NOV, DEC, JAN - THE CLIFF NOTES

Are you still checking the blog? We're alive! November and December were a whirlwind, and January is well, eventful too.

In November we had wonderful visits with Steph and Neil, Uncle Mark and the Magic Aunt, and Rob and Sofia. We then had Thanksgiving with nearly all of the Hoyt clan. We also got in visits with Seattleites Maribeth, Allan, Duncan, Beckett, and Allan's family, and the Masters and DeCristofaros as well. Keenan met loads of relatives and friends and passed around some viruses and strep.

In December Grandma Patty came when Daddio was in Orlando for some fancy coaching conference, then he had two weeks off for the holidays. Vanessa turned 3 with friends AJ, Jennifer and Sara in attendance: we all wore pink and ate pink cake with pink ice cream in a room full of pink streamers and pink balloons. We had Christmas at home, here, and then dinner with ALL of the Stearns cousins in town. Then, for New Year's, we had a happy visit from Keenan's bio-peeps, Nicole and Zoey, for New Year's.

Keenan is growing up big and fat on formula. Thank you, Nestle Good Start with bifidus. I'm still nursing, but that's just dessert these days. This week we started dressing him in 6 month sized clothing, and he'll be six months old next week, so I'm pretty dang pleased with his progress.

Keen-wah (as Van calls him) has the most cheerful disposition. He looks at me the way my grandfather used to - he cracks into a giant grin just because I'm there. Let me tell you, that goes a long way towards keeping me ticking. His ameliorative ways make me a much saner mother. (photo by VH1)

Developmentally, our son is laughing and fascinated with his feet. Jack and I both heard him say, "Hi," then "Hello" on the same day. He can stand holding onto something - we don't have to spot him, but we do. He loves shower time and he adores VanNannerkins. I think he'd sleep through the night pretty well, except he's always catching Vanessa's colds. What a cold and flu season!

Vanessa has had lots of sick days every month. Her new favorite tv show is Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo. She and AJ put on tu-tus and symphony music and twirl and leap through the living room for us. Van stuns us with her, um, insights, which we pick up on through her commentary and behavior. On Christmas morning Daddio said, "Don't forget to thank Santa for that gift" and Nanners stopped everything, bolted to the fireplace and hollered, "THANK YOU SANTA!" up the chimney. She did that for every present marked "from Santa."

Grandma Patty and Nanners made cupcakes, a gingerbread house, and Christmas cookies during the rainstorms, Christmas carols blaring and fire in the fireplace. Grandma also changed diapers and administered warm bottles at the crack of dawn and throughout the day.

Daddio interviewed for a few head coaching jobs this past summer/fall, including the one at Cal Poly. In December we heard that his office mate and close friend, Mark (of triplet fame) got the job. Mark, an Olympic marathoner and fellow cancer survivor, has been at Cal Poly for fifteen years and doing a great job. We think it was the right hire, and we are not at all upset. Jack will continue to look at Division I head coaching jobs as they become available, but they only come up in the summer and there aren't very many, so we could be here for many more years, happily.

This season of interviewing has been quite a roller coaster, though. Coaching jobs are few and hard to get, and when you do get an offer you pretty much "Start Monday." So I've been checking housing all over the U.S., thinking we might have to uproot suddenly. Instead, we gave our notice here at our little * ocean view * rental on January 1st, deciding we needed something different for the family. We are moving across town to a bigger, less expensive family home and we're all pleased. No more sights and sounds of the Pacific, Daddio will have to break down and drive to his surf spots now, and we shall dearly miss our neighbors, but other than that we are okay with closing the chapter entitled The House by the Sea (as friend Chel called it). Here Vanessa took her first steps, called us Mama and Daddy for the first time (sniff), ate her first food, potty trained, and welcomed her baby brother Keen-wah into the family.

So that, my dears, is the quick report. Imagine us packing up and moving across town in two weeks and know that feels like a huge amount of time, compared with our last two moves!