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

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Ok, this post (like the holiday cards that we haven't yet designed, let alone sent out) is a little late. See my previous post for a quick run-down on why I haven't been posting recently.



Christmas of 2011 was our ninth Christmas living in New Mexico, but only the second time we actually spent the holiday in New Mexico (the first being 2008 when Adelaida was born). We have generally traveled to visit our families at Christmas, and therefore have never really decorated for Christmas and never had our own Christmas tree. This year, though, we decided to change that.

With three young kids -- two of whom were five months old -- traveling at Christmas time seemed like a lot of work. So, we invited Dale's family to visit us at Christmas and skipped the Christmas celebration with my family, since we had spent almost two weeks with them in September and are planning to visit them again in the spring or summer.

Since we would have six young kids in the house at Christmas, we decided we'd better have a Christmas tree! So, we set out to buy one, on December 23rd, in the middle of a blizzard ... and found that most local stores were sold out of Christmas trees and we wouldn't have it in time if we bought it online. With no other options available, I made one last attempt to buy a tree, and the Edgewood Walmart came through for me! It wasn't a tall tree, or particularly full or bushy, or fancy in any way, but we made it work.

We decorated it with silver sleigh bells and red glass balls, and with the lights already strung on the tree, it made our living room seem almost festive!

We put a few presents under the tree on Christmas morning and let Adelaida pass them out. It felt like a real Christmas celebration!


And the crowning achievement of the Christmas tree was that we got a family picture, with all five of us looking at the camera, in front of the decorated tree. Merry belated Christmas everyone!

Dissertation Defended!

For the past 62 months, I've been able to check the "student" box on all those demographic questionnaires. At 34 years old, I've kind of felt like a perpetual graduate student and often wondered if I would ever finish! (and really, did I want to finish? or was being a grad student what I wanted to be forever? Difficult questions to answer!) About a year or so ago, I decided I'd had enough. Grad school was fun, but I was ready to move on. So last spring and summer I made a big effort to finish my research, and over the summer I started writing my dissertation.

And then life intervened, in the form of two beautiful babies. After Estella and Cordelia were born, I put the research and dissertation on hold for a while as I nursed, changed diapers, nursed, read books to Adelaida, nursed, took the kids to the zoo, nursed, and nursed some more.


As much as I enjoyed spending time with my girls, it was also nice to go back to work at the beginning of January, to interact with adults and challenge myself intellectually instead of just physically and emotionally. Since the beginning of January, all three kids have been in school four days a week and I made a big push to finish my research; write, revise, and finalize my dissertation; and prepare and practice my defense presentation.

I had a dissertation defense date set: February 29th, 2012. Life in general was on hold while all of my available energy was directed toward the dissertation. For the past several months, whenever I have heard about things I'd like to try, books I'd like to read, and places I'd like to go, my standard response has been "I'll think about that again in March."

Yesterday was D-day. I defended my dissertation yesterday morning at 10:30am, with a forty-five minute public presentation followed by a short question-and-answer session from the public. Fourteen people attended my defense: a good-sized crowd that included my dissertation committee, several members of the Kemp group, two coworkers from Sandia, a couple of members of the UNM chemistry department, and Dale. I'm so grateful they were all there, as it was nice to have some friendly faces to focus on during the presentation! (The title is "A Proposed Palladium-Catalyzed Cycle for the Epoxidation of Alkenes.")


Following the presentation and audience questions, the public dispersed and I was left alone with my dissertation committee -- literally me on one side of a long table and the four committee members facing me across the table. They asked questions about my research and I responded -- some questions I simply didn't know the answer to, some questions I knew confidently how to answer, and some I muddled my way through a response that may or may not have been appropriate.

Eventually (a little over an hour after starting), their questions were exhausted and I was asked to leave the room while they "deliberated." Now, it seems to me that it might take as long as forty-five seconds for Rick to say "I think we should pass her" and the other three to say "I agree," "I agree too," "I also agree" and open the door to let me back in the room. But they must have been talking in extreme slow motion -- or perhaps discussing other topics just to let me have the heart-pounding experience of wondering what was happening inside that closed room in which my fate was being decided -- because I was out in the hall for more than 20 minutes. But at last, the door opened, I was ushered back into the room and was shaking hands with my committee members and receiving their congratulations for graduating with distinction.

Granted, I need to make some minor editorial changes to my dissertation, but I am essentially done. Sixty-two months of grad school and I'm about to put that phase of my life behind me and start something new. It still feels a little surreal.

Cordelia and Estella are seven months old!

I'm finding that life with a toddler, two infants, and a dissertation to defend is BUSY! Something has to be put on the back-burner for a while, and recently it has been posting to the blog. But our babies turned seven months old recently (yay!) and I didn't want to get too far behind in chronicling their development, so here is a recent picture of our beautiful little girls. Cordelia is on the left and Estella is on the right.


Both Estella and Cordelia have grown up so much in the past month! Just a few days after they turned six months old, both babies mastered new skills: Cordelia learned to sit up well by herself, and Estella learned to army crawl! Interestingly, one month after they mastered these skills, Estella still can't sit up by herself and Cordelia still can't army crawl. I am reminded every day that these are two different babies who are developing differently and that there is no one "right" way for a child to develop.

Cordelia is loud. She has a loud cry, a loud (and wonderful!) laugh, and generally loud vocalizations. We almost have to wear earplugs when we feed Cordelia because, mere seconds after one bite of food is in her mouth, she is loudly squealing for another bite! More than anything else, Cordelia loves to "talk" to Adelaida. Whenever she sees her big sister, Cordelia makes a loud, happy noise that Adelaida loves to hear!

Since Estella has become mobile, nothing stops her from getting what she wants -- and more often that not, that is a foot! When we lay her down on the floor, she immediately looks around to find Cordelia, then makes a bee-line for Cordelia's feet. They must taste really good, because both of the babies like to chew on Cordelia's feet! If Cordelia isn't on the floor with her, she'll crawl toward my feet, Dale's feet, Adelaida's feet, or any shoes she can find -- we've recently started putting our shoes on top of the coffee table or TV stand to keep them out of Estella's mouth.

Here are pictures from the first seven months of the girls' lives:

one-month-old Estella


one-month-old Cordelia


three-month-old Estella


three-month-old Cordelia


five-month-old Estella


five-month-old Cordelia


seven-month-old Estella


seven-month-old Cordelia


And here is a bonus picture of my three beautiful girls together -- Estella, Adelaida, and Cordelia.

Adelaida's first haircut

A few days after Adelaida's third birthday, she had her first haircut.


I cut Dale's hair regularly, so we made a big deal out of Dale getting a haircut and told Adelaida that she could get a haircut too if she wanted. She wanted Dale to go first, so he sat down in the chair, I draped the towel around his shoulders, -- and suddenly Adelaida wanted it to be her turn!

So I sat Adelaida down in the barstool and handed the camera to Dale . My intention was to cut about one inch off. Since her hair has never been cut before, it was pretty scraggly at the bottom and I wanted to even it up. Of course, she was very squirmy and I'm not a great hairstylist, so when I was done with the first set of cuts, I had to take another half inch off to make it somewhat even.


Her hair is still not perfectly straight, but it is so much better than it used to be! Just getting rid of her scraggly ends was a great benefit. And despite cutting about an inch and a half off, her hair is still pretty long. I'm not sure when we'll cut it again, but we probably won't wait another three years!

A busy Momma and a wonderful Daddy

I will start this post by acknowledging that I haven't posted much lately and, to those who look forward to watching my kiddos grow over this blog, I'm sorry! And to further disappoint you all, I'm not planning to post much in the next month or so. But we are still taking pictures of the kids and I have an ever-growing list of subjects for the blog, and I promise that I will catch up with it eventually.

There is a reason for my negligence -- I am finishing my dissertation and will be defending it on February 29th! This semester, after twelve long years (including a four-year break from grad school, changing schools and concentrations, and three kids), I will finally finish my PhD! But I am going to be working like crazy over the next month, preparing for my defense, so am going to be ignoring all non-essential things like blog posts (and cleaning the house, and starting the garden, and cooking dinners, and anything else I can think of to set aside for another month).

Adelaida, Cordelia, and Estella, of course, can't just be ignored for a month until I'm done with my dissertation. Fortunately, Dale has been wonderful about being the primary care person for them when he is home and has provided me with several hours of uninterrupted time to work this month. And, this being January and the kids (all three of them!) being in school, we've seen our fair share of illnesses recently. The kids have had five unanticipated stay-at-home days in the past two weeks, and I suspect we'll have another tomorrow. Dale has stayed home with them two full days so that I could go to work, and he's already trying to rearrange his schedule to stay home part of the day tomorrow. Thank you Dale!

Last weekend, I walked downstairs to get something and found Dale cuddling with all three of his little girls on the sofa, watching football (or was it a "soccer-ball" game? I don't remember). He was holding both Estella (on the left) and Cordelia, and also had an orange bucket full of legos that Adelaida insisted he hold. He was keeping all three kids happy so I could work. What a super-Daddy!