Ashlyn "walking"

Here's a video of Ashlyn "walking" by pushing a chair in front of her. She also says "bye" to us as she leaves the room.
This morning she was standing up in her crib when I came in to get her. Her eyes were peeking up over the top; she is getting so active! As soon as I put her down she's on the move. It's crazy to think she's going to be a toddler soon!

Nica. rice dish

The other night our neighbor came over to bring us some of his daughter’s birthday meal. It was a special meal and his family had taken all day to prepare it. He had even taken the time to find someone who speaks English and had them write down how to explain all this to us. How sweet of him! After explaining, he handed us a plate of steamed plantain leaves tied up with string.

After opening the plantain leaf I saw these gelatinous looking cubes and said “What is that? It looks like chunks of fat!” Adam responded by stabbing one with his fork and popping it in his mouth. A second later his face twisted in disgust and he stated “yep, that's fat”.
So it has chunks of fat, perfectly cut into large cubes. Rather gross according to our food tastes. But the majority of it was a mixture of rice and potatoes with spices. Adam ate it (minus the fat cubes) and said it was pretty good.

Ok, so I have to come clean. I didn’t even try one bite. I had already eaten supper and the fat cubes turned me off a bit. But honestly I probably wouldn’t have tried it anyway. I just have no adventuresome spirit when it comes to food. I’d much rather stick to things I know and love. What can I say? It is one of my many short comings of a missionary.
In my defense, when living in India I ate more than my share of mushy rice dishes.

Ashlyn Update

This month Ashlyn has really started to engage us. She laughs when we laugh and tries to “talk” about things to us. She has also discovered she can make us laugh. Once she figures out we think something is funny she will do it over and over again.

One thing that makes Adam and I laugh is when she does her “tri-pod”. I’m not sure why we call it a “tri-pod” the name just seemed to fit. It’s when she makes a V with her body by putting her hands and head down in front of her. At first she started doing this on things she liked, a rug or blanket, even sand. But now she just does it all the time, maybe she just likes the way things look upside down.

Ashlyn has also started to pull herself up and loves walking with me holding her hands. Her favorite place to stand is at the living room window because it’s low enough so she can see out. I am nervous about her falling and banging her head on our tile floor, but so far so good!

In the morning I usually sweep the house and she just follows me around from room to room playing with toys or finding something new to explore. I love hearing her palms smack the floor as she crawls after me. Lately she has been “turning on the jets” with her crawling. She has her normal crawling speed, but then sometimes when she’s excited she makes this funny panting sound and takes off across the room.

We only have one step in our house and Ashlyn has been fascinated with learning how to go down it. I have tried to teach her to how to slide herself backwards so she is going feet first, but for some reason she doesn’t seem to get that. So she attempts to go head first. She puts her hands down first and then tries to walk her hands forward enough so she can get her legs down. One time she was right in the middle of this process and realized it wasn’t going to work. She just froze and then I heard her quietly say “ut-oh”.

Every month I think to myself, “I’m so in love with this pudgy, sweaty, toothless little girl, I can’t possibly fall more in love.” Yet every month I fall more in love with her! As cheesy as it sounds it’s true, I just adore her.

Christened

In Nicaragua most lower class families get around on horse carts, bicycles, or just by good-old walking. Many people are not use to traveling on buses, trains, cars etc. Because of this and the roads being rather bumpy, when they do get in a vehicle they often get a little motion sick.

That being said...I would like to announce that our truck has officially been christened…twice. I’m not sure why they don’t mention they are feeling sick so we can pull over. But just rolling down the window and sticking their head out seems to be the preferred choice. Needless to say, it gets on the outside of the vehicle. Right now our truck has throw-up down the side of it. Yuck!
I’m just glad they have such a good sense of humor about it. They really don’t seem to mind too much at all!
I will refrain from adding a photo to this blog. :)

Visitors!

This weekend Adam's Uncle Bob and Aunt B came to visit us. They just moved to San Jose, Costa Rica about two months ago. Right now they are in school learning Spanish for one year. After finishing their schooling they will see where God leads them next.

It was great to see some familiar faces and to just talk! We shared our different experiences and stories about living in Central America. One silly difference we noticed was Costa Rican’s always carry an umbrella with them. But in Nicaragua few people carry umbrellas, most people just stand around in the rain. Bob & B brought their umbrellas with them, Adam and I don’t even own one! My theory is, it’s hotter here and rain is a nice way to cool off.

While they were here we toured our town, the camp, Granada and San Juan Del Sur. They have such a laid back, yet adventuress attitudes. It was our pleasure to show them around!

Ashlyn also really enjoyed having them here! It was two days of going non-stop, but she seemed to enjoy the change of pace. She loved all the extra attention and said "hi" to them at least 20 times a day. I think her favorite part was going to San Juan Del Sur where we found a secluded beach full of rocks. Ashlyn loved playing with the rocks and of course eating some sand as well.

It was a really fun, refreshing weekend and I miss having them!