Egg Hunt

Leyla is such a smarty. She found the eggs all by herself! She learned really quickly what the point of the game was. It was fun!

Semana Santa

This past week was Semana Santa, or "Holy Week" in Honduras. Since our family is not Catholic, all we did of course was take the vacation days and relax or go swimming. Easter Sunday we went to church and then out to eat lunch with family. It was odd because the Sunday sermon was not about the Resurrection...things are a little different here I guess.

 eating her favorite snack - popcorn!

 before heading to the river!

 At the lake on Sunday. Leyla loved walking around and playing in the sand!

 Here are the eggs we dyed Sunday afternoon. Nobody dyes eggs here so I just kind of forgot about it! Then I was talking to my mom and I thought, well duh, I boil some eggs and dye them even if we don't have plastic eggs!

We didn't get to have a hunt yet because it got too late. Maybe this afternoon we'll try one!

Cinnamon Rolls

My latest attempt at baking turned out super delicious. I was looking for a bread recipe to and came across this recipe for cinnamon rolls that looked so tempting I just had to try it. I made the bread (just plain white bread) and honey butter to go with it (delicious as well!) and then this morning tried the cinnamon rolls. I was very proud of myself because both the bread and the cinnamon rolls came out perfectly, for a first-time non-professional baker who had never used yeast or kneaded dough in her life! Oh and did I mention I made both from scratch - without a bread machine?? :) Here's how they looked:

Here's the recipe: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/CinnamonRollsFantastic.htm

Learning to Read!

 Leyla has started trying to "read" and she is SO cute! Here she is looking at pictures.

I took a super cute video of her "reading" a book:

Carne Sudada

What's for lunch? My friend Dania taught me how to make "carne sudada" and this is my version I made for lunch today on my own. It's almost like making a pot roast. "Sudada" means sweaty. So it literally means "sweaty meat" - not very appetizing, haha. It is pretty easy to make: just cook the beef in water with vegetables (carrots, onions, green peppers) and seasonings, and then after it has boiled down, add the tomatoes to make a tomato sauce, and let it cook in the sauce. I used tomato paste and tomatoes. Then eat it over rice! Yummmmm.

Happy Anniversary!

Our 2 year anniversary was yesterday, April 14th. It was nice to go out and "celebrate." Although there's not much to do here, we managed to have some fun - we went to the Juan Carlos for dinner and had an anafre, a pincho, and a churrasco...yummmm :) Then we went to the bakery and got some cheesecake! I haven't had cheesecake in Honduras before so this was a treat. It actually had a pumpkin pie taste to the crust! It was good.  Then we drove around awhile and wasted time. We took a few pictures eating dinner - here's the best one.

Potty Training: Day 3

      Leyla woke up this morning completely dry and when I took her to go pee, she didn't want to sit on the potty. Then she started peeing, I rushed her to it, and she finished on the potty. So, in spite of the hit-and-miss, we applauded for what did make it in the potty.
      When I got home from school, Maria gave me the same report - no accidents! And, apparently, she sat on the potty to read and play, too. Hard to believe when as soon as I walk in the door she pitches a fit over sitting on it! I wonder if it's just me, being her mommy, because later I took a break and Maria had her sitting on the potty for a good 30 minutes just sitting there!
      So, I was a little discouraged all day, not to mention exhausted, and Leyla had 1 hit when I got home and then 2 accidents and then wouldn't sit or pee. At about 6:30 I took her with me to the bathroom and she peed! That made it all better - to have one good experience finally at the end of the day and then brush her teeth, diaper her up, and put her to bed.
      Now comes the time when I determine the success or failure of the 3-day potty training. I had begun to think it wasn't worth it and she wasn't understanding, but at the same time I was so confused because she learned in half a day to wipe herself and flush the toilet, she says "pee pee" and she knows the potty is "potty." So I thought, why won't she sit on it by herself??? She seems to understand the rest of the process! So I took a count: 7 hits to 2 misses - that's a 77% success rate! That tells me she's actually doing pretty well. AND the fewer accidents today tell me that she's learned to "hold it" for longer periods of time. I think that means we will keep trying at least the rest of the week and hopefully she will sit on it on her own in the next couple of days. I am going to go to bed and rest up for the long day ahead! Wish me luck.