UNCLE MARKY AND THE MAGIC AUNT

Uncle Marky and The Magic Aunt are visiting VanNannerkins. They hail from Rhode Island and are very, very close to being her biggest, most vehement fans. In fact, they out-and-out told us they came to visit her.

The day they arrived was also the day Vanessa and I hosted our Thursday moms group at our new home by the sea. What an absolute blast! Good thing Daddio helped us prepare by cleaning the kitchen floor, because we had 8 moms and 8 babies all over that floor!

Here is a shot of us storming the neighborhood. I am behind the camera and Nanners is fast asleep in her stroller. In fact, when we got back to the house for lunch, I had to leave her outside in the stroller napping for an hour whilst we all partied down inside. (Normally Van naps in my arms.) When she was awake, she was full steam ahead, relating to all her little contemporaries. None of the babies cried, it was that fun.

Uncle Marky and the Magic Aunt arrived after the moms' party, and Baby Nessa was only a teensy weensy bit scared of the bearded man who grabbed her and hugged her. We shot out for a quick sunset walk, though, and all was mended. See here, sunsets made magic by the recent fires in southern California.

The next day was extraordinary in one particular way. Vanessa took two naps - a 10 minute nap and a 15 minute nap - all day. We were blown away! She had such a good time she couldn't sleep and she didn't cry all day, either, until the very end. Uncle Marky and The Magic Aunt said, "You didn't tell us she was pefect!" Yes, our Perfect 10 month old.

That day was an action packed one. We had gone shopping, walked on the beach, did a little commercial real estate business (a site visit) with The Magic Aunt, walked along the resort-studded bluff, hit the petting Farm, sampled ice cream, ate dinner on the back patio, and attended a women's college soccer game. Um, Vanners was awake the whole time, pretty much.

Vanessa spent the rest of the weekend impressing her relatives with beach walks, reading board books, eating grown up food, swiming in her 90 degree indoor pool, and taking in the college cross country championships. We also caught some of the World Series games. In a particularly comical moment, she started chuckling uncontrollably while nursing when she heard her Daddy clapping to urge the batter on. Did I mention she was nursing at the time? That rascal. I warned her to not laugh too hard or she'd shoot milk out her nose. That really got Uncle Marky going.

See Nanners meet and greet a spindly, orange and likely unsuspecting starfish:

Sunday was a thrilling day because Daddio led us on a high-tide "beach" walk involving thundering white water and rock scrambling, topped off by a lovely dinner at Jocko's steak house. Uncle Marky and The Magic Aunt couldn't believe our sweet Wahkeenah was a-OK with so much stimulation without a melt down. In fact, the only time Nanners got fussy was when we had to sit around and wait an hour past our dinner reservation time to get seated. Once seated, however, she was golden. She ate like a horse and flirted with the nice, nice man at the next table. A Perfect 10.

Uncle Marky and The Magic Aunt have to leave, but we are mutally pleased to be seeing each other all over again for Thanksgiving. Phew! Can't have too much family time when we have this much fun, can we?

OUR SWEET WAHKEENAH

As you probably noticed, we use many different names for our beloved baby girl, Vanessa. Mostly, Daddio calls her Pumpkin and I call her Little Kitten. Well, this past month I inexplicably started calling her Wahkeena (Wakina?). I couldn't figure out where I got it. At some point I thought maybe it was the Hawaiian word for girl or woman, but no, that's Wahine. Last night I finally looked up Wahkeenah and found it's a Pacific Northwest Indian word (Yakama/Yakima) meaning "most beautiful." Wahkeenah, indeed!

Vanessa's swim instructor Cindy calls her Pumpkin Pie. Nanners had another swim lesson yesterday - Cindy said, "She's so advanced!" without me even asking her to brag. Daddio phoned me up on his break to "hear the latest" on swimming. He always requests a blow-by-blow account of her swim activities, how she does, what the other babies are doing, and what her instructor says.

When we walked into the pool area yesterday, Cindy was in the middle of an adult private lesson, and there was a senior water aerobics class going on. Vanners let out such a monkey screech of obvious delight everyone stopped, looked, and cracked up. She proceeded to make eye contact with each swimmer, to to personally greet them with a screech of excitement.

Later yesterday, as I was looking up "Wahkeenah" no doubt, Vanessa rambled by on her exploration route. After a few moments of silence I went to check and I'll be darned if I didn't find her sitting in the bathtub playing with her bath toys.

She can get herself through the house on her new tricycle by pulling it along with her monkey feet on the floor. We can also push her through the house on it, and you'd think she was the Homecoming Queen in the Homecoming Parade, the way she grins and gushes at the crowd as she passes. Too bad her parents haven't taught her to wave bye-bye.

Here is a photo of the trike, with the handle tucked under to make it a rocking horse. She can't touch the pedals yet. Cephalocaudal principle at work, I suppose.

Yesterday Baby Nessa also cut tooth #4, so she has both front teeth now. If she takes after her mama, those two front teeth will be big, square ones. We shall call them Chicklets. The poor dear.

Today, as I kept a close watch on her scrounging around on the bathroom floor with her bath toys, I said, "Hey, bring that one with you." She looked at the toy and I distinctly heard her say, "Uck." It was her yellow duck! Can I count that as a word? Probably not, I know, but it sure was fun to hear her say it.

I will say that "dog," "dad," and "duck" sound an awful lot alike. Here is her vocabulary - can't wait until she can speak English, though!

"Ma Ma" = feed me

"Nay Nay" = I'm tired

"Da Da Da" = my, isn't this interesting/how nice

"Milah" = Milo

"Uck" = duck (I think)

She knows her name (Vanessa, that is), and the word No, although No gets her laughing hysterically, maybe because it is typically accompanied by our running towards her and/or a funny finger sweep.

There are two times when I use the word No - when she eats the dog's food (because dogs bite people who eat their food and because kibble is a choking hazard), and when playing with the houseplant becomes eating its dirt (because that dirt has fertilizer in it). See Nanners after I have delivered my severe "No!' for her offending rule number 2.

When I was a kid, I remember having a conversation with my father whereby I was trying to apologize for letting him down, for not measuring up in some way. I was shocked when he said, "Sweetheart, I'm proud of anything you do. I'm proud every little burp and fart you make." I thought he was bananas at the time, but notice how the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.

P.S. These many faces of VanNanners were shot inside of two minutes. My inner stage mother/aspiring baby photographer had her immobilized in The Machine with a decidedly girly new bow in her hair. Note the teething drool.

TEN MONTHS OLD!

This 9th month is over! What? The 22nd marks the end of another month with Baby Nessa. The fun continues, and, if I forget to mention it, we LOVE being parents. It's pretty dang cool. As Daddio says, "Every month brings something new."

For her 9th month, Vanessa had more vaccinations with her pediatrician, Dr. Bravo. Our little Nanners continues to gain weight and cranium, but has slowed in the length/height department. Jack continues to bandy about his favorite college term, cephalocaudal, when explaining how our baby is developing head first. She will eventually get to growing those monkey feet out to size 10 (or beyond). Van wears 24 month old onesies but only 12 month old pants. Her hat size is 3T.

Here are her growth stats for those of you keeping score at home:

length 28.5 inches (75th)

weight 22 lbs. 7 oz. (95th)

head circumference 48 cm (off the chart)

We have not taught Vanny how to wave bye-bye or play pat-a-cake. Thank goodness she taught herself peekaboo, otherwise we would have failed all those milestones asked about! All Dr. Bravo said was we were already giving her the best gift - being so wanted.

Nanners sprouted a new tooth - one of her Two Front Teeth - yesterday. Dr. Bravo had warned us her upper gums were extremely swollen and four teeth might erupt very soon. I had a heads-up that something exciting was going on when Van slept on her face with her rump high in the air all night, then slept all day long. All that for one little tooth!

We decided to sign up our very busy little Monkey Princess for swim lessons. As it turns out, VH1 is quite the fish: her instructor took her underwater on Day 1, within 15 minutes of getting in the pool. She also swam on her back. The other babies are 2 and 3 years old. Vanessa (and her mama!) grinned and sang the whole hour, and we only cried when we had to get out.

This weekend Daddio suggested we attend the local humane society's dog festival with our Golden Hound (who turned 3 on 10/15) and his best girl, VanNestlekins. Not only did we attend, Milo smoked through the practice agility course, and Daddio took third place in the "Owners who look like their dog" contest. He was holding Vanessa, who perhaps helped edge out the competition with her Milo-colored hair. I wanted to enter Milo in the "Best Kisser" contest, but we had to leave before that one. Next year, though: watch out!

I am so over-the-top excited about our infant daughter and her obvious signs of [you name it] that I find I'm one of "those" moms. You know, the kind of mom who thinks their baby is a genius at everything and gorgeous to boot. That would be me.

First off, I entered her in the Baby GAP casting contest and took it as seriously as any aspiring stage mom. Jack asks, "Did she win yet?" every day and all of the moms I get together with on Thursdays entered their gorgeous babies, too, so I'm not too far out there beyond the Bell Curve. Here are the shots I submitted... of course I'm very upset (with myself) they are over-exposed.

Secondly, Vanners did so well swimming that I bought her a starter tricycle. Well, she also did so well climbing Duncan's stairs and riding his yellow taxi and rocking horse, that I feel quite certain she's the next Tiger Woods of [you name it]. Not to be outdone, Daddio couldn't wait to see Vanny's pool prowess, and when he did, I found myself asking him to dial down the enthusiasm for pushing new skills. We are both eerily crazed with enthusiasm.

Thirdly, poor little Nessers also debuted her first word, Dada and Mama (and Nay Nay) aside. She said, "Milah," as Milo brushed past her. I was thrilled. The next morning she said it again, however I've neither caught it on tape nor had a witness, save Milo. So do I put it in her baby book? What do you think?

Our little cherub continues to dazzle and entertain us. "How wonderful life is while you're in the world," Nanners.

SEATTLE V.I.P.'s

More than a week ago now, Granny Ernestine came to visit "her baby" Vanessa for the weekend. When she arrived by train, we were in the middle of our day of mourning the loss of 18 year old freshman, Morrey Brown. We spent the day with his parents, brother and grandparents, and his roommates, team mates and class mates. Jack worked with Morrey as a 16 year old high school student in Seattle, so Morrey came to college in a large part to train with Jack. He made quite an impression on us and all the people he met in his one month in California. We felt honored to be part of his life and included with the family.

For the rest of the weekend, Jack spent time with Vanessa and his wife and mother. Luckily Granny has a bit of billy goat in her, so she hoofed it down the bluff at low tide with us for a 2 hour anniversary walk. Later we went to the Farm Stand and petting zoo and watched our little pumpkin head examine the real McCoy.

After Granny left we had thee days at home then headed north to Seattle. This was Vanessa's first time back to Jet City since she was thawed, in April 2006.

We very much wanted to visit "Auntie" Maribeth and "Uncle" Allan. They just welcomed their second son, Baby Beckett, into the world. Their first son, Duncan, is pretty much VanNestlekins' first boyfriend.

Maribeth was pregnant with Duncan when she took me to my weekly chemo treatments, which lasted 6 hours each time. Maribeth - and Duncan! - were present when I went into anaphylactic shock during an infusion, and she said, "All I could think was, 'What am I going to tell Jack?' when this happened on my watch." She was so worried about me after that, she took me to all my chemos to keep an eye on me, all big-bellied with baby (Duncan weighed 9 lbs. and Maribeth is 5' 3"). I finished chemo February 5th and Duncan was born February 12th. I carried him around, changed him, fed him, and generally pretended he was mine while I recovered from chemo and wondered if I'd ever have a child of my own.

In addition to flirting with Duncan, Nanners was greatly intrigued by Baby Beckett. When I held him to introduce them, she let out a monkey screech and a line of intense babble, then demonstrated her first ever poke with her index finger. She poked his nose. Then she gave him a flat-handed slap on the belly and started tipping over towards him. Knowing the size of her magnificent head, I intervened and tucked one month old Baby Beckett safely away from our bruiser Hurculena. He's not ready for full-on Vanessa just yet.

Back to Duncan. He had been part of the plan to baby-proof the house for Vanessa's stay. He took it to heart and shouted, "Don't choke! Don't choke!" every time she selected one of his toys to taste. He meant well. She probably heard, "You go, girl! Eat up!" Who knows. She did not choke, but she did take a shine to his foot-propelled taxi and rocking horse. Not bad balance for a nine month old with a massive cranium. And oh yeah: she saw their beautiful staircase and immediately climbed up 8 steps without help. She's never seen stairs before.

Duncan gave up his nursery, moved into a new room with big boy twin beds, and got potty trained for Baby Beckett's arrival. What a sweetheart. His parents hung the planets of our solar system from his ceiling recently, so he memorized them in order. He's 3 and a half.

Another big reason to visit Seattle was to be present for the dedication of the Seattle Pacific track to Jack's coach and mentor, Dr. Ken Foreman. Daddio wore VH1 on his chest during the official dedication, as well as all the official photographs. Close to 100% of the people present had known about and prayed for Vanessa, in a huge outpouring of Christian support for Jack that extended to me and Nessa herself. And here she is in the flesh, after so many years of being a pie-in-the-sky prayer request. THANK YOU, GOD!

Ken is a highly decorated track and field coach, especially for women athletes (See Doris Brown-Heritage? Ken coached her to be number 1 in the world when there was no women's team and she wasn't even allowed to be seen in sweats on campus. Try googling Doris Brown-Heritage.) There are no decorations for compassion or motivation, just achievement. If compassion and motivation were recognized, Ken would have to be bronzed or perhaps gilded.

Ken is also a cancer survivor. Jack and I flew to Hawaii to stay with him and wife Denise in Kona when I got the devastating news my cancer had recurred and was chemoresistant and "untreatable." We had just gotten home from my father's funeral. We needed some space to clear our heads. While we were in Hawaii, Uncle Jimmy arranged the radical surgery that saved me. We stayed with Ken and Denise not knowing if it would be the last vacation I'd ever have. One year later, after a year of treatment, we vacationed with them on a Mediterranean cruise. That time I already knew I had cancer a third time, and was scheduled to step off the ship and slip into a hospital gown for another cancer surgery and chemo. Of course Denise knew exactly how Jack felt, facing the mortality of a spouse. They were a true comfort to us, and were able to have fun despite an atmosphere heavy with gravity. How nice to see them without any surgeries scheduled and with a fat baby in hand!

Vanny was not invited to the official luncheon with Ken and the president of the university. So while Daddio hung out with the big wigs, Van hung out with her closest cousin in age, Seattle Pacific sophomore, Julia. You may recall Vanessa closely resembles Julia in looks. See them here, discussing college grass.

The third reason to visit Seattle last weekend was to introduce Vanessa to the two doctors who had the vision of a baby in our future, Dr. Letterie and Dr. Muntz. Jack and I and Dr. Letterie got misty, catching up. Aside from the obvious contribution of diagnosing me with cancer with a pathology report that stated "No Evidence for Malignancy" on it, Dr. Letterie is important to me because he worked closely with me for nine months to get to that diagnosis. THAT saved my life.

Now I tell people, "Oncologists don't diagnose cancer. They treat it. Other doctors catch cancer." Thank you Dr. Letterie for catching my cancer. And oh yeah: thank you for facilitating the life of this child, Vanessa. You helped make us parents. (Jack has introduced Dr. Letterie before as, "The man responsible for getting my wife pregnant.")

Dr. Muntz has carried the torch for our being parents and my carrying my own child from the beginning. In the very beginning the tumor board advised me to have to have a total abdominal hysterectomy. I agreed to it at at a time when I still thought I just had a "suspicious" ovary, not a cancerous one, after Jack said, "I think if an oncologist recommends a surgery we should listen." But then we got the call that we could go to Plan B, which was fertility-sparing surgery plus a cycle of IVF to freeze embryos as insurance against chemo, which is known to sterilize.

Dr. Muntz had the skills and confidence to engineer this treatment plan despite a very aggressive cancer. Let's just say mine was not a standard treatment plan. See Vanessa here, hanging out with Dr. Muntz like he's an old pal. Maybe she's checking out his teddy bear tie.

In between these V.I.P. visits, we jammed some more V.I.P. introductions into our two day Seattle trip. See here "Auntie" One Fried and her new man-friend, Hayden.

Jack took Vanessa and "Uncle" Chris and "Auntie" Nell to visit Morrey Brown's parents while in town. Jack gave them Morrey's new track shoes to pass on to another aspiring high school athlete. They let Vanny bang on their piano and tried to show her a few chords while there. Morrey loved the piano. See?

We were also lucky to sneak in an introduction to Great Aunt Helen, Jack's father's sister. She somehow kept Vanessa sleeping on her lap. Aunt Helen and Cousin Jennifer laughed and laughed at us describing how Vanners is surely a genius. You see, Jennifer is a child psychiatrist and Aunt Helen raised three geniuses. They were very encouraging of us as first time parents.

We've had many a Thanksgiving dinner with Jennifer and her family in Seattle. The year I was in the middle of being diagnosed, we hosted Thanksgiving and tried to make sense of the pathology report I had in hand. Three physicians and three nurses couldn't make sense of it. But Jennifer helped me to accept how hard it can be recovering from a laparoscopy, even if it's supposed to be an outpatient procedure. I had hosted Thanksgiving for 23 people and couldn't understand why I had to lie on the couch all day the next day. It wasn't like me, back in the days when I still had world class stamina.

Also present that Thanksgiving 2001 were niece Jessica and her brand new husband, Kasra. Kasra brought his sister Galyle and her husband Brian and parents Fereshdi and Nadir. We met the extended family for the first time. Two weeks later I had a second surgery and was diagnosed with cancer. A year later, niece Jessica gave birth to baby Noah then stepped forward to volunteer as a surrogate mother for our embryos.

Since then, Jessica, Kasra and their whole family have prayed their socks off for us. Fereshdi was diagnosed with Parkinson's and has had several brain surgeries herself. See her here, blessing Nessa with a kiss. Fereshdi means "Angel" in Farsi. Ness means "miracle" in Hebrew.

We visited Jessica in her new home. Noah and baby brother Evan were there, as were Galyle, Fereshdi, Jack's sister Auntie Kathy and her husband, Uncle Allan. Uncle Allan had a brain aneurysm two years ago while enjoying a weekend at Whidby Island. He nearly died. The nice doctors at Harborview patched him up and he's doing quite well now that his skull has been closed up again with a prosthetic. Allan's neurosurgeon was one of our bowling partners years ago when we were hanging out with a large group of medical residents.

Vanessa may not realize it yet, but Auntie Kathy was there when I was having girl problems, and she was there when I had trouble recovering from my first surgery. She was in the waiting room with Daddio when I was diagnosed with cancer, and had the post-op discussion with Dr. Muntz and Dr. Letterie because Jack couldn't speak. Auntie Kathy has been there for us every step of the way, even though she's been facing her own life challenges. Last month, she got a new job as an oncology nurse at the Swedish Breast Center. After 25 years of nursing at Swedish, she says this is the first time she can say, "I love my job!" I've been privileged to be on the receiving end of Auntie Kathy's unofficial oncology nursing, through all my years of treatment.

It is so fitting that niece Jessica will host the Seattle Thanksgiving from now on. See Baby Nessa here, with her first cousin once removed Noah, who is 5 this week. They were conceived at exactly the same time.

We failed to see so many friends - none of my coworkers from Harborview, none of my cancer girlfriends, none of Jack's athletes and friends from college, save the ones who attended Dr. Foreman's field dedication. Vanners also missed seeing Auntie Judi and meeting big cousins Sam and (Iraqi war veteran) Daniel, as well as extended family Matt and Lizzie, Chris, Kasra, Brian and Nadir. We'll have to bring Vanessa back for a week next visit.

When we did arrive home, V. seemed to have picked up a few new tricks. She located Daddio's backpack on the floor, unzipped it, and rummaged through to find what she wanted. She pulled out her two board books and started flipping through them. Independently. She also climbed up on the hearth and back down again, surely thinking it was a poor excuse for a staircase. She touched a statue of Buddha on the nose with her index finger. I had purchased her a xylophone-type toy last week that befuddled her. But last night we caught her banging on the keys carefully with the hammer. Maybe that little piano lesson at Morrey's house had some impact after all.