EIGHTEEN MONTHS OLD?

Can anyone believe we have an eighteen month old frozen-tot gipper amongst us? Not us. The other night Daddio and I climbed into bed and, after a moment to catch our breath(s), we both said something to the effect of, Wow. Vanessa knows more than we thought she did.

So I've not posted because we've been out straight with activities, visitors, visiting, and, well, a heat wave. Officially, it was 115, but our stucco house seems to trap and radiate heat. It was so hot I didn't even bother running our portable air conditioner: I felt it perhaps irresponsible and even futile to use up all that energy during the day.

One of the days, I put Vanessa in the car and drove around for hours with the A/C on. It was really hot. Another day, the heat got to "Uncle" Chris so he got a haircut, Chez Jacques.

Luckily, we live 100 yards from God's air conditioner, the ocean. Can you say Las brisas del mar?

Lest I forget, here are some of VH1's newest tricks:

- Favorite food is salsa.

- Favorite phrase is "Come on!" (pronounced with a hint of disbelief).

- New trick is dipping food - then feeding it to someone else.

- Another new trick is grabbing an adult by the finger and dragging them to see [something], saying, "Come on!"

- She can hang by her hands on the monkey bars at gymnastics.

- She runs.

- She helps apply sunscreen on her arms and legs.

- Her mother entered her in the Cutest Kid in America contest on http://www.parents.com/ (go vote for her if you think she's cute). Ellen suggested this of Vanessa - thanks, Ellen! Try this link:

http://www.parents.com/app/sharemy/photoDetails.jsp?photoId=211700181&fromSearch=true

If that doesn't work, go to the site and select Photo Contest, then Cover Search, then type in "Starlet" to find Vanessa's pictures. So far, I think only her dad and I have voted for her...

Here is a rundown of some of the visitors we've had or visiting we've done since Grandma Patty and Auntie Anne left town:

- Gerri and Paolo came back through, wearing their "Jack Hoyt Shorts" (long, plaid shorts - a term they coined on our Mediterranean cruise in 2003).

- "Auntie" Nell has been injured, so she wasn't able to train through the U.S. Olympic Trials. Instead, in a few short weeks she has landed herself an L.A. modeling career complete with a women's fitness magazine cover shoot, and a man. Her man, Braidy, came by to show us how to eat man-burgers and stretch. He's a pro volleyball player (and high school science teacher on the side). Aren't they hot?

See Nessa getting some modeling tips from Nell...

- SPU grad Bjorn Bostrom and chiropracty classmate Jordan spent a few days with us before we left on our road trip to Oregon. Bjorn and Jordan agreed to soak up the California sun, surf and sand as our house sitters. They were already exercising, massaging and adjusting Milo and Max. Nope. The pets won't be missing us this week!

- We spent one night with Granny Ernestine and SPU/Cal Poly student Bridgette Sexton was there, sleeping on the couch until she starts rolling out the Benjamins from her new job at Google. It was the eve of Daddio's 44th birthday, so Granny rolled out a birthday cake and candles, and recounted how, 44 years ago, she was overdue with her 7th child, so Jack's dad put her on the back of his motorcycle to buzz around. Sure enough, Ernie went into labor.

- The next day - Daddio's birthday - we drove through the Bay Area fire haze to sizzling hot Ashland, Oregon to stay with "Uncle" Pete and "Auntie" Michelle. They have brand new twins, Juliette and Amelia, who are so exquisite we wanted to run away with them. Of course I also threatened to run away with big brother Graeham, who turned 4 this week. It was a full house, as "Uncle" Johnny, "Auntie" Rennie and Pete's parents Mack and Marcia were also visiting. Jack, Johnny, Rennie, and Pete were freshman together, so it was oh so fitting to sing happy birthday all together, with our little babies all around us.

Saturday we finally arrived in Eugene, Oregon for the U.S. Olympic Trials. Here are Daddio's elite athletes, Sharon Day, Chris Randolph, and Aris Borjas, hamming it up with Vanessa. They compete in the high jump, decathlon, and javelin respectively. See them here, at one of their last practices before Oregon:

Vanners was afraid of Aris's muscly hug. Well, really Aris held her at arm's length the way you hold a giant, nubby toad who's likely to whiz all over you. Nanners, being part dog, smells fear, I think. This shot cracks me up.

P.S. This post has taken me several days to publish because we've been running so hard at the Trials. My next post will be all about the Trials...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

We have had a week of activity and excitement. Daddio was in Iowa, watching the river waters rise and the NCAA Track and Field National Championships.

Not to be outdone in the fitness department, Vanessa's grandmothers (aged 78 and 81) showed they still have it with some leg lifts in the living room.

No wonder gymnastics class is a snap for our little Wahkeenah. Vanny took one look at the climbing wall and scaled it faster than you can say Spiderman. Other moms had to support their babies' bums and place their hands on the grips. Not Van. In fact, where is her mother in this picture?

We Jennings girls scoured the area like tourists. See us here, doing all kinds of things. Grandma and Auntie Anne commented that Vanessa has a very easy dispostion and quite a bit of stamina. Both loved to watch her out in public and field all the comments Vanessa inevitably draws.

This was a very special week, since both Auntie Anne and Grandma had birthdays. We treated it as a celebratory week, really. A lot of fish and chips and fish tacos went down, and I think we had ice cream every single day. You don't even want to know how much coffee we moved.

Well, let's see. Thank God for photographs, because I can scarcely keep track of our days and whereabouts. Vanessa (and the rest of us) were graced with the presence of Gerri and Paolo, our dear friends who were en route to L.A. - they brought Vanners some books.

Unfortunately, Daddio, Grandma and Auntie Anne we all coming and going on trains, planes and automobiles at the same time. Van and I put Grandma and Auntie Anne on the train to San Francisco, where Granny lives, so she picked them up. Too bad Amtrak lost Grandma's checked bag - a 3 hour trip became an 8 hour trip, and they didn't get to Granny's house until 1 AM. They all got up Sunday morning at 5 AM to catch an early flight, got delayed in Chicago, and arrived in Connecticut late, with no luggage. Daddio was similarly delayed on his trip home, was delayed, rerouted a few times, flew stand-by, and ultimately arrived home without his luggage. If these are the biggest problems we have, then we'll take 'em!

Our dear, white kitty, Max in fact has had some big problems. He got cancer on his ear tips and had to have them removed last week. Auntie Anne was Charge Nurse and managed to wrastle him down for not just post-op pain killer, but also antibiotics. He's doing well, despite looking rather gruesome. I was in tears when I heard he was to lose those big pink ears, but our vet was so nice and told me that even her family had that happen - a nearly inevitable situation with all-white (or white-eared) cats who go outside. Once Max's fur grows in he'll have little Scottish fold looking ears. I think he'll look like a big, white otter.

Daddio arrived home and we saw new graduate Bridgette and her family. They, along with their church, have been major prayer warriors over the years for Vanessa and her sibling embryos, and, of course, us. What a thunderous answer we all got back for our prayers - that Vanessa is quite a statement!

We also had Daddio's two Olympic "A" Standard athletes, "Uncle" Chris and "Auntie" Shea-Shea over. "Uncle" Chris broke the 8000 point mark in the decathlon, which is equivalent to "Auntie" Shea-Shea jumping 6 feet 4.75 inches in the high jump. Coach and athlete were very happy, as is our whole family. Chris has come a long way since Daddio recruited him as a high school senior.

"Auntie" Shea-Shea also came by, to pick up her lost luggage. She placed second at the U.S. College Championships, despite being the best jumper in the field. The poor dear had strep throat, so we're pretty much wondering how she could walk upright, let alone jump over 6 feet in the air. See Vanessa mooching some brownie off our star high jumper (and future Olympic hepthatlete, if my calculations are correct), here:

So that was our week. How was yours?

DEDICATION

Yesterday, in front of Vanessa's church and her grandmothers and Auntie Anne, we dedicated our Baby Nessa to the Lord. I feel funny saying that, since she is so purely of the Lord that it seems almost silly to say we did it officially. However, it also feels right to stand up before a crowd of believers and say, "Look at what God did! Can you even belive it? Please help us thank Him!" which of course they did.

And, perhaps more importantly, we prayed as a congregation that Daddio and I will raise this child as well as humanly possible. Our church, our mothers, and Auntie Anne promised to keep an eye on us and help out. In fact, dedicating our baby to God seems more about dedicating ourselves to parenting than anything else.

See us all here, with Pastor Paul, and his wife, Terry. Sure, they look 30-something, but today is actually Terry's 50th birthday, and they are grandparents.

Our little Female Miracle was "on" the whole day. She loves the start of church, with the acoustic guitar and dancing. There's not enough action for her during the homily, so she heads outside to the kiddie tent and where ever else her parents are willing to let her explore. She and I missed much of what was said, but we hear there were many references to prayer, miracles and Vanessa. I'm sorry I missed it!

At the end of the service, Vanners came in for an impromtu jam session on the altar with the guys. Our little drummer had some real sticks to play with - doesn't she look just like her big cousin Julia here?

See her here, looking like she might burst out with, The sun will come out tomorrow!

After church, we bustled about as a family, rustled up some food, and had Pastor Paul and some of his family over, as well as "Uncle" Chris and friend Chelsea. Sorry, we were all so busy cooking, eating and socializing we failed to take photos. It was about 90 degrees in the back yard and we splish-splashed in the kiddie pool to keep our collective cool.

Later on, after the guests left, we ended up heading out to Pismo for sunset and fish and chips. See VH1 here, kicking about in a patch of dirt by the curb. A (slightly angry) youth approached Jack at this point, saying, "Is that a leash? Man, leashes are for dogs! That's just wrong." Daddio was nearly speechless, wondering if this guy had any idea how well we treat our golden hound. In the end, he just laughed it off. How could a stranger possibly know how we really treat our baby girl?

VanNanners barely stopped all day, with two short naps under her belt she was still running with the pack all evening long.

What a wonderful Dedication Day we had. And what wonderful company to share with us.

SHE GIVES ME FEVER

One way or another, our little gipperkins has given me a fever. She has one too, but you'd never know it was 102 degrees by the way she was tooling around the house at 10:30 pm, getting into absolutely everything. Vanessa must have her mother's constitution for sickness, i.e., it doesn't show much.



My fever may be due to the same virus Vanners has, but I also have mastitis. It's hard to chase a toddler when you feel achy and electric. I find myself saying to her, "Why can't you be listless, like a normal sick baby?" But, truth be told, it's hard to get cranky at our little tiger kitten. She is such a blessing.

This weekend we expect three VIPs - both grandmothers and Auntie Anne! I know I'd be remiss if I failed to report Van's latest tricks and tales. Here are a few:

- She's been walking on her tiptoes for at least a month.
- She started wearing my shoes around the house.
- She tries to help us dress - she pulls up our pants.
- She climbs up the slide and walks down the jungle gym stairs.


- She had her very first gymnastics class this week and can walk the balance beam (I still can't).
- Lastest favorite word is "rock," only this time it's a verb. (She got the noun version down a few months ago.) Vanny will now sit on Milo and say, Rock?
- Second favorite word is "tail." Poor Milo. I shout, "Gentle!" a lot lately, and catch Milo looking at me with giant golden eyes, as if to say, Help Me.

- Van feeds us, Milo, Max, her baby dolls, and the stuffed animals.
- She can play Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes.

- Two word sentences are happening. "Walk now?" "Park ball." "No shoes!"
- Other vocabulary words: clock, chair, bike, coat, goat, apple. Today she spat out a primitive version of "pancake," which brought a tear to my eye.

- We find she is a very cooperative little patient when it comes to getting her temperature taken by ear, and taking eyedroppers of medicine (Tylenol, Motrin, antacid, vitamins). Not so willing to accept a cold washcloth, however. We get an adamant "NO!" and it's across the room.
- When we read books together Van can point out and say the things in the pictures. She also parrots the words I say.
- My personal favorite game is when we have a book open and she points to every object she sees, to get me to say what it is. She moves fast, and I do feel certain she's quizzing me, as if she's going to catch me if I make a mistake.

- She is predominantly right handed, but is starting to use her left hand again (she used to be ambidexterous, as I bet all babies are at first). She's goofy foot for sure.
- Vanessa is a drummer. She's finding lots of things to use around the house as 2 sticks and a pad.
- Daddio came home from a walk with the comment, "Well, she's mastered everything at the park now."

I'll leave you with a video of Van in the tube, and one of Milo discharging some herding instinct. We call this game Playing Rabies. It can make Vanessa absolutely scream with laughter.