Conversations with Leyla

I am desperately trying to get Leyla to watch less TV. We did good for about a week and then we slid back into the old habit. So now we are starting over, again. I told her to pick 3 shows. She listed her favorites: My Little Pony, Backyardigans, and Peppa. Then first thing in the morning, she wants to watch TV. But, when I turn it on and it's not one of those three - I make sure she understands that if she watches Curious George, for example, she can't watch My Little Pony. She agrees. Then two hours later she's begging me to watch another show. I don't think she gets it.

So today, after Lucas finally fell asleep for his nap, we went into her room (reluctantly) to find something else to do. She picked out her Dora coloring book and some crayons. I started coloring Dora's hair pink. Of course she got really mad because Dora's hair is supposed to be brown. And her backpack isn't yellow, it's purple. There's no being creative here! After awhile she got into it though, and let me color Dora all kinds of colors including red and yellow eyes. I called my masterpiece "Zombie Dora." HA! Here's the conversation we had:

Leyla: Here mommy, I'll take the pretty colors. You can have the black ones. (She gave me all the dark colored crayons).
Me: Oh wow, thanks Leyla, how nice of you.
Leyla: You're welcome.

I colored the trees blue and orange.

Leyla: Oh Mommy, that is so cute!

We colored a princess in a high tower.

Leyla: Look mommy that door is locked. Mommy look there is water, the princess can't get out because there is water.
Me: That's right, she's surrounded by water. Maybe we can draw a bridge so she can escape. Can you draw a bridge?
Leyla: Okay (She drew a very nice bridge)
Me: What a good bridge you drew. Now let's color the water blue.
Leyla: Now she can get out!
Me: But how we'll she get down to the bridge? We should draw some stairs. Or, I know, let's draw a ladder (I drew a ladder).
Leyla: But mommy, she's in a window...
Me: Right, that's why I'm drawing a ladder.
Leyla: Noooo we have to draw stairs! (She knocks my hand away). I know, I have an idea. (She colors over my ladder, exactly like a ladder). Now She can go down the stairs!
Me: Oh good job Leyla, we saved the day just like Dora.
Leyla: Yay! I saved the day!

Oh, Leyla.

Science Museum

Boy am I on a roll with posting! This is like my 3rd post in a week, I think.

First we started the day off with homemade biscuits, sausage, and boiled eggs. Leyla loves to help bake so that was something fun we did together.

Then I took Leyla to the Perot Science Museum here in Dallas. It was in the low-60s today so I thought an indoor activity would be a good idea. I looked up several places like discovery museums, jump and plays, parks, go-karts - before deciding just to go to the science museum. There was a neat jump and play place but the open jump for toddlers is only on Wednesdays and Thursdays so that wasn't going to work for today.

Luckily, I learned from Chuck-e-Cheese and wrote down step by step directions to find the museum. And I only got lost for about 15 minutes, when I hit downtown. But I didn't have to call anyone or ask for directions and found my way to the right place...haha.

 The top floor of the museum was a dinosaur exhibit. She enjoyed seeing the bones and recognized a few from one of her kiddy TV shows, but the mammoth scared her! It had huge tusks and there was a stuffed bison beside it too that I think she thought was real. But she was fine really after we looked at it together.

She thought it was cool to sit in the dinosaur footprint.
Each floor had a different exhibit but for her age it was a little too much reading and explaining and in-depth. Plus I wanted to walk through quickly since I knew we'd be there awhile and we had 4 floors to get through! On the geology level though, she liked looking at the pretty crystals in the caves AND we got to experience a fake earthquake - she laughed at that when she couldn't stay standing!

 So we headed down to the lower level to the Children's Museum. They had a river-dam station where the kids could play in the water with boats and cups to measure and pour.

 Then there was a farmer's market where you could "unload" the truck with the groceries and stock the produce in the store. And of course buy and sell the groceries. Leyla just hoarded all the baskets.

 There was a construction site where you could build with these foam blocks, transport them on conveyor belts, crawl through tunnels and go down slides, etc.

 THEN she realized there was a sandbox outside. I am so lucky I have a child that doesn't like feeling dirty! She chose to sit at the table and build a castle instead of sitting in the actual sandbox. One kid was sitting there covering herself with sand...and another throwing it in his hair....ugh.

 It was getting close to 4:00 by then so I started getting Leyla ready to leave - we headed back upstairs one last time because another mom told me there were some interactive exhibits I had missed. They had an exhibit where you could build a robot, play with kinex, remote control cars, and other mechanical things.

 They had a little music studio too, so we played the drums!

All in all it was a good day and I think money well spent - she enjoyed it and got to do some new things. We were there from around 12:30 to 4:30! And of course she fell asleep in the car. I really want her to get to do some fun things while we are here, explore places she can't in Honduras (like the zoo and the museum). Hopefully it'll be warm enough later this week that we can go to the park and feed the ducks at the pond. And if I don't go into labor soon, we may get a chance to go to the aquarium too.

I was secretly hoping all the walking at the museum would bring on some contractions....but nothing yet. :)

23 Weeks and Other News

Well, I am past the half-way point now! Incredible! Now that I am not working, I am busy making a few preparations for the baby and getting the house in order!

First, I finished the baby blanket :)

I made the giraffe first and the blanket to match. I think they turned out perfect! The blanket is thin with lots of breathable holes and is a teddy bear pattern. Of course, for Honduras, I didn't want a super thick blanket!

 
 October 17, Loyda had her baby! His name is David and he weighed 6 lbs and 2 oz. She was a week overdue and ended up having a c-section, but he was born healthy and she is recovering very well.

My next project: I had been wanting to do this for awhile and finally decided to just go or it! Here is the before and below is the after: 

it would not load the right direction!!! but, there it is. I had problems getting the oven door to stay upright but for the most part it turned out the way I wanted! Leyla has been busy making cakes :) Now the next project will be to make her some felt food! Her birthday is on Monday so I will post about that next!

New Job, New Activities

I started my new job at Predisan last week. I am really enjoying the daily devotionals and learning more about what they do. Everyone is really nice, and while I knew most of them beforehand, I of course hadn't worked with them. Last week I toured the clinic, CEREPA, and CEDECO in the mountains. I had never been to CEREPA or CEDECO before and really enjoyed the tours. CEREPA is a rehabilitation center with tons of great programs and CEDECO is the base camp in the mountains.

Other than touring, I've been listening and learning LOTS of information. It is a bit overwhelming actually! Pretty soon all the responsiblities will be mine and that is a little scary! I have the whole month of February to train though. Beginning in March, I'll be on my own. Most of my responsiblities involve correspondence with donors and visiting groups or interns. I just have to learn who all the contacts are and what information needs to be received/given. This is my first "real" job so it is definitely going to require more effort and involvement on my part, but it is exciting. I like it.

In other news, I came across a few ideas on Pinterest for shirt-revamping and it has really gotten me interested in learning to sew. (here's the link: http://tearosehome.blogspot.com/2010/01/tutorialruffle-shirt.html) I've been thinking about it for awhile now but never done anything about it. As soon as I get settled into this job and get some other projects done, I'm going to buy a sewing machine and make myself a new wardrobe! :) I am excited about that. My problem is though that I get too many ideas in my head and want to do them all at once! I need to finish one project before I start another! So, learning to sew is going to be my March project, ha.

Here's a picture of Leyla to finish, because I can't blog without a picture of her!

She loooooves those dogs....

Gingerbread Houses

We had a lot of fun Tuesday making Gingerbread Houses! Angel and Carmen came over with Isaac as well as Amanda and Roger. I made the houses earlier that day and everyone else brought candy. It was a lot of fun because they don't decorate gingerbread houses in Honduras, so it was something different for them! I was going to make gingerbread but with my dad coming in, I didn't have enough time. So, I bought the closest thing I could find to graham crackers and used that. At first I got icing everywhere and almost gave up (my icing bag had a hole), but I was able to make a better bag out of plastic baggies and it worked perfectly.

 I made oreo balls, peppermint bark, and red velvet cake. I was going to make Christmas tree cupcakes, but since I made cream cheese icing, it wasn't stiff enough. So I made 12 cupcakes and used the rest of the batter to make a cake. The cake turned out better; the cupcakes looked sad cause the icing just ran off...

 

 

 

 

 

The kids' house didn't last long!

Christmas!!!

Here are my finished Christmas projects and our tree! It's hard to get good pictures of the trees because of the lights and the flash of the camera, but I did my best.
 The first one: green garland and gold, red, and green balls with multicolored lights.

The second one is taller and made of silver garland, pink, silver, blue, turquoise, and purple balls with white twinkly lights. I like the lights because they have several settings with cool effects! I really wanted to do some interesting colors too, since I couldn't on the actual Christmas tree (already had a color scheme). I love the colors and the textures of the different balls - some are shiny, some frosty, and some sparkly!

 And here's our tree....we bought the Angel on sale last year in the US the day after Christmas, so this its the first time on the tree!

 

I LOVE my skirt. I almost didn't buy it because I didn't want to spend anymore money but it was just SO cute! The Santa and the teddy bear are 3D and really soft. Actually here's a picture when we put the tree together: Leyla thought she would just take a nap on it!

Daughter, Wife, Mother.....Hairdresser?

Ha. I am all these things and more! Maria was unhappy with her hair, saying it had no shape and was boring. She also wanted bangs. So we watched some youtube videos and I went at it! I cut in some layers and I gave her bangs. Her hair was longer in front than in the back so it seemed like I cut off a lot, but really I didn't cut but 1/2 inch off the back length. I think it looks really cute!

She took this of herself while I was at school, so you can't see the full haircut, but she still looks cute!

Toy Box for Leyla

Leyla had an old box with her toys in it. It was old and not looking so pretty, so I bought some paper and supplies and dressed it up!
The two sides opposite each other say "Leyla" and "Rebekah." The third and fourth sides say "Toys." And I'm well aware that the flowers will be pulled off within a week, ha.

I Love My Pilot Pens

I love my Pilot pens! They make life so much more colorful! Every day that I have to sit down and make lesson plans for school is a chore; so I write them with my pretty pens! I also make a heading at the top with the day of the week. I wanted to see them all together, and thought they would look neat in a calendar or something, so I took pictures of each one (yes, of each one) and cut and pasted them together (yes, I know, I'm a dork). Here is the result. Aren't they pretty?

Which one is your favorite? (Click on it to see them bigger)