HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dear Everyone,

What an incredible year 2008 has been! Thanks for being a part of it.

Vanessa would like you all to know she's lovin' every minute of being alive.

Jack and I would like to say the past two years have gone by like one giant year, with a full decade of experiences packed in. Time has been, well, warped. We love it. We wonder how warped 2009 will be and await it with great interest.

December 2008 ended with a bang. Uncle Jimmy and Auntie Susan hosted a California family gathering at their house the weekend before Christmas. We had a blast. Vanessa was Santa's First Assistant, delivering each gift under the tree to the appropriate person. She made no mistakes.

It was, perhaps, a trick year, because there were a few new faces in the crowd. One of Vanny's favorites, Anthony, is cousin Adrienne's fiance. Extra special person number 2 was the lovely Nicole, cousin Matt's new girlfriend.

Auntie Susan gave Vanners a trunk full of Disney Princess Dresses, replete with crowns, jewels, slippers, and a sceptre. Van said, "Oh no way!" and promptly paraded her new wardrobe about the house, ultimately declaring the pink dress to be her top choice. Yes, your Highness.

Unfortunately, after getting over a wee staph infection, Vanessa then moved on to a respiratory bug of some kind. So, with Banana-kins suddenly illin', we high-tailed it home after our Christmas party, perhaps earlier than we would if she were healthy and didn't need her inhaler.

As a result, we only scarcely celebrated our grand daughter's second birthday on the 22nd. We did take her downtown to meet and greet Saint Nick and ride the merry-go-round, and served up her current favorite meal of hot dogs and grilled onions. No cake.

The following day, December 23rd, we sang the official "Happy Birthday" song with candles when friends Andrea and Jennifer came over with hand crafted cupcakes and gifts. Grandma mailed a scooter and rocking seat. Too bad Nanners was so sick. She woke up rather disoriented from a 3 hour nap when her guests arrived. She screamed, cried and clung to her mama, snot-nosed and swollen faced. The poor dear.

She rallied when she got her new tu-tu on and a scooter lesson, both compliments of Andrea.

The next day, more gifts for Vanessa. It was Christmas Eve, after all.

And Christmas? More gifts, of course. Nearly all for VanNannerkins, although I did get Daddio new underpants and he did get me a box of maple cereal. Boy, we went all out this year. Vanessa didn't rush to open any of the gifts, didn't feel like she needed much, and was very appreciative of all she received.

The day after Christmas the tree came down. Vanessa was sick all weekend and therefore stuck to me like a newborn marsupial in a pouch. She healed up just in time for our New Year's guests, Karl, Yvonne and 12 month old Baby Lucas to arrive from the snows of Seattle.

Karl was an elite decathlete training under Jack several years ago. Later, he worked as Jack's assistant coach, and, when we moved to California, Karl was hired into Jack's position as Head Coach in Seattle. Forget all that, we are just all simpatico.

We've been enjoying the sights together. For New Year's Eve we had a fresh crab fest with our guests, "Uncle" Chris, Andrea and Jennifer. It was a hoot!

We've been touring around with Karl, Yvonne and Baby Lucas in the Big Daddy Caddy because it holds all of us - two car seats and four adults. Lucas holds Vanessa's hand as they ride along. See them here, Nanners fast asleep between adventures.



Although Yvonne and Karl got up and went running at 8 a.m. on New Year's Day whilst Daddio and I lingered in bed, we are a very similar couple. At least, we have similar marriages - coach + coach's wife - and similar parenting styles (attachment parenting).

See Yvonne here, getting her first ever surf lesson from Jack, at sunset. Photos courtesy of Karl.

Did you make any New Year's resolutions for 2009? I have one and only one: I resolve to try to keep pace with this heaven-sent creature.

"OH NO WAY!"

One of Van's new phrases is really an exclamation that means, basically, Eureka! She says, "Oh, no way!" like a perfect little high school student.

Here are some photos from the past few weeks. See Nanners playing hide-and-seek in the Christmas tree "forest." That rascal (pronounced Ras-a-cal). She plays hide-and-seek with Daddy every evening at home.

Here she is, eating "Ice-a-cream." Her favorite flavor? Pumpkin.

See her here with a new sweater and hat and a new friend, Mr. Snail. You'd think she'd found a unicorn in the yard, the way she marveled at this fine little creature. It took some serious reasoning on my part to get her to leave Mr. Snail (Mister Suh Nay-oh) in the great out-of-doors.

She's been wowing the other parents at the playground. I don't even feign modesty when Vanessa scales the playground equipment. "She's a climbing freak," I admit.

This little boyfriend is a year older. His mama and I said, "Go ahead, you can do it," and he looked up at us and said, "No, I can't." His mama commented that he had noticed Vanessa from across the playground, then he had to get up the nerve to approach her. After they climbed awhile, we saw him stand right up against Vanny, hold both of her hands, then move in slowly and carefully for a kiss. I fell on my back laughing.

Today is Vanessa's second birthday! We feel this is Vanessa Season, not just her birth day. We spent the weekend with the California side of the family, celebrating, and today we're having a quiet celebration at home, which may include sitting on Santa's lap and riding the merry-go-round downtown... photos to follow.

DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL

We want to wish you a happy belated Thanksgiving and an early merry Christmas! We were all set to leave for New York to finalize the adoption, but this week it fell through. The birthmother decided to raise her little son herself. We are not upset. We got to know her this past month and understand how strong a bond she has with him and she's doing a great job raising him. Please join us in our prayers for her. She just turned 21 and has absolutely no family support.

Here are some pics from the holidays, in no particular order. We had a quiet and absolutely lovely Thanksgiving at home. Vanessa loves to cook. See her in the kitty cat apron Grandma sent?

We've had a few visitors come by this month. Bjorn came for an overnight and Bridgette stopped by, too. Old friends Rob and Manuela visited with their baby daughter Sophia. Let me tell you, Sophia was a big ole hit around here. Vanessa loves older kids and Sophia can surf.



Daddio has been tackling Vanessa's mane of curls. See her here, with unruly bedhead. Will the real Baby Einstein please stand up?

There's a new daily ritual in town. It involves Daddy's bathrobe and a certain little kangaroo. She hides in his bathrobe and we say, "Where's Vanessa? Is she in the closet?" and a tiny little voice answers from the bathrobe, "No..."


V-Dog is pretending very well these days. She's also singing the Alphabet song, which is truly a shock, since we've not been practicing. Kids pick up the darnedest things. She's also adoring her independence. "No, Mama, No!" she says and holds out her hand like a traffic cop. I'm not invited on her little adventures. "No thank you," she says. She's all grown up, apparently. It's very, very cute.

This weekend we were visited by "Auntie" Nell and her groom, Braidy. I threatened to Photoshop our faces onto this picture for our Christmas card. Our pose is a bit more, um, candid.



Here are a couple of videos for your viewing pleasure. The first is of Nanners thinking it might be nifty to ride the white cat.

This is an older snippet of what it's like to go grocery shopping these days. Let me assure y'all, there are few activities that rate as highly as a trip to the grocery store, now that Van has discovered the mini "Shopper in Training" carts. Here she is leading me to he diaper aisle for the baby. I guess I mentioned we needed some!

Daddio is in Las Vegas this week for a coaching summit. He's a big time coach now. Nanners fell asleep in her clothes at 6:30 p.m. last night and woke up at 6:00 a.m. when I got up to feed Max. I came back to the room where she was sitting up in bed in the dark. "Mama!" she exclaimed. "Where are my jammies? I'm wearing my clothes!" She sounded slightly horrified and completely bewildered. I laughed my tail off.

And I leave you with my favorite video. Note the teenage surfers in the background.

GREETINGS FROM SEATTLE

Vanessa and I are visiting Seattle and Portland, on a last minute trip to see old friends on their birthdays. "Auntie" Sarah and "Auntie" Katja have turned another year older so we came to celebrate with them. There are many babies in the mix and we are loving every minute of it.

Here we are, four college roommates, finally getting around to building our families after 23 years of knowing each other. Seems like yesterday we were teasing our bangs to great heights and learning to drink coffee on the weekends.

Duncan grew in his mommy's belly as his mommy took me to my last round of chemo, every single week. He'll be 5 in February. Vanessa thinks Duncan is her boyfriend. Vanessa would have turned 6 a month ago if she had been allowed to grow immediately after conception. So who is older?

Van and I only had a brief amount of time to visit friends. See us here with Loretta, Wally, Jessica and Myriah. Loretta and I shared a small office for 8 years. Why I am alive and cancer free is a mystery. I feel grateful, as always, to be here and to be a mother.

Without realizing it, various members of Jack's family were already converging on Seattle. Nanners and I got to rendez-vous with cousins, aunts and uncles at at MacDonalds with a hobitrail. We got to share our BIG NEWS with the family directly:

DRUMROLL, PLEASE... On Friday the adoption agency called to say they have a little 8 month old baby boy.


Daddio and I have spent the weekend in contact with the birthmom and today we heard that she wants to match with us for sure. We are so excited! There's much in the works, so please keep us all in your prayers. If the match goes through as planned, we will have this beautiful child in our home in December.