Grandpa and Grandma visit

Mary Jo holds Estella as Dad looks on

Two months before Cordelia and Estella were born, Dale and I started a calendar on which we scheduled the various guests who would be visiting us this summer. For three short days at the beginning of September, we hosted my dad and Mary Jo. Although they had seen the babies on skype, it was their first time holding them, touching them, and changing their diapers. Well, actually it was Mary Jo's first time changing their diapers; my dad's first time changing them still hasn't happened yet!

Dad carrying Adelaida through the zoo

The weekend was full of activity! Of course there was a lot of baby-holding, but we also went to the zoo and somehow Dale and Dad started two big projects at the house -- digging up and replacing a sprinkler water valve (they got the three-foot-deep hold dug and the valve replaced, but realized when they turned the water back on that there was a leak and would need to cut out and replace the valve again) and cutting down a very dead tree by our driveway (the tree was cut down and cut up, but they didn't quite get around to removing it from the driveway). Despite the fact that neither job was finished, I was so grateful to my dad for helping Dale with those two projects, as we'd been planning to do them for a long time, but really needed a second person to help out with them. And, Dale was able to finish both projects the following week while the girls and I were in Indiana.

Dad rocks Estella

For two of the three nights Dad and Mary Jo were visiting us, Estella had very difficult nights. She seemed to be having some stomach pains and just wanted to be held -- every time we'd try to put her down, she started crying, and would periodically scrunch up her little body and scream even when we were holding her. Although we tried not to wake Dad and Mary Jo, their room was just across the hall from the babies' bedroom and I'm sure they didn't get much sleep those nights either. One night around 2am, Dad came in to the bonus room and installed himself in the glider, where he spent the rest of the night, holding and soothing Estella while we slept. Thanks Dad!

Here are some wonderful pictures of that weekend:

Adelaida perched on the water buffalo sculpture at the zoo


Grandpa rocking Adelaida and Cordelia
 

Grandma holding Estella


A silverback gorilla at the zoo carries his new toy away from the other gorillas


Reese, the two-year-old orangutan, swinging at the zoo


We had a great visit and were especially grateful to my dad and Mary Jo for traveling back to Indiana with me, a toddler who was missing her naptime, and two infants. It was a surprisingly easy trip, but I couldn't have done it without them!

Crazy Hair Day

All summer, Adelaida's school has "theme days" on which something special happens. This summer, Adelaida had a petting zoo come to the school, went on a bear hunt and teddy bear picnic, had clowns come in to the school, had "splash days" with water play every week, pajama day, bring-your-favorite-book-to-school day, inside-out day, a visit from the fire department, and of course crazy hair day. It's hard to make a toddler's hair "crazy" while still keeping it out of her face and spending no more than five minutes doing her hair in the morning, so we made do with great big ponytail bands sporting brightly colored gauze fabric and sequins. Adelaida loved it, and I love this picture of her!

A visit with Mamaw and a trip to the zoo!

I'm horribly behind in posting about our lives, and we've done so many fun things recently! I'm going to try to get caught up, although I may post things in a kind of random order for a while.

The first week in August, Estella and Cordelia were two weeks old. Adelaida was making a huge adjustment to life as a big sister, and Dale was going back to work. I was still not getting around very well after my c-section and seemed like I was nursing almost constantly -- and nursing was still pretty painful. The constant nursing continued through the night, so I wasn't getting a whole lot of sleep -- and neither was Dale, who was up almost all night changing the babies' diapers and soothing one baby while I nursed the other. It was into this crazy household that Mamaw came for a visit.

What a great help she was! With the constant nursing and little sleep, I was having a really hard time doing even simple things like unloading the dishwasher and helping Adelaida use the toilet, not to mention the more time-consuming tasks like making dinner and going grocery shopping. Having Charlotte around enabled me to survive and even enjoy Dale's first week back at work after the babies were born. In fact, I was feeling so good while she was here that Charlotte and I took all three girls to the zoo one morning!

We had a wonderful time -- between the two of us, we were able to push the stroller, hold one baby part of the time, hold Adelaida's hand, and enjoy seeing some amazing animals. We saw tigers and seals and peacocks and kangaroos, and Adelaida was brave enough to let Mamaw hold her while she fed the giraffe!

After a long lunch for all five of us, Adelaida fed the ducks on the way out of the zoo. She had a handful of duck food pellets, which she put down on the edge of the duck pond. She picked up the pellets one by one, threw each one to the ducks, and laughed after each pellet was thrown. This was about a one-minute process for each duck food pellet, and there were a lot of duck food pellets! I thought we'd never finish feeding the ducks, but fortunately some other kids came up to Adelaida's stash of duck food and tried to take them from her, which encouraged her to throw them a little faster so that the boys wouldn't take her duck food.

When all the duck food pellets were finally gone, we walked toward the entrance and realized that we'd overstayed Adelaida's "happy time" by about ten minutes. We had a rather unpleasant walk to the car, which included me carrying a screaming toddler through the parking lot while Charlotte pushed the stroller. Adelaida took a really long nap that afternoon!

All in all, we had a great time with Charlotte visiting, both at our house and on our trip to the zoo!

Cordelia and Estella at Two Months

The first two months with our newborn girls have been kind of a whirl-wind of nursing, changing diapers, visiting with family, and more nursing. For a few weeks I think I spent more than half of my time nursing one baby or the other! But all that nursing has paid off, as both girls are growing big and strong and healthy.

Cordelia has really grown a lot in the past month. Her head and neck strength have increased significantly and she loves to wrap her little hand around my finger and hold on to me. Just like her momma, Cordelia appreciates her sleep! She falls asleep easily and is starting to sleep longer stretches at night, although her little stomach still demands food a little more frequently than I would like in the middle of the night. Cordelia is still a little smaller than Estella, but catching up to her, just a few ounces behind.

newborn Cordelia
 

one-month-old Cordelia
 

two-month-old Cordelia
 

Estella has changed a lot this past month, too. Most significantly, she has become a much more mellow baby! For the first month, when Estella wanted something, she wanted it immediately. She would cry so long and so hard that I rushed to take care of her first, even if Cordelia needed my attention at the same time. In the past month, however, Estella has been crying less and less, and seems to be much more calm and able to wait for whatever she needs. She is also sleeping better at night! It is still hard to get her to go to sleep sometimes, but once she is asleep she will often sleep for an eight hour stretch at night.

newborn Estella
 

one-month-old Estella
 

two-month-old Estella
 

Such a great big sister!

Estella with a blanket and doll, courtesy of Adelaida

Before Estella and Cordelia were born, I worried about how Adelaida would react to the twins. They would certainly take up more of our time and we wouldn't have as much attention to give to Adelaida. Would she start to misbehave? regress with toilet training? resent Cordelia and Estella?

Adelaida holding Cordelia and kissing her hand

Fortunately and amazingly, she hasn't done any of these things. Adelaida adores her baby sisters. She spends more time "taking care of the babies" than she does playing with any of her toys. Sometimes when I'm nursing a baby she wants me to put the baby down -- but not so she can have my attention; she wants me to put the baby down so she can play with the baby!

Adelaida holding Estella

Adelaida dotes on her sisters so much that we've had to establish a few rules about them. Adelaida loves to give the babies kisses (only on their foreheads) and cover them with blankets (only one blanket at a time, and not over the baby's face) and hold them (while sitting down on the sofa with an adult supervising). I am amazed every day at how much she loves Cordelia and Estella and how lucky we are that Adelaida's adjustment to having two new babies in the house has been so easy!