To do list

Things to do during the long weekend.

1. Grocery shopping
2. Laundry
3. Finish writing the discussion for manuscript 2/chapter 3 of my dissertation.
4. Schedule a dissertation defense
5. Spend some quality time with my family by taking the girls to the park and/or the children's museum
6. Get the oil changed in the car
7. Change the air filter
8. Teach the girls that it is wrong to pee on the floor in their room after their bath. Pee pee should only go in the potty!!!

Which one is older?

People have a lot of misconceptions about twins. I'm sure that all of my readers with twins can attest to this since they have probably heard their share of weird comments from random people at the grocery store. But I just had to share two of the strangest comments I've gotten, which, incidently, are from people at daycare. When I picked up A and K one day a few months ago, one lady commented about their very blue eyes, then the rest of the conversation went something like this: DCL: I'm surprised their eyes are the same color. Usually one twin has darker eyes and one has lighter eyes. Me: Well, they are identical twins. DCL: Yes that's what I'm talking about. They look the same. Me: (inside my head) Um, ok. Then today when I dropped them off I had this conversation: DCL2: DCL3 and I had a debate about which twin is older. DCL3 said that obviously A is older because she looks older. I said that K is older because the smaller twin has to come out first. Me: Well, A is older by about a minute. Me: (inside my head) Um, ok. What kind of logic is that? I drove away wondering if I should find a daycare center where the teachers know more basic biology.

Lets go canoeing!

We’ve spent a good bit of time this summer “getting ready for the boat.” No, not another code phrase for “moving to a different city.” We are actually getting the girls ready to ride in a boat, or more precisely, a canoe. The mister and I really got into the paddle sports when we moved to LA; we even bought a nice canoe that was stolen about 2 months after we bought it (but that’s a story for another day). It is awesome to be alone with just the water and the boat – awesome! However, it has been about 3 years since we’ve gotten to go out and paddle because of the girls. My OB told initially told me it would be safe for a pregnant woman to go canoeing as long as she didn’t drown. But this was before we knew were having twins. Before BG2 lodged herself so tightly against my lungs that it was difficult for me to breath (we actually saw her stick her leg under my rib cage during one sonogram). Before it was too uncomfortable to do anything but “lie around like a lazy dog.” Before we had a baby on supplemental oxygen. Before.... But I digress. Now that BG1 and BG2 are 2 years old, they are almost old enough to join us on our aquatic adventures, our canoe therapy. But before we can take them in out in a canoe, we have to get them used to being in water. To do this, we’ve been doing a lot of swimming in the pool at our apartment complex. We started out slowly – 5 to 10 minutes at a time, 2-3 times a week and gradually increased out stays at the pool to 30-45 minutes. At first they were scared and clung to our necks with everything they had – arms, legs, finger nails, and in one case, teeth. But now they are our little turtle and duck (which just happen to be the animals on their swimming suits). They happily swim around the pool in their little blue floaties and even excitedly jump into the water from the side. Now as soon as we can convince them to stay seated in a moving vehicle, the will really be ready for the boat.

Help!

My brain is broken. It used to work just fine. I was able to think in a semi-linear fashion. I could analyze data and think rational thoughts. I was able to concentrate on the task-at-hand for at least a good 60 minutes or so. Now I can't seem to concentrate on anything. I'll stare blankly at my paper for 5 minutes or so and then I'm off surfing the internet and reading other people's blogs again. It feels like the hamster wheel in my head is spinning out of control. I think this inability to think or concentrate on anything began - oh- about the time I got pregnant with my twins. Am I the only one with this problem? Does anyone have the number of a good brain-repair-man?

"Going to the children's museum"

If I ever stop procrastinating and finish my PhD, it is likely that we will move to a new city in an entirely different state. We are excited about the prospect of our move, but we are not quite ready for the Mister's place of employment to know that he may be leaving. This means that when we IM each other during the day (this has been our primary means of communication for the last several weeks) we have to talk in code just in case one of his bosses is looking over his shoulder. In case you're wondering, employees at his place of business IM each other all the time, so the simple act of receiving an IM won't get him in trouble at all, just the potential content of said IM. Anyway, between the two of us, we have decided that whenever we want to talk about the new place, we will say something about going to the children's museum. And if you don't know the code, this makes for some pretty strange conversations. "Do you have any idea what the crime rate is at the children's museum?" Do you know if there are any good restaurants at the children's museum?" "When we go to the children's museum, we'll have to see if we can hook up with A Friend." and my favorite "I need to start looking for daycare at the children's museum." But now I must back to my dissertation, or we will never be able to "go to the children's museum."

Happy Birthday Babies!

Happy birthday you, happy birthday you.... Today at 4:17 and 4:18 pm my twin daughters officially became 2 years old. It's the second anniversary of the day my OB called and said something like "we'd like you to come to the hospital so we can run a few tests. We'll most likely deliver your babies tomorrow." When I got to the hospital the "we'll likely deliver them tomorrow became "we're going to deliver them today." And into the OR I went to have a C-section after 33 weeks and 6 days of pregnancy. As they wheeled me into the delivery room, nurses kept asking if I was ready to be a mother. I didn't quite know how to answer the question because what I wanted to know was "are my daughters ready to be born." The answer turned out to be yes and no. After all there were still 6 weeks to go before my due date. On the other hand, the single placenta the twins shared was tapped out and it was causing problems for all 3 of us. So ready or not, out they came weighing 3 lbs 14 oz and 2 lbs 15 oz. We've come a long way from this:

and this: On one hand, I can't believe that two years have gone by already, but in other ways it feels like it has been at least a century since they were born. Happy birthday small ones. I love you more every day.

Gack

Gack! Bossman is back from Europe and he wants to have a lab meeting. Gack, I say. Lab meetings are, well, not so fun. I’m sure he’ll have lots to say about his trip and the research he did while he was there and the food he ate and the flights he was stuck on; it will all be very interesting. But, gack, I just don’t really have time for this. I have a ton and a half of things to do. The # of hours I have to write per day is already too low. Now I have to give up 2 of them for a lab meeting? Someone needs to bring food. Maybe I’ll go and get some at lunch. Gack. The worst part is that Bossman will want me to give him an update on what I’ve done while he’s been gone And what have I done other than score a bounty hunter’s helmet and bounty hunters rifle on Kingdom of Loathing. I’ve added a bunch of new friends on Facebook. Made contact with a couple of old friends on myspace. Read the last Harry Potter book. Ordered some new shoes. Scored some other new shoes on eBay. Hmmm. Looks like I’ve actually been rather busy. Research wise I’ve accomplished a few things. I’ve more or less finished all the qPCR (I have a couple more replicates that I really feel like I should try to get done if I can manage to catch the lab gremlin sleeping). I’ve been writing. Ok, not all of it is research related, but some of it is. I’ve written a bit here and a bit there on several sections. I’ve also read, taken notes on, and filed a ton of papers. It’s not like I haven’t made any progress; it just hasn’t been enough progress. If I want to be able to start my new job at the children’s museum in November, I need to be writing a brazilian pages a day. And all I have to say is, Gack!