boo, re, eyow, and ree :) She is still working on those r's! Another new word of hers is "agua," which she says pretty perfectly since it sounds like a baby word anyway! She is learning to count but can't say her numbers yet; she just holds out her fingers and points to each one, saying "duh."
And, she is completely potty trained!! She goes all by herself - says "pee pee" and sits down to go! She jumps up and claps and sometimes even carries the potty to me to show me (that can be a little scary sometimes) so I can dump it in the toilet. She just uses a diaper at night now! It is so sweet, I am so proud of her!
Eating a pastelito! Doesn't she look all relaxed and comfy?
Friday, May 6, 2011
La Panaderia en Mi Casa
I have been making banana bread for awhile now and just started experimenting with friendship bread and other bakery items, but, the idea to sell them was always just an idea - until now. Everyone has always complimented my cooking/baking and when I mentioned it to my classes, I was surprised at how quickly I received orders - several students were interested in buying my breads. So, I made a couple loaves and brought them to school to sell in individual portions and was practically bombarded the first day with "ooh I want one!" and sold out the first three hours of classes! Three more students requested bread and that night boy did I about kill myself making bread - I was so exhausted, I can't believe my legs didn't collapse underneath me!
I made 4 loaves of friendship bread and 3 loaves of banana bread and once again, sold out the next day and received more orders for Monday...It's beginning to look like this idea of opening a bakery might just be a winner. Here's what my kitchen looked like Wednesday night:
I only have two pans so I was constantly washing dishes in between batches. Probably should invest in some more! Sad part is, there was no bread leftover for me :(
I made 4 loaves of friendship bread and 3 loaves of banana bread and once again, sold out the next day and received more orders for Monday...It's beginning to look like this idea of opening a bakery might just be a winner. Here's what my kitchen looked like Wednesday night:
Monday, May 2, 2011
Potty Training Update
I was so proud of Leyla yesterday! It's been almost a month since we started potty training, and Leyla has been running around naked the whole time. However we've slacked off a little bit in putting her on the potty because it's just a little time-consuming. Anyway, just last week I started noticing that she was becoming a little more aware when she had accidents, and saying "No!" a lot when I asked her if she needed to go, and then yesterday she really surprised me...
She woke up in the morning and peed on the potty. That was exciting. Then later that morning we caught the signs and she had her BM in the potty. The rest of the day was not so great, she had several accidents, mostly because we weren't paying attention. But, when I said "Do you need to go pee-pee on the potty?" she would go over and pick it up and sit on it (backwards), playing.
That evening, Leyla was playing with it and sitting on it when I went to the bathroom. I came back and asked her if she needed to go, and she sat on the potty, and when she stood up there was pee! She had already gone before when she was playing! All by herself!! And later, we were watching TV, and I told her to sit on it, she got up, then sat back down with a book. She was sitting there for awhile, so after a little bit I asked her if she had done anything and helped her stand up. Boy was I surprised to see *that* in the potty!! She had made no signs at all that she was doing anything on the potty, I was so proud of her!
So, Leyla is making little signs of progress and I am very happy about it :) I think she will be potty-trained in just a week or two more!
She woke up in the morning and peed on the potty. That was exciting. Then later that morning we caught the signs and she had her BM in the potty. The rest of the day was not so great, she had several accidents, mostly because we weren't paying attention. But, when I said "Do you need to go pee-pee on the potty?" she would go over and pick it up and sit on it (backwards), playing.
That evening, Leyla was playing with it and sitting on it when I went to the bathroom. I came back and asked her if she needed to go, and she sat on the potty, and when she stood up there was pee! She had already gone before when she was playing! All by herself!! And later, we were watching TV, and I told her to sit on it, she got up, then sat back down with a book. She was sitting there for awhile, so after a little bit I asked her if she had done anything and helped her stand up. Boy was I surprised to see *that* in the potty!! She had made no signs at all that she was doing anything on the potty, I was so proud of her!
So, Leyla is making little signs of progress and I am very happy about it :) I think she will be potty-trained in just a week or two more!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Leyla's twin!
We met this little girl this morning in the market - I saw her walking towards us from afar and thought, that could be Leyla! It was so cute, they look almost exactly alike, from the back you wouldn't know the difference! Her name is Audrey and she even sounds like Leyla - the first thing she said was "wow wow!" just like Leyla! (bow wow).
