AnaSophia - never a dull moment!

I just realized that you and I are getting to know each other some now, and I haven’t really shared with you much about my family! So, I am going to introduce to mi ninos, one at a time! We’ll start with Sophie. AnaSophia is our baby who is two, and she is a fierce individual. Fiercely loving, and fiercely strong. She is also one of the most stubborn children I’ve ever met. She tries to run the house, her siblings, and her father and I. And most of the time, she succeeds!


I love her absolutely, but she makes me tired! She and Bella have a strong bond, and she uses that to its full potential. If I am yelling at Bella over something, she comes up to me and says “Mom!” – like, “Stop picking on Bella!” Lately, she has grown closer with her nemesis, GiGi. It started just a few days ago when she started calling her sister by name “DeeDee.” “DeeDee this, DeeDee that!” So now, I can’t yell at “DeeDee” either. THEY can fight and argue, but the minute I discipline her sister, she’s at her defense in jibber jabber talk!

Sophie is our singer. She sings in the car, she sings in her bed before nap, she sings in the kitchen while I prepare dinner. And every song is to the tune of “ABCDEFG…” Some words are recognizable, like “Daddy,” however. Most are not! So, you hear “Gagaga jibber jabber Daddy! Dooo doo baa baba Mommy doo!” It is adorable!

She is a happy little girl with sunshiney eyes. She reminds me of my Grandpa, and his eyes. They sparkle when he is happy, and when he smiles, he lights up the room! Her eyes are a green-blue, and she has a large dimple in her left cheek that’ll knock your socks off. She was our surprise and every day, she brings new surprises to our family’s life. Never a dull moment with Sophie around!

Yesterday, she was eating her sandwich at the lunch table, when I noticed her talking to Lacey, our “doggie.” She was putting her half-eaten sandwich down towards the dog, then, just as Lacey would longingly head toward the food, Sophie would jerk it back, and say “No, doggie!” Then she laughed hysterically, as Lacey tilted her little head quizzically at her. How funny! (She can be a little mean!)

She loves dresses, and swirls and twirls in them to see if they flare in the breeze. Her Abuelita sent her some new ones recently, and she gets excited just to put them on. As cute and springy as she looks in them, she is a pure hillbilly like her Mama, because she absolutely refuses to wear shoes! She turns down just about every pair she receives, and we have a heck of a time getting them on her. She has really large feet (she’s gonna be tall) and shoes are just NOT comfortable! Pobrecita!

So that is a little about Sophie. You’ll hear more about her as time goes on, for sure. She is never boring, and brings the final spice to complete our family recipe!

Sometimes it is Good to Get Away

Sometimes it’s good to just get away from it all. That’s what our family did this past weekend, we went to visit family in San Antonio. We met a cousin we’d never met, and got to know one that we hadn’t seen in almost three years. We played at a country park in the warm spring sun and sand on Sunday, and later on, we were tourists for a day at the Riverwalk and Alamo.


No computer, no work, just play, play, play! Papi Juan even got down in the dirt with the little ones, and I seesawed with mi ninas. Tio Jeff and Tio Byron grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, and los ninos “spanked” the Spongebob piñata until lots of candy fell out! Sophie cuddled with Tia Iliana while Spongebob was getting tortured, because she is afraid of the loud noise, and everyone yelling “Dare, dare, dare!” (“Hit it!”)

Later on, we parked in a downtown parking garage on the sixth floor, and our adventure was started! We rode the boat up the river and got to hear about who killed who back in 1852! On the boat, we met two very beautiful girls who are from China, but have American mommies and daddies. They are five and six, but they said they are sisters, and share a birthday. I know, it was confusing to us too! The girls had been adopted out of China, and even though their individual families live in Nevada and Pennsylvania, they keep the girls connected to each other and their roots through trips like these. I’ll never forget those girls and those incredible parents who gave them an opportunity at life.

We toured the Alamo, and took lots of pretty pictures, as everything is already in bloom and green there! The kids got so tired of me saying, “OK, stand over there, in front of that purple tree, now, smile!” They would go, “Oh, mom!” But out came the smiles anyway. Bunch of hams!

Then we bought some cotton candy from a street vendor, and everyone’s fingers and faces were sticky. Later, we saw baby ducks with a mommy duck in the River. They were so tiny and cute! You know it is officially spring when there is baby ducks!

Tired, sticky and dusty, by nightfall we were headed home through the scenic drive between San Antonio and Katy. Green fields, tractors tilling up the hay fields to get ready for planting, and plenty of cows greeted us from the roadside. It is a beautiful life, and we are grateful to be living it!

The Blancos and the Mystery of the Unseen Alligator

It was almost immediately apparent to me when we arrived here in southeastern Texas last fall that we live in a swamp. Now, it’s not the Everglades by any means, but it is a swamp! Keep in mind, I am a desert rat who spent most of her life on the Mexican border of southeastern Arizona, amidst mesquite bushes and cacti! This is a major change for me, one that I am enjoying immensely. Mi ninos and I were walking in our neighborhood park yesterday, just as the sun was hovering over the western horizon, sending gorgeous pink and orange rays across the sky, when I stopped short.


In front of me, in the grass on the edge of the pond stood a very clear sign. “Beware of Alligators!” Alligators? Right here? In the middle of a suburbian housing development? The kids were excitedly pointing, then peering into the water, hoping to catch a glimpse of an alligator nose. OK, I’m used to lizards the size of my thumb, even rattlesnakes and scorpions don’t scare me. What would I do, though, with an alligator?!

We continued on, and as Jovanni and I pushed Sophie in her stroller into the gazebo on the water’s edge, he yelled “There’s something in the water!” I followed him to his perch, and I saw it too! The water swirled a little, then a nose came poking up into the air! A turtle nose! So maybe we missed the alligator this time, but if you know my kids, you know they’ll be the ones to spot him. Maybe he’ll be sunning himself tomorrow on the big hill behind the waterfall!

Our Girlie Girl

Our girlie girl, mi Princesa, Bella, is quite the character, let me tell you! She is prim, but not so proper. While I write this, she is watching her favorite show on TV, Dog the Bounty Hunter. She wears pink and purple everyday, but her favorite show is Dog! Her headbands have to match her outfits and her purses have to match her headbands (and believe me, she takes a purse EVERYWHERE!). She is our compassionate and loyal firstborn daughter, full of affection most of the time. The other part of the time, her siblings run for cover from her Mexican temper!


OK, so she doesn’t get all her temper from her dad.

The weather is definately changing around here

The weather is definitely changing around here, (no, I’m not talking about mi ninas’ constantly altering moods!) I mean, that spring really is in the air, and I, for one, am excited! I can sniff out a good “planting day” with the best of them. We had a guy come by the house today who wanted to know if we needed our lawn mowed. Uhh, let’s see, I’ve been using a machete to get through our backyard to my garden for weeks now! Seriously though, Juan and I are not used to this grass thing. For years until now, we would carefully tend our beautiful yard of multi-colored stones that also had a few splashes of flagstone and a struggling shrub or two. Hey, it may have been a rock garden, but maintenance wise, let me tell you, it was a pinch. Those rocks don’t grow near as fast as this grass, even when we did get a couple inches of rain!


Anyway, so this nice Hispanic gentleman helped to meet our need. So, the yard looks fantastic, and smells like my farm raisin’ (childhood), I looovvvveee it! He also was available to help with my obviously-less-than-clean enough house, as he indicated at the end while I was paying him, by holding up a business card for house cleaning. I smiled politely, thanking him for noticing mi casa’s mess, and saying sorry, but we didn’t have the money for it. He laughed sarcastically, waving his hand, indicating the house, and saying, right, ok, you don’t have the money! I just thanked him again and sent him on his way, smiling to myself as I thought about my Hispanic friend’s earlier comment. “Yeah, he was so excited when he got here, thinking, oooh, a gringa with money. Then he realized, oh, a gringa with a Mexican husband.” We both laughed. It takes a Mexican to know a Mexican. (it’s a cultural joke among the Hispanics, for those new to this culture – Mexican guys generally [disclaimer] can be tight with money.) Maybe you had to be there for that one to be funny!

The girls just got off the bus, so I’m going to get off of here before they raid the pantry. By themselves, I mean. They’re not allowed to leave me out of that! Besides, Bella has something really important to tattle …I mean, tell me about. She had half the accusation out of her mouth the second the front door swung open, I mean, the girl’s timing is impeccable. I swear, she’s got the whole thing so immaculately planned, that she knows it will take her exactly twenty-two point four seconds to make a full statement before I rudely cut her off, so she watches carefully as the doorknob twitches…go, its opening!!! Ahhh, I do, I do love my life! Til’ next time…

So many good intentions!

I had so many good intentions for today, like getting through an entire day’s worth of Jovanni’s school work, or actually cooking a real gourmet dinner for my family. Maybe even submitting an actual query to an actual editor for one of the articles floating around the vast space on my computer! I knew it was off to a shaky start when I went upstairs to wake up the girls with my rendition of “Good morning, good morning, good morning, it’s time to rise and shine!” and Bella sat up, complaining of a sour stomach before she was even fully awake. GiGi, my constant sunshine girl, loved my song, and helped me sing it to Jovanni to get him up. While I was making the kids their breakfast sandwiches, Bella was working her sales pitch on me to stay home from school. So I called a Blanco family official hookie day.


The girls and I scrapbooked, visited with company (my friend V and her two beautiful babies!), and ate all day long. (Bella’s stomach miraculously settled within five minutes of the hookie day announcement, by the way.) Poor Jovie tried to knock some curriculum out, complaining about his math…ugghhh!!! I don’t blame him, I never loved math either.

I did get something done today, though, I loved on my chamacos, and they loved on me. The kids and I goofed off really, but that was ok today. Sometimes we just need to break the monotony of our daily regimen.