Happy (belated) birthday to Adelaida!

When our kids are all grown up, I want them to look back at their childhoods and remember their birthday celebrations fondly. They have plenty of toys to play with and way more clothes than they need, so birthday gifts are not likely to be remembered long-term. Instead, I want them to do something special for their birthdays that will provide fond memories for years to come.

For Adelaida's previous birthdays, we took her to the children's museum in Indiana and to Explora, Albuquerque's children's museum. This year, she loves to play and is having more fun playing with friends, so we decided to take her to ABQ Playroom, an indoor play area filled with toys: a climbing set with slide, dress-up clothes, video games, puppets, a grocery store with carts, and so much more. Adelaida's birthday was at the end of December, and with the holidays in December and finishing my dissertation manuscript in January, we decided to wait until the beginning of February to have the party -- and then all three girls were sick that week, so we postponed it until the end of March. The party was yesterday, and I guess we were really celebrating Adelaida's 3.26 year birthday!

So yesterday afternoon I picked up the kids at school early and headed over to ABQ Playroom, where Dale met us. We invited three of Adelaida's friends to join us and the adults sat around and talked while the kids enjoyed playing together (or rather near each other, as three-year-olds play "together").

The kids had a blast! I tried to take pictures as much as possible, and here are some of my favorite pictures from the party.

Ann riding a big unicorn

Emmalene found a huge pile of money!

Adelaida enjoyed sliding down the slide on her belly

Go Adelaida!

Shreya on the slide

Ann preparing to slide down the slide

Estella found some fun blocks to play with


The twins loved the party because there were so many adults to hold them! Here, Varsha is holding Cordelia


Emmalene found the library

Cordelia LOVES to be thrown up in the air!


One of the other kids at ABQ Playroom put on a puppet show for Estella. She really enjoyed it!


Estella and Cordelia discovered a giant piano mat (or rather, I discovered it and put both girls on the piano). They quickly learned that putting their hands on the mat made music, providing the adults with nice background music while we talked.

Cordelia made it to her belly and rolled into Estella, who immediately grabbed at Cordelia's face. Both girls were still smiling! I love that my girls can crawl all over each other!


Shreya


Ann


Meme, Varsha, and Nathan standing around talking while Adelaida pushed the shopping cart


Ann and Emmalene feed their babies at the table


Adelaida and Shreya build with legos


Emmalene


Eventually the adults sat down -- Meme, Nathan, Dale, and Varsha


Shreya, Ann, and Adelaida read a book


We had a great time and Adelaida has been talking about her birthday party all day today. I think we created a fun memory for her! Happy belated birthday to my special big girl!

Lots of snow!

Throughout December, we had snowstorm after snowstorm -- at least one snowstorm a week, without any breaks for the snow to melt appreciably. By the end of December, we had received several feet of snow and were home-bound for several days since the interstate, local roads, and our driveway were all unpassable.

In true New Mexico fashion, we had more sunny days than dreary ones in December, so we were often able to  play in the snow under bright blue sunny skies.

Dale and Adelaida did some sledding, which Adelaida enjoyed ... sort of.


They went snowshoeing -- Adelaida in her pajamas and sunglasses, strapped to Dale's back.


Dale shoveled ...


... and shoveled ...


... and shoveled ...


... and shoveled some more, until eventually the pile of snow from our sidewalk was taller than Dale!


All that shoveling was hard work, so Dale relaxed by making a snow angel on the hill.


We had so much fun playing in the snow, and even today -- March 18th -- still have snow on the property against north-facing walls. And the forecast is for more snow in the next few days, so we may have more snow fun soon!

Eight months with Cordelia and Estella

Time is flying by -- Cordelia and Estella are eight months old today! Both are growing well and developing new skills every day.

Here is a picture I took of the girls on their eight-month birthday. Estella is on the left and Cordelia is on the right:


Here is a look back at our little girls and how they have grown in the past eight months:

Cordelia, newborn:


Cordelia, two months old:


Cordelia, four months old:


Cordelia, six months old:


Now eight months old, Cordelia has started developing some left-alone-anxiety. It isn't quite stranger anxiety, because she doesn't mind being held by people who aren't Dale or me, but she really doesn't like to be left alone in a room. If I put her down to play and then leave the room, Cordelia will start to cry. Sometimes she stops after ten seconds and sometimes she continues crying for ten minutes! Having Estella in the same room doesn't help, but if Adelaida is there, Cordelia will usually stay happy. Cordelia is fascinated by Adelaida. She loves to watch her big sister and especially loves it when Adelaida gives her toys.


Estella, newborn:


Estella, two months old:


Estella, four months old:


Estella, six months old:


Now eight months old, Estella is most definitely mobile. She has been crawling for two months but has just learned to sit up by herself today! She is pretty independent and generally doesn't notice or care whether anyone else is in the room with her. When put on the floor, she scans around the room, hones in on an object that she wants (often a shoe, sometimes a toy), and crawls straight toward it, even if that means crawling over other objects (toys, Cordelia, Dale's leg) to get it! She loves to chew on things and makes the most beautiful baby noises when she is playing with her toys.


With Estella crawling and Cordelia rolling, getting a picture of the two of them together was not easy. But I did get a few, and noticed that they both have their left legs raised! It isn't often that they are doing the same thing or in the same pose, but neither of them would put their legs down for this picture!

Starting school

I'm a little behind in my posting, but will be trying to catch up over the next few weeks. This feels like old news now, but it was a big change for us when it happened!

With the new year came several changes to our lives. I'd been fortunate enough to work from home for the first five months after Cordelia and Estella were born, but as the babies got older, working from home became more and more difficult. So, at the beginning of January, Cordelia and Estella started going to school.

They attend the same school Adelaida attends, making morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up a little easier than it would be at different schools, but it still takes about a half-hour to drop the girls off in the morning and fifteen minutes to pick them up in the afternoon. That combined with a thirty-five-minute drive each way eats up a lot of our waking hours.

My initial plan was to increase Adelaida's school time from three days a week to four days a week and put Cordelia and Estella in school three days a week -- so I'd be working three days a week, spend one day a week with Cordelia and Estella, and spend one day a week with all three girls. I quickly realized, though, that working just three days a week wasn't going to be enough to finish my dissertation, so I ended up putting all three girls in school four days a week. It is hard to be away from my babies that much, but I needed the time to work toward graduation!

Estella and Cordelia are both very comfortable at school, which makes it a little easier to leave them there every day. Their teachers, Ms. Adrienne and Ms. Erika, are great with the babies and have been very accommodating with my peculiarities, like using cloth diapers and feeding the babies only food that I provide.

Adelaida loves to help me take Cordelia and Estella to their classroom in the mornings and pick them up in the afternoon. She is so maternal toward them -- I put the babies down on the carpet and unload the bag of stuff (diapers, wipes, dirty diaper bag, bottles, breastmilk, food, sheets, blankets, extra clothes) while Adelaida gets the little girls toys. When I'm done distributing our stuff around the classroom, Adelaida leans down to Estella, gives her a kiss on the forehead, and says "Have a good day at school today, Estella. Be a good girl for your teachers, and Momma and your big sister will pick you up this afternoon. I love you." The routine is then repeated for Cordelia and we leave to take Adelaida to her classroom.

The transition to school has been pretty easy for both of the babies, with one exception. Estella has a really hard time sleeping at school. There is just too much distraction for her -- she lays down in her crib, obviously tired, but refuses to sleep. About half of the time she doesn't sleep at all, and half of the time she takes a 20- or 30-minute nap. She rarely sleeps more than 30 minutes and I don't think she's ever slept more than an hour at school. This makes for a very sleepy girl in the evenings! We've tried everything we can think of to get her more sleep at school, but nothing seems to work. Fortunately, she is a pretty happy baby, even when she is sleepy, so we don't have a lot of screaming or tantrums even when she doesn't sleep.

Smiles and laughter at the zoo

Adelaida watches the gorillas wrestle
while Estella (left) and Cordelia (right)
produce big smiles for their Momma

Now that I'm done with my dissertation, my personal stress level has been reduced dramatically. One resulting change to our lives is the structure of our Wednesdays. Since the beginning of January, all three girls have been in school four days a week: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. On Wednesdays, we all take a middle-of-the-week break and stay home together. Prior to February 29th, I spent most Wednesdays trying to do all the cleaning/laundry/cooking while the kids were awake, then spend two hours (or one hour, or sometimes just twenty minutes) working on my dissertation while the kids took naps -- when I was lucky enough to have all three kids nap at the same time. Wednesdays were a break from school, but not particularly fun for the girls. But on February 29th that all changed!



Yesterday was my first Wednesday after my defense and I took the kids to the zoo. The weather was beautiful, if a little windy, and all three of the girls loved the zoo. Granted, Estella and Cordelia didn't see many animals, but they seemed to enjoy spending a few hours outside in the sunshine in their stroller, and of course they were delighted with the frequent attentions they received from their big sister!

Adelaida checked on her sisters periodically to make sure they were OK

We met some friends at the zoo and our group had four kids,
all 2.5-3 years old. The kids spent a lot of time lined up
in front of the exhibits watching the animals.

All three of the girls had a great time at the zoo. Adelaida got to see her friends, watch the animals, and run down the paths. Estella and Cordelia found enjoyment in the simple pleasures of the zoo: sun, stroller time, and of course the wonderfully different sights, sounds, and smells of the zoo.

We enjoyed watching this polar bear neurotically pace
along the rocks while the other polar bear played in the water
below the rocks.

Adelaida at the zoo

Cordelia at the zoo

Estella at the zoo