Leyla

I have a new idea. I am going to buy a cute journal/notebook and keep a journal for Leyla to give to her when she is older. Maybe I'll give it to her when she turns 10 or something, or 16, or on her wedding day (yikes!)...I am going to mark the month, day, year, and her age for each entry and just write whatever cute thing she is doing at that time. It won't be a daily or even a monthly journal, just a bunch of random entries throughout her childhood. I want to remember and be able to tell her those little things like how she used to say "bopillo" instead of "shoes" or how yesterday she picked up her sandwich and told me, "Look mommy, triangle!" I think she will appreciate being able to look back and remember the cute little things she did. I know I always asked my mom, and she always told us the silly words we made up when we couldn't pronounce the correct word.

Here are some other cute things she has been doing lately that I will include in the journal:

- She is very headstrong and a lot like a little tornado. She has a little attitude. When I tell her not to do something several times and she keeps doing it, she ends up looking at me and putting her little finger to her mouth and saying "Shhhh!"

-The other day I was talking to a neighbor and it was late. We said goodbye, but kept talking. Leyla looked at the lady and said "Shhh! Bye-bye!"

-She goes outside and tells Lizzy, our dog, "Vaya por aya!" (not sure how to spell that; in English she's basically telling the dog to get away from her/go away)

-She doesn't say "thank you" anymore or just "gracias" but instead at EVERYTHING she says, "Ahh, gracias!"

-When I try to dress her, she tells me that every single piece of clothing is "susio" or "dirty" to avoid getting dressed.

-She runs outside to play without her shoes constantly; I bring them to her and she says "ahh, gracias!" and then 10 minutes later I find her without shoes again. When I ask her where they are, she says "noo, susio!" or "nooo, pee pee!" and refuses to put them on again.

-She loves her "Toddler Tunes" DVD and sings along to the Wheels on the Bus (her favorite) and the ABC Song (except she says it "A-B-Key Leyla")

-Her favorite book is her new Llama Llama book where llama llama is sick. She calls it "Nama Nama" and has several pages memorized. She puts her hand to her head and says "Hot!" and her finger in her mouth with her tongue out and says "Ucky!" (the medicine tastes yucky).

New words she has learned in just the past few weeks: (she is picking up everything really fast now)
-lemony = lemonade
-bucket
-keen = clean
-angle, ircle, ar = triangle, circle, star
-Big Bird, Ernie, Cookie Ta-to (Cookie Monster)
-Manca = Marcos's sister Blanca
-hungry
-cheese
-urky = turkey
-car (before she always said "beep beep")

That's all I can think of for now!

Sparkle Glitter Candles

 I got the idea on Pinterest, to reuse old baby food jars. Of course I have a ton, so I thought I'd try it! I made it my own by adding ribbon around the top. I also tried a couple designs on two of them! Candy cane stripes and Christmas trees :)

 

 

Now I just need some candles....
Total cost for glitter, ribbon, and glue: 25 Lps. ($1.50) Yay!

How does your garden grow...

I am so impatient for my flowers to be big, lovely bushes with blooms all over! My rose has 5-6 buds on it right now that look like they will bloom all at the same time, so that will be really pretty soon. My Dahlia had its first 2 flowers and they were very nice and big - my first real success at growing a flower from a cutting!

 I am also really excited for my "Colchon de Nino." I can never remember what it's called in English...but it's so pretty! A friend gave them to me from her yard; I have two varieties, this orange one, and a purple one. These are the most flowers they've ever had at once! It took them awhile to really take root and get "comfy" but I can tell that now they are going to grow really fast. I really want them to grow and cover the ground underneath the roses and hibiscus I have planted in the same area. It will be so pretty!

 

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!

Overnight Trip to Santa Cruz

I wanted to take my mom to the mountains so she could see what life is like up there, and also to show her Marcos's land and trees. It was an interesting trip!

 This is Dona Flora's house where Marcos always stays. We weren't going to stay there at first because it is very small and we knew it would be uncomfortable...but, it was too far to go somewhere else (we would've had to carry all our blankets and pillows!)

 

 Leyla was really excited playing with the cat!

 Our bulls!

 Leyla walking all by herself!

 Love this one of mom crossing the creek! Ha!

 This is the house that Marcos built. It is mostly for storage.

 We had to hike up the side of the mountain to bring the cows down.

 

 The view from up top!

It was really windy!

I had fun, and Leyla too, but I think my mom could have stayed home, ha. She was not enjoying it! Too rustic and afraid she would get sick the whole time. I guess it is a shock if you're there the first time!

Mommy-me

Mommy-me is what Leyla called my mom while she was here. I called her "grand-mommy" and Leyla turned it into mommy-me! So cute! Here are a few pictures from her stay.

 After picking her up from the airport Tuesday we headed to the mall for some lunch and shopping.

 This is what Leyla did the entire time! Over and over and over and over....

We had a "photo shoot" on the 23rd and these are a few my mom snapped.

Mommy-me gave Leyla a bottle for her baby and this is how she fell asleep one day :)

 

 

 

 

 

Leyla's Finished Christmas Plates

They turned out great! I made 3 for me and 1 for each grandparent. I made Santa Claus's for everyone because it looked like it would be the cutest; then I made a Santa Claus, a Christmas Tree, and a Reindeer for me to keep. When I finished the little Reindeer print, it was SO cute now my mom wants it! Oh well, too late now - I had already made all of them. So everyone gets a Santa and I get to keep the reindeer :)

 So cute!! I love it!

 Her little handprint several times makes the tree - hard to see individual prints but it looks cute!

She smeared her hand on these but it's cute!