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!

A visit to Indiana

I had originally planned to spend about four days in Indiana for Rachel and BJ's baby shower, but a few unforeseen circumstances prompted me to change that to a ten-day stay. First, just before the trip, I had some pregnancy complications (all resolved now!) that forced me to limit my activity. I was on light bedrest, so couldn't go to work or take care of Adelaida. My mom came out to help me, and rather than have her come back out to New Mexico after the baby shower, I stayed in Indiana until I was able to resume normal activity. Second, we had scheduled to have the tile in our house redone over a two-week period, the week before and the week after the baby shower. That would put Adelaida and me out of the house for the weekend over which the most work was going to be done, and we made arrangements to stay with a friend for part of the first week during the tile demolition phase. But a few days before that project was scheduled to start, the contractor delayed it by a week, which would have meant that Adelaida and I would be in the house during both the demolition and the heavy tile working weekend. It just made sense all around to extend our stay in Indiana!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from that trip:

Rachel and BJ pose with some of Rachel's old jazz dancing costumes. Cleaning out your parents' house can be fun!


We also found a box of my old karate gear. Brings back memories!


Adelaida with Uncle Michael. She just loved to have him pick her up and swing her!


Papaw juggles Ripley and Adelaida


Christa, Courtney, and Chloe play with Adelaida


Adelaida reads a book with Grandma


Adelaida still loves hats and mittens!


This is one of my favorite pictures of my beautiful little girl.

A baby shower ... and a new nephew!

Way back in February, Adelaida and I visited Indiana for Rachel and BJ's baby shower. They had a co-ed baby shower for the family that included mingling with family, lots of wonderful presents, and great food. Here are a few pictures from the shower.

Adelaida examines a bunch of balloons (that were not for Rachel's baby shower -- they just happened to be attached to a table at the church).


Such sweet table decorations


Adelaida skipped her nap for the baby shower, but did get some rolling-around-on-the-floor time. Of course, she had to take her socks off her feet and put them on her hands for the occasion!


Amanda, Laura, Adelaida, Papaw, and Melanie at the shower


OK, somehow I managed to take fourteen pictures at the baby shower and didn't get a single picture of Rachel or BJ. That takes talent!

Anyway, the baby shower was in February, and Rachel was very beautifully pregnant. And BJ was radiant with anticipated joy at the thought of his unborn son, who we still thought of as Patrick-or-Simon. I'm sure you can picture them perfectly!

A month passed, and I warned Rachel not to go crazy with anticipation and not to expect to give birth exactly on her due date, because first babies are often a week or two late ... and then, three days before her due date, Rachel delivered a beautiful healthy baby boy! Simon James Murphy arrived on March 19th, 2011, to very proud parents BJ and Rachel.

Here are some of Simon's baby photos:






Simon is eight weeks old now and growing so quickly! Although I haven't met Simon in person yet, I have seen him on skype and look forward to holding him in September. Welcome to the world, nephew!

Busy, busy

It has been a long time since I posted anything, but that is not because nothing has been happening! Rather, we've been so busy (and I've been so tired) that I've had a hard time finding time to sit down at the computer to compose a short blog post.

I'm going to try to be better about posting pictures here, but only when I find that elusive free time. Maybe when Dale can walk and drive again?

One reason I haven't had time to post much lately is Dale's knee surgery. The surgery was almost three weeks ago now and was (according to the surgeon) a great success. The surgeon removed part of Dale's patellar tendon and used it to fashion a new ACL for him. He was also able to repair the torn meniscus in his knee, which makes his short-term recovery harder but will allow Dale better use of his knee in the long term.

Dale did great after the surgery -- his only job was to lay on the couch and let us take care of him for two weeks, which he did fabulously. Of course, I couldn't have managed those two weeks without my mom and Dale's mom's help -- they both came out to stay with us and did most of the work around the house: cooking, cleaning up, serving Dale, playing with Adelaida, and just about everything else that needed to be done around the house. Thank you so much, Mom and Charlotte!

After the first two weeks, Dale was able to get up and move around quite a bit more, although he was still on crutches and will be for another week. He also went back to work last week, with mid-day rests to ice his knee and do his physical therapy exercises.

Here are some pictures of Dale's surgery and recovery:

the "before" shot -- note the lack of incisions and presence of leg hair ...


I was able to sit with Dale after they prepped him for surgery but before they started cutting on him. We tried to talk about anything other than the upcoming surgery!


Dale's knee about 24 hours after the surgery. His eight incisions (one long incision to remove the patellar tendon, four small incisions for the arthroscopic meniscus repair and ACL replacement, two small incisions to drill holes through his bones, and one small incision to drain excess blood) are held together with staples. Has Dale mentioned yet that they drilled holes through his femur and tibia?


Dale's knee surgery has been one reason I haven't been able to post; the other reason is that I'm just tired all the time right now! Of course I knew that gestating babies is hard work, but didn't appreciate how physically exhausting it is! I'm now 29 weeks, and my doctor assured me on Monday that if the babies were born right now they would be just fine with no long-term problems. At only 29 weeks, they aren't really ready to be born yet and I'm certainly not ready for them to be born yet, but it is reassuring to know that, if they were born now, they would be OK.

This is a picture of me at 28 weeks. Just imagine what 12 more weeks of pregnancy will do to my belly!


Of course, I wouldn't dream of leaving you without one cute picture of Adelaida. Here she is in March showing off her ability to put her hands in her pockets. She had to pull her shirt up to her chin to find her pockets, but she is getting much better at finding them now!

Gimpy Dale

Many of you will remember that Dale injured his knee last summer playing kickball. He rounded second and was heading for third when he looked up and saw a player from the opposing team standing in the base path. Dale tried to cut to go around him and ended up on the ground with a knee the size of a cantaloupe. That was the end of his plans to run across a Colorado mountain last fall, but the swelling slowly went down and the limping went away eventually Dale was able to do normal things like walk and straighten his leg and even run (in a straight line).

He was feeling pretty good about his knee when the soccer season started in early March -- he went to a few practices, showed up early for his first game, and was excited to be playing again. That lasted about five minutes into the first game, when he tried to change direction while running and ended up collapsing. By the time he got home, his knee was swollen so badly that he couldn't wear jeans anymore -- they simply wouldn't fit over his knee.

It only took a little bit of prompting to get Dale in to a doctor, who manipulated Dale's knee for about 30 seconds before declaring that he had torn cartilage and would need surgery. A few days later, Dale got an MRI to see how bad the cartilage tear was, and when the doctor saw the MRI, he realized that Dale had not only torn cartilage, but also a completely ruptured ACL.

A normal knee ligament is nice and black and has well-defined edges:


Dale's ruptured ACL is grey and blotchy and looks like something exploded inside his knee:


Dale had his first appointment with his surgeon last week (the initial doctor was a surgeon and would have repaired the cartilage, but doesn't do ACL replacements, so Dale had to find another surgeon who would do the entire knee reconstruction). Since the reconstructive knee surgery will involve four weeks during which Dale won't be able to walk, bear weight on his right knee, or drive, we wanted to schedule the surgery as soon as possible so that Dale would be well on his way to recovery before the twins are born.

So, a week from Wednesday, Dale is going under the knife for the first time in his life. The doctor will remove the middle third of his patellar tendon and small plugs of bone on the kneecap and tibia, and use the patellar tendon to replace his ACL. He'll come out of the operating room with a four-inch incision below his knee and two or three small incisions around his knee. He'll be bedridden for several days, after which he will be able to get around on crutches for a month. Full recovery may take 6-9 months, but the doctor assures him that he will be able to run and play soccer eventually.

Please think of us next Wednesday and in the weeks following as Dale has surgery and begins his long recovery!

In the mean time, Dale still limps and can't straighten his leg, and it bothers him if he has to stand or walk on it for a long time. Fortunately, it hasn't kept him from playing with Adelaida! Adelaida enjoys her swing but needs an adult with her to push her and be available if she falls off. Today, Dale pulled a chair up to the swing set and positioned it so he could sit down and push Adelaida while she was swinging. She was perfectly happy and he was staying off his knee!

24 weeks and growing!

Today, we celebrated the twins' 24-weeks-gestation birthday. Yes, I've been pregnant for almost 5 1/2 months now, and have only 3 1/2 months (or maybe a little less) before our little girls arrive. The time seems to be passing by so quickly! It seems like just a few weeks ago that we learned we were having twins, and now people are coming up to me and asking me when I'm due!



As you can see from the picture, I'm now noticeably pregnant! Amazingly, the girls are only a little more than one pound each, so there are two pounds of baby in my belly right now. I'm trying to imagine how my belly is going to expand enough to hold an additional ten to twelve pounds of baby and just cannot imagine it! But I'm sure they will find the space they need, even if it is at the expense of my lungs and stomach and bladder.

We bought car seats today and now have everything we really need for the twins. Their nursery is not yet set up -- the crib is in pieces in the attic and their room is currently being used as a storage area for furniture and curtains and other random things from our tile project. But in the next few weeks we plan to put the downstairs furniture back downstairs and rearrange their room, creating a nice baby-friendly space for them. We'll install their car seats in the car soon and experiment with different arrangements of three car seats -- I'm really hoping we can find a configuration that will allow us to store a bit of cargo (groceries, diaper bag, stroller, etc) and still get all three girls in the car easily.