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!

A Dancing Fool

Part of being a great parent is protecting your kids, right? With three daughters, our greatest threat is going to be teenage boys. With that in mind, Dale took the following video of Adelaida "dancing" last night:


(Facebook friends can find the video here)

He can't wait to show it to her first boyfriend.

Even better, there is a naked version, in case the boyfriend is really really bad! (Note: Dale wouldn't let me post the naked version of the video, but here is a censored screenshot.)

The First Two Weeks

We've now had our little girls home for two weeks and are settling into a nice routine. The girls are generally sleepy in the morning, then seem to wake up just in time for the family's afternoon naps. So, I end up getting a lot of housework done in the morning, then in the early afternoon we all lay down for naps -- Adelaida sleeps for two hours, Estella and Cordelia sleep for about fifteen minutes at a time but mostly want to nurse, and I try to lay down to rest but end up nursing for most of nap time. Eventually I give up on my nap, Adelaida wakes up, and we eat dinner. Cordelia and Estella nurse more in the evening, then sleep pretty well in their crib at night, generally sleeping in three-hour stretches at night. All in all, it's a routine I can live with!

The first week or so we were so intent on surviving that we didn't take as many pictures as we should have. But we did get some pictures, and even more this week. Here are some of my favorites.

This was the day after we came home from the hospital. Dale wasn't yet exhausted and even had a big smile on his face! Estella is in Dale's right arm and Cordelia is in his left.


We put Estella and Cordelia in their crib and Adelaida wanted to go to sleep with them. She soon realized she was too big for the crib! Estella is on the left and Cordelia is on the right.


Dale -- the ultimate multi-tasker! He is doing his knee exercises with the theraband, holding Cordelia, and catching up on the news on his phone.


Nonna and her three granddaughters. Cordelia is on the left and Estella is on the right.


Poppa holding Cordelia.


A family of five! I'm holding Cordelia and Dale is holding Estella.

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!

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.

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!

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!

Snow Day!

Everyone in New Mexico has been talking for several days about the "big storm" scheduled to hit us early this week. The forecasts have been variable, but all promised snow, even at low elevations, and frigidly cold temperatures. Perhaps surprisingly, the forecasts were right.


Dale watched the weather carefully yesterday and around 4:30 we left work, picked up Adelaida, and headed home. The roads were easily passable, but the combination of low visibility and snow-packed roads made the trip home rather slower than usual. The snow continued overnight and this morning we had a few inches of accumulated snow. Dale bravely faced the cold weather early this morning to dig out the truck and drive the truck along the driveway a few times, then he stayed home with Adelaida while I drove into Albuquerque for a dentist appointment and a few hours of work.

Most of the city was closed down -- Albuquerque Public Schools, the City of Albuquerque, and the University of New Mexico were all closed today, and Sandia National Labs was on a four-hour delay. The roads were slick and in the few hours I was in town I saw two accidents happen and several others that had recently occurred.

Back home, we had more fun. There is something magical about a snow day that makes me want to put on my warmest pajamas and curl up with a good book. I did that this afternoon and just might repeat it tomorrow! Adelaida also enjoyed the laziness of the day. She woke up from her nap and wanted to sit on her daddy's lap, and soon fell asleep again! It is a rare occasion these days to have Adelaida sleeping on either of us. What a treat!


The morning, Dale took Adelaida outside to play in the snow. They didn't go far -- the front porch had some snow and that seemed far enough. When Adelaida sees snow, she says "snowman!" so Dale helped her build a snowman today! With the bitterly cold weather, they settled for a 4" snowman, but she had fun collecting snow and piling it on the snowman, even if she was only outside for a few minutes.


Of course, Adelaida got the most enjoyment out of the cold-weather accessories. She continued to wear her mittens, hat, and coat most of the day and even insisted on sleeping with her hat on, mittens on, and two coats snuggled under her when she went to bed tonight!