Ho! Ho! Ho!

Santa came!  Santa came!  Vanessa's excitement on Christmas morning was everything but disappointing.  Of course we went to bed having left Santa his milk and cookies, along with her left over popcorn (which she insisted on leaving) we had while we watched Frosty the Snowman.  When morning came, she woke up asking if it was Christmas and if Santa came and knew the answer as soon as she walked down the stairs and saw the tree...I mean...the presents.  Santa blessed us with a very Merry Dora Christmas.  Her Christmas wish was fulfilled with both a Dora house and a kitchen - both which we have played with practically every minute of every day since.  That Santa did good.  He even brought Roman a great little piano which he LOVES (how clever of him to find it in the basement from when Vanessa was a baby)

Inspite of both mommy and Roman getting hit with the cold that Daddy and Vanessa had the previous week, we had a wonderful weekend.  We hope all our family and friends did as well!  We'll leave this post with a little video song from our piano man  ;-)



my first Christmas
mi primera Navidad



milk, cookies, popcorn and a drawing for Santa

D-D-D-Dora Castle

exchanging gifts



ooooooooo



play us a song piano man

Santa

It's finally here.  We've finally hit the "Santa" phase.  There is no mistaken who the jolly old man with white whiskers is.  This Christmas is for sure the most fun with Vanessa and I can't even imagine next year.  Between preschool and books, Vanessa is fully aware of this fat man in a red suit and what he signifies.  More importantly...what he brings come Christmas morning.  I hadn't even really realized just how Santa-fied she has become until she started making comments about leaving him cookies at night, how he rides in a sleigh and of course if he will bring her ALL the things on her wish list. 
Today her preschool had their holiday party and of course there was a special visitor at the end!  It was the first time Vanessa has seen Santa (other than in books and of course a Dora episode).  Shy?  Our girl?  Nope...she pretty much charged him as he was walking to his chair and immediately started saying she was a good girl and she wanted him to bring her a Dora dollhouse.  The poor guy could barely get to his seat.  I think today may have been her favorite school day yet.

A funny side note to her 'conversation' with Santa is that the night before she had received an email from Santa.  The email was a video, personalized just for her.  It was cute and what was funny was that she didn't understand that it was just a video.  Since we Skype with out of town family quite often she naturally assumed she was Skyping with Santa.  Every time he said her name and talked to her....she tried to answer and tell him something.  First it was that she wanted a dollhouse, then that she wears big girl panties. LOL.  At preschool she kept saying "remember I wanted the dollhouse Santa", it took me a minute to realize that "remember" meant that she was reminding him of their Skype call.  So funny.

Counting down the days until Christmas morning...Ho, Ho, Ho

This video is of most of the email from Santa (http://www.portablenorthpole.com/ if any parents are interested). 

Looks can be deceiving

Our 'little' Roman is 9 months old already.  Wow.  You'd think the second time around you'd get used to how fast the time seems to go by?  Nope. 
Tank (as Daddy affectionately sometimes calls him) went for his 9-mo check up and surprised us by being "appropriately proportioned "and average in terms of weight and height.  I say surprised because by the looks of him you'd think he was a little...shall we say, robust?  He's a solid kid that's for sure and even has a few super cute rolls to go along with that super cute dimple.  His new stats are: 17lbs 14oz and 28" long.  He's in the 12-13th% for both wt and ht.  (At 9mos Vanessa was 16lbs 14oz and 27 1/4").
He's a doll that Roman.  Laughs all the time - belly laughs!  Especially at Vanessa, who usually just turns away and says "Don't look at me Roman", to which he laughs even more at (...hmmm...purposely?).  I think she is finally starting to realize that there could be some fun in having this kid around.  This kid who thinks she is hysterical and who loves when she runs around the corner and says "boo".  I have hope yet that she'll get it and he'll soon become her built in audience. 

First swing

Busses, trains and wrestling

We're back from Florida and yes...I am sorry I ever complained that it was cold down there.  The high today was 19, what a nice welcome back to Upstate NY that is.  Despite the unusual cold weather (mid-50's and windy during the day, 40 at night!) in Orlando our trip was wonderful!  We got to spend the entire week with family we haven't seen since last year.  Vanessa was immediately smitten with Tia Marjorie and Tio Peter and played pefectly with the boys.  One of the best parts of their playtime was eavesdropping on their conversations - Vanessa to Joshua (he's 4): "what do you want to be when you grow up?", Joshua: "Big like my Dad" too cute!!

Our resort was perfect and yes we even took advantage of the pools.  Judging by the abundance of empty lounge chairs, we were the only crazy Northerners (along with a few groups of Europeans) to think sunny and 60 means pool time.  Vanessa managed to stay in for about 30min before telling Daddy she was "all done".  Oh well.  One of the best days we had was spending the day at SeaWorld.  Vanessa was in awe at the dolphin show and so excited to actually feed and touch one, her face made the price of the ticket (ouch!) well worth it.  The other home run came in the form of free transportation.  For weeks, maybe months, Vanessa has been saying that she wants to get bigger so she can ride the school bus.  She somehow has become obsessed with riding busses and trains, so aside from playing with her cousins I think it's safe to say her favorite parts of the week were riding the shuttle train at the airport and the fact that we got to ride shuttle busses all around the resort.  Every time we got on one she said hello to the bus driver, sat in the front seat and proceeded to sing "The wheels on the bus..." for whomever else was on the bus.  How's that for free entertainment  ;-)  
It's only been two days, but we're pretty certain she misses her cousins.  Tonight after dinner she told Daddy she wanted to wrestle.

oh, and Roman had fun too!  He got lots of cuddles and "good" conversations with his Tio, Tia and Abuelo.

Yes, it's Orlando.  Yes, we're wearing fleece.

Samuel, Joshua, Vanessa & Roman

First "ride" (we went twice, she would have gone more)

Abuelo y sus ninos

meeting Tio Peter

Freezing in Florida

So we definitely have some sun, but the warm weather seems to be missing from the 'Sunshine State'. Woke up to 32 degrees this morning! No snow so at least that is nice. In spite of the frigid temps we are very happy to be away for the week and getting to spend lots of time with the Florida Blancos!! Vanessa is having the time of her life just running around the condo playing hide-n-seek with someone other than mom and dad (of course that's nice for us too!). Plane ride went well, Vanessa was very good, got a bit bored after 2hrs but who wouldn't! Looking forward to a great week!!! Come on sunshine!!!!! Here's a pic of us getting on the train at the airport to go to baggage claim....riding on the train was enough thrill for Vanesa we could have spent all day doing it (much cheaper than a theme park ticket!)


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