Blanca - the baby whisperer

Blanca is not just our housekeeper, she's also a friend, baby expert and hands down the sweetest lady I've ever met. She visits our house every Thursday and I for one have come to really look forward to her company each week. Even though Blanca speaks broken English and I speak NO Spanish - we're still able to communicate fairly well. Put simply, I don't know what I would ever do without her.

She's amazing with Connor. Even during one of his most frantic crying spells, she'll sweep him up in her arms and sooth him in seconds. Along the way, she never ceases to teach me a thing or two. When Connor was only four days old, I was attempting to change his diaper. I was fumbling around with my squirmy little newborn when I noticed Blanca watching intently over my shoulder. After a few min. she shoo-ed me away - slapped a new diaper on him - swaddled him tightly and handed him back to me - happy and snug.

Connor has always been a little Houdini and can break through even the tightest swaddle. However, Blanca has the ability to bundle him so tightly that he has nothing left to do but look up at me with his sweet blue eyes and admit defeat.

Several weeks ago, Blanca noticed me trying to burp Connor after a meal. He's always been a difficult baby to burp, so I had been at it for a while without any success. She asked me if she could give it a try. After three taps on the back, Connor let out a huge burp and then melted in her arms. She just has that magic touch.

My favorite Blanca story involves the time she noticed that Connor had the hiccups. Without a word, she grabbed one of Ross' red t-shirts and tore off a thread from the seam. She then balled it up in her fingers, licked it, stuck it in the middle of Connor's forehead and walked away. Bewildered, I was examining the red dot on his forehead when less that 60 seconds later, I noticed that his hiccups had stopped completely. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. I found out later that this is an old hispanic wives tale. The key here is that the thread must be RED.

Blanca seems to genuinely care about our family. Last week she noticed that Connor had a white tongue. Fearing that he might have thrush, she asked her daughter Judy to call us later that night to voice her concern. Judy explained the symptoms and urged us to contact our doctor ASAP. Luckily, Connor was fine but the fact that Blanca was that concerned for our sweet little bug speaks volumes.

I feel so blessed to have someone like Blanca in our lives.