L.A., EUGENE, PORTLAND, SEATTLE, SAN FRAN

Where have we been? Why have we not been posting weekly blogs? My goodness, we've been all up and down the west coast!

First off, we have been chosen by a very special person to adopt her baby boy, due to be born in August in Los Angeles. Daddio, Vanessa and I traveled to spend some time with her and her 4 y.o. daughter at the beach. We had a wonderful time. We feel fortunate to have been chosen by them. We are consumed with thoughts about this child every single day.

While we are in regular contact with the birthmom, we are also amassing ideas for boy names and keeping up our busy schedule.

This is the end of track and field season for Daddio. He has been so busy, you can't imagine. In addition to having six Conference Champions this season, he went to the Regional Championships in Oregon and then the NCAA National Championships in Arkansas. After the college competitions were over, he was off to coach his elite athletes, "Uncle" Chris and "Auntie" Shea-Shea at the USA National Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

I don't want to brag but... Daddio is the only coach in the U.S. (the world?) to have a male and female multi-event athlete with the world standard. You may recall there is a minimum standard to be a competitor at an international competition, called the "A" standard. It was hard for Auntie Shea-Shea to get that last year, but she was one of only 3 high jumpers in the nation to do it, so she made the team.

Well Uncle Chris made the "A" standard last year in the decathlon by scoring over 8000 points. Auntie Shea-Shea made the "A" standard this season in the high jump, and she just barely missed making it in the heptathlon this season. Her mark in Cuba would have gotten her to the Olympics in the heptathlon, but this year's World team is harder to make than the Olympic team.

To put that feat in perspective, she has only had one full season of training for the heptathlon - SEVEN events in one - and had only tried the heptathlon three times before she got her first international competition this month. She represented the U.S. in Cuba and won the event, scoring over 6000 points, which was the "A" standard for the Olympics. It got raised to 6100 points for this year's World Championships.

The winner of this weekend's USA heptathlon, Diana Pickler, has "only done 4 heptathlons this year," while Sharon has only completed in four heps her whole life. She came in second. She made the World team. Okay, that's pretty unbelievable.

Daddio got a lot of compliments on the development of Uncle Chris in the decathlon, and Auntie Shea-Shea got a lot of television time on NBC for making the team in two events. They broadcast her final heptathlon event - the 800 meter run - in its entirety, whereby you can see her winning with great authority. In order to score 6100 points - the World "A" standard - she had to run the 800 in 2:19, so she crushed that goal by running a personal best time of 2:13. The announcers let everyone know that's what she had to do - the Track Town USA crowd loved it. Nice job, Auntie Shea-Shea.

So it's a big old dealio that Auntie Shea-Shea made the World Team in two events, the high jump and the heptathlon.

Uncle Chris, who was unable to compete in Cuba due to an injury, came off the D.L. to place 4th in the U.S. this year - also shocking and wonderful. Daddio described the week of coaching in Eugene as being, "like hiking a mountain, with harrowing moments and great views: it was hard and emotional, but ultimately fun and exciting."

When we weren't at the track and field championship meet cheering on Van's babysitters, we were visiting with members of our Urban Family. Funny, after being friends for 20+ years, we all happened to have delayed having a family for one reason or another. The visits were very brief, but oh, so wonderful. Even if we only see each other for a few hours once per year, it makes us laugh and recharges our batteries. Here are some highlight photos:


Mary, Vanny, Michelle and Graeham.

One year old twins, Juliette and Amelia. Juliette is talking but not walking and Amelia is walking but not talking. What a duo!

Pete loves VanNannerkins. We only got to see him for an hour or so before bed.

VH1 and 5 year old Graeham played non-stop.

Nature girls celebrating Graeham's fifth birthday in their birthday suits.

Katja and Todd's baby Anja, age 1.

"Yes, you can pick one flower. Only one." What a little garden gnome.

Anja's parents. Everyone in this photo thinks they are the lucky one.

Vanessa had never seen a seven foot arch before. She made it all the way over.

Allan and Beckett on the zip line. Beckett is 20 months old and such a little lovie.

Duncan, age 5, led Vanny on a creek walking expedition through Ravenna Park.

In other news... it was Daddio's birthday while he was working, so Sharon and her parents took him to dinner. Vanessa and I, along with Grandma and Granny, pitched in to get Daddio a new surfboard of his choosing - since his longboard is over 40 years old (he found it abandoned on a beach 25 years ago) and surfing is the only recreational activity he does lately.

Other VIP Vanessa fans we saw but didn't get photos of: Granny, Chelsea, Bjorn, Doris, Shawna, Thilo, Kian, Eugene and Yolanda, Hayden, and Auntie Maribeth and Auntie Sarah.

"Auntie" Nell is on the cover of the July Runnersworld. You know, that little publication with a circulation of 650,000.

This weekend we are headed back to Granny's to pick up our next house guest, Fleur, from France. She is 6 years old and flying across the world, alone, to stay with us for a month to learn English. Quite the girl, no?

So, in closing, we are collecting names for our baby son. Please: give us your suggestions.

THE AA WEDDING

Grandma had a great visit, anchored by the wedding of Vanessa's cousin Adrienne to Anthony. What an amazing wedding and stunning couple.

Nanners took her starring role pretty seriously. Being a flower girl is not for the shy kind of girl. Cousin Julia escorted Van down the aisle.

It was great to see the whole family.

The reception was at Uncle Jim and Auntie Susan's backyard. Hello! What a gorgeous evening and wonderful party! We had gotten Vanessa up at 6 a.m. to make the 5 hour drive to Modesto... she didn't nap in the car. Then she did get a brief afternoon nap before the ceremony. Do you know she was up until midnight at the reception? Marathon party girl! I had to lie down at 10 p.m. in a back bedroom, so she definitely out-lasted me!

The day after the wedding, most of the family went to Yosemite, including Grandma Patty. It was a wonderful wedding weekend.


Right after the wedding, Daddio took off for another week of work in Oregon. It sure was nice to have Grandma here to help out. Then, a few days after she left, Daddio left again for Fresno, then again for Arkansas for another week of work on the road. He gets back T.O.D.A.Y. and boy, am I ready to see the whites of his eyes.

Other news this month:

The birthmom we spoke to in L.A. has chosen us. WOO HOO! We expect to adopt a little baby boy, due August 16th. Regarding adoption, we keep telling Vanessa that she will have a little baby brother and, just as her birth turned us from husband and wife into Daddio and Mama, this baby's birth will turn her into a big sister.

Yup, this picture is of the birthmom!

GRANDMA IS IN THE HOUSE

Grandma Patty arrived in the wee hours last night for a two week visit. Yippee! She is here to attend cousin Adrienne's wedding to (beloved cousin) Anthony this coming weekend. We are so excited for the wedding and can't wait to see the whole clan again. Van is going to be the flower girl. Adrienne is the bride. Anthony is the groom. Van knows the whole drill.

Luckily, this week is a break for Daddio, so he can attend the wedding. Daddio has been very hard at work with the team and commuting to L.A. pretty much every week. He had an emotionally exhausting and ultimately amazing experience coaching the decathlon and hepthathlon at the conference meet two weeks ago.

Jack's 5th year super senior, James, won the event and his story gained national attention when it headlined the U.S. Track and Field Coaches Asssociation website.

http://www.ustfccca.org/featured/james-nunnos-improbable-comeback-highlighted-by-09-big-west-deca-title

The year incoming freshman decathlete Morrey Brown died, James had a freak accident when his pole vault pole shattered and ruptured his spleen. That was the year James was going to dedicate the conference championship to Morrey. Instead, he spent the year recovering from surgery, and Jack rejoiced he had not lost two athletes in one year. This season, James overcame many obstacles and even dominated the pole vault to win the decathlon title.

Then the next weekend, Daddio went back to L.A. for the rest of the conference meet. This year not one but six of his athletes were conference champions! A very big deal! James won in the decathlon, Julie won in the shot and in the discus, Katie won in the javelin, Conor won in the pole vault and Jenna also won in the pole vault. James, Julie, and Katie got personal best marks ("PRs") in their events and all three are seniors, so that was pretty amazing.



Things continue to move quickly around here while Daddio is traveling. I've been recovering from my breast infection and am thankful every day for Vanessa's preschool. I've told her teacher, Miss Carmen, that she was surely ordained by God to be Van's teacher. I think God cycled thousands of preschoolers through Miss Carmen's classes over the past 20 years to prepare her to teach this particular child.

Here are some of the highlights from preschool:

Miss Carmen: "Vanessa is a real trooper, going all day without a nap."

Miss Carmen: "Vanessa has great verbal skills. She's very bright."

Miss Carmen: "Vanessa doesn't mind telling everyone how to do things."

Classmate's Mom, who is pregnant: "My son asked, 'Will my baby sister look like her?' (Vanessa)"

Classmate Olivia to her Mom, upon arriving at school: "Look! There's Vanessa! There's Vanessa!"


Vanessa started naming her baby dolls something other than "Baby." She has chosen Carmen and Sandy, her teachers' names, and Olivia and Jonathan, names of two of her classmates.

Vanners is in the afternoon preschool and I think she's the only 2 year old, everyone else is 3 to 5.5. There are things she can't do very well at all, but otherwise I think she's fitting in okay. She can't trace her letters very well, but she loves the art table and of course playground time.

Miss Carmen has been amazing at establishing consequences for deviant behavior. By deviant I mean the pure sense of the word, you know, when Vanessa deviates from the pack and from expected behavior. She's not always being bad, afterall, she's often just being independent. Part of the job of being two. We promote independence in our California pioneer descendant, but we are thrilled Miss Carmen is using her classroom to teach V-Dog those indispensible skills of how to run with the pack. Ordained by God.

Auntie Anne has encouraged me to write down the funny little things that Nanners says wrong. Cousin Abby, for example, asked her mother one time, "Mommy, where did you been?" which we still laugh about. Vanessa doesn't say too many things wrong, darn it, but here is a partial list:

"What's that noises?" (she has corrected this one)

"Stunk" for skunk

"Chickmonk" for chipmonk

"Chitty Chitty Bang Dang"

"Pack pack" for backpack, which she now sports to school

She adds an "s" to a word to make it plural: womans, mans, mouses, Maribethes.

But, in general, mispronounciation is not her funniest contribution to the family. She's pretty skilled with her communication. Tonight, over dinner, she commented, "This is scrumptious, mama. This is scrumptious." Why thank you, baby daughter.

Mostly, she gets us to laugh when she is trying to entertain us. Tonight she stood on the coffee table during the closing song on American Idol and danced around in a circle, holding the hands of her new 5 inch tall baby doll. She definitely wanted the spotlight. We laughed about her dancing there, hunched over, and she kept on, keeping a straight face. Oh she works it.

She also teases us now. She teases me a lot, with a straight face. Since when do two year olds hassle their elders? That's what I want to know.

Did I mention that we have introduced the naughty time out? Yes, well, she likes it. She requests it, even.

Miss Carmen: "Today was an off day for Vanessa. She went around and got her hands into absolutely everything. She's two: it's expected."

Vanessa: "I was naughty today. I didn't feel like being nice."

Ah, me.