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.

Preparing for Twins

I knew it had been a long time since I posted on this blog, but didn't realize it had been over a month! You may be curious as to how I have been spending my time, since I'm obviously not blogging much anymore. This picture sums it up pretty well!

It turns out that, while growing one baby was tiring, growing two is downright exhausting! I am tired every day, so have been resting quite a bit. I laid down on the couch on Saturday and Adelaida wanted me to play with her. She has been playing with her baby dolls quite a bit now -- she has three baby dolls, but generally plays with exactly two of them at a given time -- not one, and never all three! On Saturday she rocked the babies for a while and sang to them, then wanted the babies to lay down. She placed them in my arms on the sofa and when I tried to give them back to her, she protested. Soon, I fell asleep, and Dale captured this picture of me "preparing for twins."

And really, that is a pretty accurate description of how I've been preparing for the twins. Sleeping is a much larger part of my day now than it was before I was pregnant, and a large part of the time I'm awake I spend eating. I'm not eating because I'm hungry (quite the contrary!) but because women pregnant with twins who gain a lot of weight early in the pregnancy have twins who grow better, stay in the womb longer, and having larger birthweights than women who don't gain much weight early in the pregnancy. I learned about this only recently (thanks Irene!) and am behind on my weight-gaining goals, but eating six meals a day should help me catch up pretty quickly.

We've made some other preparations for the babies and have found that it is both more challenging and much easier to prepare for twins compared to preparing for our first baby. Twins require a few special things: a twin stroller, a twin breastfeeding pillow, and a few more "baby occupiers" such as swings and bouncy seats and play mats, but we have so many baby toys already that we are in pretty good shape for the twins. Last weekend we had a rare night out: we hired a babysitter and actually left Adelaida at home while Dale and I left the house together -- and went shopping at a twins-consignment sale! (No, this is not a sale at which people sell their twins, just child-related items, with an emphasis on twin gear!) We picked up a second booster seat, a double stroller (for use when the twins are able to sit up by themselves), and an awesome easel for Adelaida. With those items purchased, we are down to just a few things we really need before the twins are born, and a couple of other things that would be nice to have.

I have now passed the half-way point in pregnancy (I'm more than 20 weeks!), so in the next few months, we need to get two car seats, a double stroller that will accommodate the infant car seats, a crib (although we can do with one crib for a while if we need to), and about ten more diapers. Not too bad, considering we have several more months in which to get those items!

Here is an ultrasound picture taken back in December of the twins. I've had more recent ultrasounds and have other pictures, but the twins are so big now that they can't both be seen on ultrasound at the same time. So, this is the last picture we'll have of the twins until they are born! (For those not accustomed to looking at ultrasound pictures, the babies are the lighter-grey blobs inside the black egg-shaped blobs. They are more recognizably babies now, and we can see their noses and fingers and elbows and such, but at this point they were just little heads and bodies with beating hearts.)

Being daddy's hairstylist

Adelaida is pretty good about obeying when we ask her to do something (or stop doing something). This afternoon, she pulled a hairbrush out of a drawer, chased Murphy into a corner and started brushing his fur; when I realized what she was doing, I asked her to stop brushing Murphy and told her that hairbrushes were for people, not dogs. She backed away from Murphy, yelled for her daddy, "Daddy, sit down!" and crawled up onto the couch behind him. Hairbrush still in hand, she began brushing her daddy's 1/4-inch-long hair.





Eventually, she demanded that he lay down, so she could reach his head better. He happily complied!



I never thought I'd see Dale sit still so well while being unnecessarily groomed. He really adores Adelaida!

Christmas 2010: Indiana

After leaving the Parkes family in Tulsa, we drove to Indiana, where we spent a week visiting with so many family members. Adelaida had a blast -- loving on GG, rough-housing with Uncle BJ, and generally being adored by everyone. Below are some of my favorite pictures from this part of the trip.

I'm not sure who is more content here: Adelaida or GG!


Adelaida likes most people, but there are a few that she really adores, and her Poppa is one of them. Every time she sees Poppa, Adelaida starts to giggle uncontrollably -- she just can't get enough of him!


Adelaida snuggles up to her Auntie Rachel M. (No, Adelaida does not have a gigantic butt here -- her butt is just being pushed up by Auntie Rachel's gigantic baby-laden belly!)


Adelaida discovers a rocking horse that is just her size!


Several years ago, we consciously taught our dogs that people who were standing or sitting on furniture were not to be jumped on, but it was OK to play/wrestle with people on the ground. Looking through all these pictures, I realize that we must have unconsciously taught Adelaida the same thing. Whenever she wants to play with someone, she directs them to "lay down!" and then begins to crawl on them and expects to be tickled, swung in the air, and much more. Here, Uncle Michael was directed to "lay down!" and Adelaida immediately sat on his chest and began poking his face. Poor Uncle Michael!


Adelaida notes a certain similarity between the lion's mane and the furry growth on Uncle BJ's cheeks.


Grandpa takes his turn as "mountain" for Adelaida to climb on.


Adelaida with Auntie Sami


Adelaida has a thing for copper pots larger than she is. Uncle Michael put her in this one, and Great-Grandma Fox was delighted to see her have so much fun in her fireplace pot!


Adelaida and Henry have always been good friends!


A nice picture of Uncle Michael and Adelaida.


Nonna learns that she is going to have not two new grandbabies this year, but three!


Dale wins the beer-tasting competition this year. His cream stout was, by almost-unanimous decision, the best cream stout of the tasting!


Cousin Evie teaches Adelaida to play the piano. Evie is almost four years older than Adelaida, and Adelaida just adored Evie! Adelaida followed Evie around for most of the Fox Family Christmas Party, and Evie was so good and patient with Adelaida and I'm sure Evie will make an excellent big sister!


The farmer in Adelaida's life gave her a John Deere truck for Christmas. Adelaida loves it!


As usual, we had a great visit with family. We look forward to future Christmases, when Adelaida will be the oldest of several cousins and will lead the younger ones all around the house!

Christmas 2010: Tulsa

Well, Christmas has come and gone and once again I find I'm more than a month behind in blogging about it. But better late than never, right?

Our Christmas vacation this year started with a long drive to Tulsa. It was long primarily because we were driving with a very-recently-toilet-trained two-year-old, so we tried to stop frequently enough for her to use the toilet, but ended up changing her pants pretty often, generally in the car on the side of the road!

We arrived in Tulsa, where Adelaida immediately started playing with her cousins. Elizabeth is old enough that she was very generous with offering Adelaida toys; Sarah and Adelaida are almost the same age and so were able to play together well, and Adelaida just loves to look at babies like Benjamin. Mamaw had so much fun with four grandchildren to entertain, and within a few minutes of arriving we announced that I was pregnant, so she spent several days thinking about future Christmases with five grandchildren!

We took over a hundred pictures of our time in Tulsa; here are some of my favorites:

Mamaw with Benjamin


When Richard and Dale get together, they enjoy rough-housing with the kids together. Here Adelaida and Elizabeth are perched on Dale's and Richard's shoulders; both girls had been upside down moments before!


Adelaida in her Christmas dress


Adelaida, Elizabeth, and Sarah all like to read books, so whenever one of the girls sat on someone's lap to read a book, another girl would inevitably climb up as well. Here, Elizabeth and Adelaida are reading a book with Dale.


Sarah brings a book over, looking for someone to read to her.


Me, happy holding a sleeping Benjamin!


Mamaw with Adelaida, on Christmas day.


In the midst of opening presents, we revealed that my pregnancy is a double pregnancy! Mamaw reads the card announcing that we are having twins and started revising her thoughts to future Christmases with six grandchildren!


Adelaida's favorite present was a baby doll that she immediately named "Yonna." She sat down and cared for the baby, feeding it a bottle, holding it, and patting its back. I know she loves babies but had never seen her so maternal!


Mamaw holds Adelaida and Benjamin


Sarah and Adelaida snuggle with Aunt Laura


One benefit of blogging about something over a month after it happens is that I get to relive the fun times by looking at the pictures! Adelaida has been sitting here with me as I prepare this post, enjoying looking at the pictures and seeing her family.