Swim Lessons, take 2

Despite the four swim lessons Adelaida had when she was five months old, she is far from a proficient swimmer. So this summer, we decided to do another round of swim lessons. They meet once a week for six weeks and Adelaida and Dale swim together while I take pictures. So far it is going really well!

Despite an intense dislike of spraying water, Adelaida is very happy to be in a large body of water, whether it is a swimming pool or a bathtub. Here are some pictures from our first two lessons:

She looks so happy!


The one part of being in a large body of water that Adelaida is not comfortable with is lying on her back. But in her first swim lesson, she was even willing to lie back on Dale's chest for a few seconds.


I don't think this was in the formal lesson plan, but Adelaida's favorite part of swim lessons the first week was dunking her daddy!



At the second lesson, Adelaida was so proud of herself for blowing bubbles in the water!


She was also quite adept at kicking her legs in he water.


Her favorite part of swim lessons today was sitting on the edge of the pool and jumping in. Dale worked with her quite a bit to teach her to lean her head forward rather than backward so she wouldn't hit her head on the side of the pool as she jumped in.



I'm hoping that these lessons will be fun for her and help her feel more comfortable in the water. So far, my goals are being met!

Breathe deeply, tie my shoes, see my belly button, ...

... walk up a flight of stairs without gasping for breath, pick Adelaida up and carry her, cross my legs while sitting, eat until I feel full, pick up something from the floor, ...

The list of things I used to be able to do goes on and on!

Now, here is a picture showing why I can't do those things any more -- the belly just gets in the way!



I'm 34 weeks pregnant now and have recently had to face the fact that we are going to have two more babies in our lives, and relatively soon! The hospital bag is packed, the car seats are in the car, the babies' bedroom is looking less like a storage closet and more like a nursery. I'm still not quite ready for them (and they aren't quite ready to be born), but we're getting closer every day!

Growing babies

I've now been pregnant for 32 weeks. Once a week, I go to the hospital for tests that measure the babies' activity levels and evaluates how they respond to contractions, and so far everything has looked great. The babies are both very active, have strong heart rates, and don't seem to notice when I have contractions (and at this point, that is a good thing!).

Reaching the 32-week-mark is notable in one other way: babies born between 28 and 32 weeks are considered "early preterm" and generally have much longer hospital stays and more health complications than babies born "late preterm" (between 32 and 36 weeks). My goal for the past several weeks has been to reach 32 weeks -- and now I'm aiming for at least 36 weeks (which is considered term for twins).

Of course, carrying two babies means that I look much more pregnant than the average 7-months-pregnant woman. In fact, I look like I'm about 9 1/2 months pregnant! Here are some recent pictures that illustrate how large I've gotten recently:

At 24 weeks:


At 28 weeks:


At 32 weeks (today):


Of course, that much-larger belly has come with a few (dozen) stretch marks. Adelaida discovered these stretch marks yesterday and decided to clean my belly so that they would go away. She got a tissue, climbed onto my lap, pulled my shirt up, and started scrubbing. Unfortunately, I have just as many stretch marks after that thorough scrubbing as I did before!

Easter Egg Hunting

Last year Adelaida attended one Easter egg hunt, and somehow managed to walk away with three eggs. To accomplish that remarkable feat, I had to walk her over to an egg, point to it, say excitedly, "Look, Adelaida, an Easter egg! Can you pick it up?" and wait patiently for her to examine it, decide she would like to touch it, and finally pick it up and hand it to me. Collecting three eggs took about half an hour.

This year, she had three Easter egg hunts -- despite not practicing since last year, she did very well in all three hunts! Of course, Easter egg hunts are really an excuse to dress Adelaida up in adorable dresses, and fortunately I got several pictures of her hunting eggs.

The first hunt was with my Moms group. The kids were divided into "little kids" (under 2) and "big kids" (ages 2 through 10). The hunt started with the kids who were four and over running out and grabbing all the obvious eggs they could find, then hunting for the more hidden ones. By the time Adelaida picked up her basket and walked out the door, the only eggs left were hidden in tall trees, under ledges, and otherwise difficult to see. I saw a few and steered Adelaida toward them, pointing them out to her so she would see them and pick them up. She got three eggs this way, then a generous older kid saw Adelaida walking with an almost empty basket, put one of her eggs on the ground in front of Adelaida, and let her find it. It was the high point of her hunt!

The second hunt was with our playgroup, which consists of about fifteen kids, all of whom are within three months of Adelaida in age. The eggs were "hidden" in plain sight on the ground and there were about a dozen eggs per hunter. She carried her basket over to each egg, set the basket down, picked up the egg, carefully placed it in her basket, and then went in search of another egg.


She managed to carry the basket quite well by herself, without losing too many eggs.


When all the hidden eggs had been found, Adelaida sat down to examine her goodies.


Done with eggs, several of the kids gravitated to Gracie's playset.


The third hunt was at our neighbor's house, with kids aged one to 16, but each age group had a well-defined area to look in. Adelaida was one of two one-to-three-year-olds, and there were approximately fifty eggs in their section. Adelaida collected a lot of eggs! Dale helped carry the basket for her while I took pictures.


After collecting a few dozen eggs, Adelaida just wanted to carry the basket around.


We had fun at all three East egg hunts. I can't wait to see what Adelaida will be doing at the Easter egg hunts next year!

Chemistry and Good Friends

Back in October (before I was pregnant and long before we found out we were having twins), I submitted two abstracts to the American Chemical Society's national spring meeting. I submitted one as an oral presentation and the other as a poster -- posters, especially by students, are hardly ever rejected, so I thought there was a very good chance that I'd be able to present at least one of my research projects at the conference. I was a little surprised, though, when both abstracts were accepted -- and the organizers asked if I'd present the research that I had submitted as a poster in an oral presentation! So, I prepared two twenty-minute oral presentations on my two research projects.

The best part about this conference is that it was held in Anaheim, CA -- near enough to our college friends who have never left LA (or who left and later returned) that we decided to make it a family trip and extend the trip three days after the conference ended.

There wasn't much going on the first day of the conference, so we met Liz and Connor at one of Connor's favorite hang-outs, the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. The kids checked out the sea lions while Dale and I caught up with Liz.


As we were leaving the sea lion exhibit, Connor found a good-sized puddle and immediately started stomping and splashing in it. Adelaida watched for a minute, not quite sure what her crazy new friend was doing, then tentatively stepped in the puddle herself. She must have discovered the joy of splashing in a puddle -- she laughed and then stomped as if she knew just what to do in a puddle. We spent more time at the puddle than at any of the other aquarium exhibits!


The next four days we each went our separate ways: Dale left every morning to work in Seal Beach, returning home in time to take us to dinner; I did my conference things, attending symposia and talking with other chemists; and Adelaida went to her "California school" every day. The "California school" was really a free daycare program that the conference provided, conveniently located in a hotel just across the street from our hotel. The conference provided free daycare for kids 2-12 (OK, their website said ages 2-12 when I signed Adelaida up; they later changed it to 3-12, so she was by far the youngest one there!), every day of the conference. The kids were separated into groups based on their ages; the preschool group (ages 2 - 4) had four kids enrolled in the program and two caregivers. Of course, all of the kids didn't go every day, so Adelaida's group generally had two kids and two caregivers -- and one day she was the only kid there! Adelaida quickly became attached to Miss Anna and Miss Erika, and I think they kind of liked her too. With tons of toys to play with, meals and snacks provided, and two great teachers, I was as fond of the ACS daycare as Adelaida was. I highly recommend it to other chemists with kids!

I presented my papers on Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon, and then the conference was over -- but our vacation was just beginning! We moved from Anaheim up to Pasadena, where we spent the next few days logging as much friend-time as we could. On Friday evening we met at the Rathskeller for dinner -- a surreal dining experience that included five kids running around our (fortunately private) dining room, exciting news of a new arrival in the Johnson family, and gastrointestinal pyrotechnics by Connor (due apparently to lots of popcorn and lots of running around).

Saturday, with Connor pronounced well, we all met again at a local hot dog eatery, joined now by Ron. It's amazing how we can be away from these friends for months to years and, when we do meet, pick up like we've never been apart!

Saturday evening the Williams clan had us over for dinner and playtime for the kids. Adelaida loved Anara's slide.


And she thought it was really cool to sit next to Connor to eat.


As the kids wound down, I found myself reading a book to Connor, Anara, and Adelaida. Aren't these kids just adorable?


On Sunday we invited the group to our hotel to take advantage of the swimming pool. Anara arrived mid-nap and never did get in the pool, but Connor and Adelaida both enjoyed swimming with their daddies.


Don't Dale and Adelaida look like they are having fun!


Adelaida's favorite part of swimming was being thrown in the air out of the swimming pool. Dale made sure I had the camera ready each and every time he tossed her. After he did it the first time, all we heard from Adelaida was "try again, Daddy!"


Eventually the vacation was over and we returned to our mundane lives in Albuquerque, but had a great time and collected so many good memories. Thanks LA friends!