Swinging is the best

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Preschool graduation

On Monday Vanessa had a little "Moving Up" ceremony at preschool.  Our girl has graduated from the 2-year old program and is on to bigger and better things.  In other words...big-girl three year old class as she puts it.  It's funny because I think before I was a parent I might have rolled my eyes and said 'ohhh graduation, huh' not fully understanding the big-to-do.  I got that it was pretty cool and pretty special to be getting "bigger" and moving past things, but I think until it's your own little baby you don't really see the big picture.  We saw it on Monday.  It was pretty funny still.  Rather than moving up anywhere real, the kids slid down a slide in a sort of ceremonial way.  Notice Daddy's special tie in our little family pic (Roman was in the playroom).  It's a Vanessa original, made in preschool just for Father's Day.  He wears it proud  ;-)

A very pink Three

A little behind on some posts  :-/

June 6th came and went nearly as fast as the last three years seemed to have!  We celebrated Vanessa's birthday with none other than a Pinkalicious party.  Her request.  To anyone who doesn't have a little lady in the house, Pinkalicious is a series of books about a little girl who loves...yup you guessed it...PINK.  The original story is about her eating too many pink cupcakes and turning pink.  I have read that book so many times I am certain I could recite it in my sleep.  For four weeks all I heard about was how Vanessa wanted a Pinkalicious party, so of course that's what my girl got.  The only "too bad" was that all the little girls we know who could have joined in the fun live so far away (boo).  Happy Birthday Vanessa!!

First fohawk

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Easter photos

I got a bit overshadowed with Roman's allergies and, well...life and forgot to post a couple pics from Easter.  We stayed home and had a very family day ;-)  The kids were great in church, that is up until the part when they started the 9 baptisms.  Vanessa calmly looked at daddy and said "Daddy, I'm all done.  Can we go now?"  Can you blame her?  Let's face it Easter mass is loooooong anyway, add in 9 baptisms and who can blame anyone for getting a little board...right?  We took her cue and headed to a yummy brunch  ;-)

Hope everyone enjoyed their Easter as much as we did.

As pretty as a princess

Yes, I am that mom with "matching" kids  ;-)

Happy "little" guy

oh the irony

It's official. My husband has a son who is allergic to dogs (and cats). Anyone else see the irony in that one?! Poor Daddy. Poor Roman. Blood work came back positive, now we are figuring out if it makes sense to see an allergist or not. If not, then you know me...I'll be Googling pet allergies for the next month. Maybe a doc visit will be best :-) - Posted using BlogPress

To dog or not to dog

Well, we are in a waiting game right now (waiting for test results) to determine if Roman is allergic to dogs. Can you even imagine? Could be a sad day for Daddy if the results are positive. We started puppy-sitting for a friend (what was planned to be a pretty long stay) last Saturday. By Sunday afternoon poor Romans face was all blotchy and red. Then the runny nose, watery eyes....by Monday our poor little guys eyes were puffy too. A trip to the doctor on Tuesday and a blood test later we are expecting to get results Mon/Tues of next week. Testing for quite a few things so hopefully we arrive at some reason for the reaction. We started giving him Zyrtek to help the symptoms and on Friday morning mommy took Roman to grandmas house to get him away from the dog. Sadly, the only other time I ever saw a similar reaction on him was after visiting with friends in Boston who also have a dog. That time it never progressed to more than blotchy red spots that were gone after three days. I had hoped that it might have just been a skin sensitivity to the dog saliva since most of the spots then were where he got a few good doggie kisses. Looks like I may be wrong. We've been away from the dog/house for over 24-hours and Romans face already looks worlds better. Coincidence? We'll see! Below are pics of Roman four days after dog came (and a full day on Zyrtek) ...and the other is the potential cause ;-)





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Sibling playtime

We've been experiencing some sibling jealousy on Vanessa's part these days.  Seems the older and more mobile (more "fun") Roman gets, the more Vanessa seems to think there is some newfound competittion in this house.  It's because of this we tend to cherish, and film, every opportunity we get to see her actually have fun with her little brother.  Take a peek below.  Roman continues to think Vanessa is the funniest thing on the planet.

A little public thanks to Daddy for having a Daddy Day/night so mommy could go off and play with her friends.  I got to meet up with Donna and Kara for a little run (yes...RUN.  6 miles to be exact!), spa and girl time.  It was bliss.  A perfect little day trip that was so close by that I think it needs to be repeated.  While I was gone Daddy managed to get Vanessa to sit still next to her brother long enough to snap a pic  ;-)

Birthday Boy

Anyone else think this year flew by??  Anyone else think I've been horribly slacking with the blog updates?? Can you believe Roman is already one year old??  We certainly can't! (and Yes...I have been slacking) I've always heard people say that with each child the years get shorter and shorter, just always thought (hoped) maybe they were exaggerating.  Nope.  Not exaggerating. Our little Roman is the big numero-uno!  I wish everyone could live closer so that all our friends and family who live so far could see for themselves what a smile this little boy has!  He is so fun.  He laughs and giggles and smiles all day long.  Well, except for when a toy is out of reach, then we see the temper flare.  Oh man.  We're working on nipping that temper in the bud (or is it butt?).  We started the birthday week with the obligatory trip to the pediatrician for the check-up.  Remember way back when this little guy was only 5lb 11oz and four weeks premature....yeah, not so small anymore.  Mr. Blanco weighs in now at 20lbs  28".  He may be an inch shorter than Vanessa was at this same age, but he's got two pounds on her. 

The birthday "party" was planned by the big sister  ;-)   Foreshadowing for all future decisions? Hmmm.
Vanessa decided that Roman would like an Elmo party, lot's of balloons and Elmo cupcakes.  Of course we all complied (yes...mom even TRIED to do the cupcakes.  You can make your own assessment of the photo proof below).  Although Roman has no idea who Elmo is, he did appreciate the balloons.  We had a great day with family and can't wait to celebrate another birthday this June (OMG, she's nearly three!).

it's not a party without party hats!

see...Elmo.  Can't you tell??

One year old!

Be my Valentine

Happy First Valentines Roman

Laugh-a-palooza

too great of a video not to share  ;-)  ...

Really mom?

alright, alright....so matching stripey pants and shirt are not a very cool thing for a dude to wear.  I thought babies could get away with wearing nearly whatever they (or their mom's) wanted?  I still say he looks adorable, but maybe the pants were a bit over the top.  He looks like he could be an elf recruit for Santa  ;-)

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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First Haircut

Today was what I suppose is one of those monumental days in the life of a parent...the first real haircut.  For the last week I've been mentioning to her that I was going to take her to get a big girl haircut soon.  She would talk about it on her own every time I combed her hair, open to the concept, so I figured let's do it!  As required by 'mom code', I brought Vanessa to Snip-it's.  Camera in hand of course.  She couldn't have been cuter!  She waited patiently for her name to be called, then jumped up and said "me" when it finally was.  She said hello to Courtney and climbed up in the chair all by herself.  No drama, no tears, no fears.  When Courtney was done and turned Vanessa to the mirror she happily announced "ohh, it looks beauty-full!".  Love this girl!



Waiting to be called




Ta-da!



Christmas Wish List

and so it begins...
We, as I'm sure all of you, have started to get every store's toy catalog in the mail in prep for the busy shopping season.  Vanessa loves to get mail and always asks 'what came today mommy'.  I usually hand her all the kids related catalogs so you can imagine how excited she's been getting these days when I check the mail.  In order to ease the "mom can I have that" that began to play on repeat for DAYS and DAYS, I decided to make a project out of all these mailings.  Vanessa and I sat down with the stack of catalogs and began searching through to find the things she really liked.  We cut out the chosen items, grabbed some construction paper and the trusty glue stick and began to complie this years "wish list"!  Now...everytime we get a new catalog she sometimes ask if we can "add" something to her list, but first she looks to see if she's already got it on there.  It was actually a fun and helpful thing to do!  There is definately a theme....kitchen sets, dolls and dollhouses (our girly-girl).

Ho, ho, ho

Random recent pics

My little school girl

Lovin his big sister