Do your pants hang low?

Our heroes have been crawling all over the place lately, and this has left them both with carpet burns on their knees. Mommy’s countermeasure has been dressing them in pants, some of which are still a size too large. In spite of our best efforts, exuberant babies can sometimes crawl right out their britches. At first glance, seeing the boys standing and facing their highchairs with pants down low reminded me of a rear view of two men standing at a public urinal. These days you also often see teenage boys fond of rap music displaying a fashion statement of wearing oversized pants pulled way down past their exposed boxer underwear. I wonder if they saw babies in this position and thought “now that’s a good look”.

Hey…..What’s the matter?

Sometimes you are just not in the mood. Yesterday was a beautiful fall day. After church we took a nap and then went for a ride in the country. The afternoon sky was blue, the temperature was perfectly comfortable, the sun was bright, and the fall colors were emerging. Conditions were perfect for photography, so we found a nice spot for the boys to pose and started shooting away, but they just weren’t in the mood. We cheered and called and hollered and whistled, but they just wouldn’t look at the camera together. We tickled and sang and waved and jumped up and down, but they wouldn’t smile. The livestock must have thought we were crazy. The boys didn’t cry, whimper, squirm or fuss. They just weren’t in the mood for posing. Some days are like that.

Chiefs Cheering Section

Grandma Karen has a lot to say about the twins’ allegiances. She read the blog where Uncle Steve gave the boys Indianapolis Colts bibs in an effort to lure their NFL team devotion away from Daddy Dave’s Chicago Bears. Upping the ante and expanding their choices, she made her bid to garner their support for the Kansas City Chiefs with team outfits and jackets. Unfortunately, not as many Chiefs games are shown in our media market as other teams in closer cities, but today our CBS affiliate had the Chiefs on their early game. KC had not won a game in the last 12 months and was suffering a 12 game losing streak until today when the 0-3 Chiefs shocked the previously unbeaten 3-0 Denver Broncos 33-19. I think the Chiefs had just been two fans short of a win.

Standeroo?

We purchased the boys a Jumperoo six months ago and immediately they began happily bouncing the hours away. Over time, you could see their leg muscles strengthen and their balance improve with every leap. We would adjust the seat to increasingly higher positions with their every growth spurt. Recently, as our boys’ mobility has increased, their interest in sitting in stationary seats has diminished. Now the boys practice standing by using the Jumperoo to pull themselves upright. At first this was troublesome as the wobbly boys were continually falling on the support bars and hurting themselves. To the rescue came their mother, the engineer, who devised a clever solution. We purchase floating swimming noodles, which are foam tubes. We cut them lengthwise, slipped them over the bars then, duck taped them in place. Do you think we could patent her design?

Bottle for Later

Passing out from exhaustion in the middle of dinner need not mean you must sacrifice a portion of your meal. If you are as focused on nutrition as Trey Davey you can hold that bottle tightly while sleeping and no one can take it from you until you allow them the honor after you are finished with it, following your nap. Now that the boys can sit, stand and crawl, they play hard and sleep harder. While already strong, all this new mobility will probably convert more of their baby fat to muscle and slim them down. Soon they will be two lean, mean playing machines.

Give yourself a hand

The boys have learned how to clap. Well, it might be more correct to say that they have found that by striking their open palms together it makes a fun sound. Benji began clapping about a month ago, and Davey started clapping just this week. They really enjoy this trick and demonstrate it for people at the most peculiar times. One could never confuse them for trained seals who clap on cue, as our boys clap to their own drummer. They don’t clap on request, or in response to your clapping or with your assistance. They don’t clap to show approval, or appreciation, or to the beat of music. They clap solely for the smile of it, like blowing a raspberry. However, I suspect if we had a Clapper device in the house, they would soon figure out how to turn the lights on and off.

Zone De-Fence

While visiting our home earlier this year, our nephew Levi displayed amazing mobility. I wondered aloud how difficult it wound be to control two boys once they could crawl and walk. My brother, Steve’s, advice was a zone defense. Limit the babies’ borders to a room or two and you limit the area for chasing and cleaning. This seemed amazingly sensible. Now that we have reached the point where the twins are crawling and boldly going where they’ve never been before, Sandy ventured into our basement and returned with two baby gates. We previously purchased these gates several years ago to hold her elderly cat, Fred, and have since stored them just for this baby occasion. They work perfectly, not only limiting the children’s play area, but giving Mommy and Daddy an aerobic workout every time we have to step over them to pass through the house.

Benji’s turn to smile

When we visited Dr. Neel for the boy’s nine-month check up a few weeks ago, we asked if they were sick, given the amount of diarrhea they had been experiencing. Surprisingly, his response was that they were probably cutting new teeth. After examining them, he said Benji could expect his first tooth soon. Davey’s first tooth appeared two months ago on bottom, but Benji is his own man. His first tooth is coming in on top, and it has been a painful process. This weekend was particularly filled with much crying and discomfort. Given that the tooth has now appeared, we hope he will be his old self again soon.

Crawling the Floor After You

Everything has changed, again. Now they can crawl. They have joined the mobile society. For weeks they teased us. They would shift from a sitting position to all fours and move a little then sit back up. Or, instead of crawling, they would scoot across the floor on their tummy like little army men. But that was before. Now, they can crawl. Trey Davey has selected a traditional, balanced crawling method utilizing both body sides equally whereas Benji has opted for his own, less conventional, sidewinder crawling technique. He anchors his left leg in a forward position keeping his knee up under his belly while pushing off with his right leg which he keeps well behind him. With his scissoring motion, Benji can move just as fast as Davey, and sweep the floor at the same time.

Life Lessons Learned in Church

At one of our early doctor’s visits this winter Dr. Neel alerted us to several childhood viruses that were running rapidly through our community. He advised us to keep the boys at home and away from day care and church nurseries for a while until the epidemic passed. Recently we have resumed attending church and have introduced the twins to the nursery at Owensboro Christian Church. We were interested to see how they would interact with the other children and accept supervision by strangers for the hour. The nursery workers told us that the twins showed no signs of separation anxiety and made friends very well. Also, unlike this other little boy, they learned not to mess with the girl in the pink dress.

Getting Into Politics

Politicians have been known to kiss a baby or two in order to garner voters’ favor, but this candidate had our vote long before these babies were even born. Wes Roberts, our next door neighbor, is running for Owensboro School Board, and Daddy Dave has been helping him with his campaign. These non-paid elected offices have very small campaign budgets and candidates often try to win office solely using yard signs and brochures. Unfortunately, Sunday’s major wind storm relocated Wes’ yard signs to unknown locations probably many miles away, so Daddy and the boys volunteered to go to his supporter’s homes to replace signs. This is Davey and Benji’s first campaign, and I’m sure it won’t be their last.

You Light up Our Lives

The power, quite literally, returned to our house Wednesday night in more ways than one. The utility company restored our electricity, ironically, just before Sandy arrived home from her New Jersey business trip. With Mommy gone, play time wasn’t as fun, meal time wasn’t as organized, and nap time was a battle of wills. We missed her encouraging words, her comforting touches, her playful attention and her heart warming smile. This house was a cold, dark, boring place without her. Even more than the electricity, we missed mommy for the last four days. Thank goodness we have them both back.

Old Ways Still Good Ways

We had no power, phone or cable service after the storm. This situation left us with no lights, no electric stove or microwave cooking, no land line calls, no TV or computer, and the food in the fridge would soon be spoiling. Thankfully, the fall weather was mild and dry. We had some flashlights, candles and matches. For the boys we had plenty of baby food, which didn’t require refrigeration. Grandma and Grandpa Edds brought over takeout adult food and helped feed the twins’ baby food as darkness fell. After dinner we all went out on the screened porch to enjoy the cool evening breeze just as our ancestors did each night before modern conveniences. Each Grand held a sleepy baby boy to their chest while we all softly sang old songs by the moonlight.

Welcome to the neighborhood

Once the winds began to calm Sunday afternoon, neighbors began venturing outside to inspect the storm’s damage. Our next door neighbor, Karen Roberts, volunteered to watch the boys while I joined the neighborhood cleanup effort. Neighbors gathered first at the Helwigg house across the street next to their huge fallen maple. The family had just purchased the home on Friday and was in the process of moving in this weekend. We used chain saws to cut the limbs, a backhoe to move the trunk and rakes to collect the brush. Our group repeated the cleanup process at seven homes. During this time the boys visited two more homes and played with most of the children on the block. Afterward, we fired up the grills and cooked meats from our freezers before they spoiled. Sleep that night came early without electricity and easy after all that hard work (and play).

Ain’t No Sunshine when She’s Gone

Just as Sandy left for the airport Sunday morning around 10:00 am the wind really began to blow. Hurricane Ike may have been downgraded to a tropical depression by the time it reached Kentucky, but it was unlike any storm I’d ever experienced here. The wind would blow everything sideways North, stop, then reverse intensely South, stop, then North again. The tornado of 2000 was less than a mile wide, and lasted just a few intense minutes. This storm was wider than all of Daviess County and was intense for hours. Huge old growth trees were shredded everywhere and 75 percent of the county’s homes lost power, some for several days. Our power was out for more than 50 hours, and we had just enough time to get the house and yard cleaned before Sandy returned from her business trip Wednesday night.

Major Wind Storm Knocked Out Power

Owensboro has been without power since a major wind storm on Sunday. Seventy mile an hour gusts wreaked havoc on the city, taking down huge trees and limbs. Daddy Dave and the boys are in a dark house while Mom is on a business trip to New Jersey. Daddy Dave will have a new post once power is restored.

No more “Law and Order” for you

Ok Dad, you got me. I know I’m cold busted here. No talking my way out of this one. I’m not even going to try and look cute in an effort to divert your attention away from my mischief. I respect you too much for that dad. You said stay away from the cable coax and I ignored you. You ran the wire under the play mats and behind the furniture and I found it. You set out lots of toys on the floor for me to play with and I crawled over them and headed directly to the forbidden zone in spite of your clear directive not to. I did. You got me, but here’s the thing. You keep forgetting that I’m too young to understand you. I’m just a baby. The word “No” is not yet in my vocabulary, so I plead not guilty by reason of infancy.

Just Push Play

When I was a little bitty baby all I could do was lie in the bouncy seat. Somebody would have to hand me toys. Once I could sit up by myself, I could play with toys laid out near me. If I wanted something beyond my reach, I had to cry for someone to get it for me. After learning to scoot, I could work my way across the room to retrieve things, but only if they were on the floor. Things have changed. Now I can stand, and my reach has expanded dramatically. I can stand on the couch cushion and pull covers off the top. I can stand holding on to the loveseat and pull pillows down to the floor. And, best of all, I can stand holding on to the end table and retrieve the remote control. How do you start the movie?

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

On Sunday we participated in our first car show. The Western Kentucky Botanical Garden is featuring a sculpture exhibit this summer called “Big Bugs”. The park is filled with huge wooden sculptures of various types of insects. Each weekend “The Garden” features a different promotion, and last weekend was a Volkswagen Beetle rally. It was an honor to be included and we got Sandy’s Bug all shiny for the occasion. While her car’s backseats are too small to accommodate the babies’ car seats, folding the backseats down provided surprisingly more than enough cargo capacity for our tent, bag chairs, play pen, cooler, toy bag and diaper bag. While we brought our car for public display, it was our twin boys who were the hit of the show garnering much notice and praise from numerous admirers. The attention didn’t bug us at all.

Friends for life

Earle Adams has always been Daddy Dave’s friend. They first met as infants in First Baptist Church’s nursery and grew up together in Owensboro. The two attended school, played sports, vacationed and worked together, solidifying a lifelong bond. Though Earle left town for graduate school over 20 years ago and his career has taken him to various locations from Connecticut to Montana, the two have remained close. Time and distance can complicate, but not diminish, their friendship. On an Owensboro visit 12 years ago, Earle allowed Dave to hold his first infant daughter Olivia. While visiting Kentucky this week Dave was able to return the favor and allow Earle to hold his infant boys.

Nursery Furniture Finally

Sandy completed her Master’s Degree 15 months ago and we traveled to Dallas for her graduation. From there we flew to Kansas City for one of my tourism conferences. Afterwards we planned to fill a rental truck with surplus furniture from Sandy’s parent’s Missouri home and drive it to Kentucky. Just before leaving home we learned Sandy was pregnant. We then changed our plans to avoid her ride in a bouncy rental truck. Life has been busy since then, but we finally have the long awaited furniture home. A dresser and desk now line the nursery’s west wall providing much needed storage for twin baby supplies. A second dresser with bookshelves now adorns the north wall providing storage for clothes and blankets. With everything now organized, the nursery sports theme decorating can now continue.

Plenty of floor space

After driving all day on Friday, we arrived at Granddad and Grandma’s Roe’s home in Kansas City around dinner time and visited until bedtime. All day Saturday we watched and the adults load the truck daddy rented. They filled it first with furniture from Mommy’s old room, then with her old toys. Daddy and Granddaddy also loaded lots of other stuff in the truck too. They worked until after dark. Sunday morning we went over to play with the Grands before our long drive. There was lots of room to frolic on their floor because we previously loaded much of their remaining furniture in our truck. After our 10:00 am feeding, we got in the minivan with Mommy and followed Daddy driving the moving van back to Kentucky.

Nine States in Nine Months

Some people, like Great Grandmother Embry, happily live their entire lives without traveling more than 100 miles from their birthplace. Others yearn to see the world. In our short lives, we twins have already made a good start at global travel. Born in Kentucky, we first visited southern Indiana at just six weeks old. Real travel began with visits to see Grandma and Granddad Roe. On our first trip to their Florida home we added Tennessee, Georgia and Florida to our resume. On our second trip, we detoured over to visit Great Aunt Roberta and Uncle John adding Alabama as our sixth state. Recently, we visited the Grands in Kansas City and picked up Illinois and Missouri on the way. Since their home was only a few miles from the state line, Mommy and Daddy made a special trip over the boarder to collect Kansas as our ninth state. The folks will have to really scramble to get us to all 50 states by 50 months old.

Going to Kansas City

The first photo was taken 43 years before the second. At the top Jim and Karen Roe stand with their daughters, Sandy age 2 and Susan age 3, before their brand new Kansas City home in 1965. The family moved to the “City of Fountains” from California after Jim accepted a pilot’s position with TWA. At the bottom, Sandy poses with her twin 9 month old sons Benji and Davey. Jim and Karen purchased a retirement home in Florida and are in the process of cleaning out their Missouri residence and offering it for sale. We traveled to Missouri two weekends ago to pick up children’s furniture and toys for the boys.

There’s no denying their determination

The new trick of the week is standing. Both boys love to stand. All day long they practice standing by holding onto the couch, chair, crib, wall, high chair, and of course, Mommy and Daddy. They stand and then they fall. It’s a constant cycle of boy scooting up to an object, boy grunting as he climbs up the object into a standing position, momentary silence as boy surveys the landscape from his lofty height, then comes the sound of tumble as boy falls after loosing his grip and balance. If a soft thump sounds, then boy will begin again, but if a loud thump sounds, cries of pain and frustration will soon follow just before parent soothing begins. Imagine this cycle repeated constantly all day long.

Birthday Benchmark Photo – 9 months

The boys are now nine months old, and no one looking at them today would guess that they were born 5 weeks premature. In fact, according to the baby books and websites, our babies are now larger in length and weight than most one year old infants. When striking up conversations with other new parents in stores and church we have found our boys to commonly be bigger than slightly older children. We feel so blessed to have happy health babies. Over the last month each boy gained about 1 lb and grown about ½ inch taller. Trey Davey weighed 23 lbs 6 oz and measured 30 inches while Benji tipped the scales at 22 lbs 11 oz and taped 29 inches long. For nine month old boys, Trey stands in the top 6% and Benji in the top quartile. Davey rates in the top 12% for weight and Benji in the top 18%.

Shhhh, I just got Daddy to sleep

Have you ever experienced daytime nap drama? You know he’s tired, and cranky, but he just won’t nap. You try everything you can think of: dimming the lights, soft music, putting on comfortable clothes, rocking in the chair, bedtime stories, and he still won’t go down. You have one stubborn Daddy. One expert says, there's no one solution for getting daddies to nap, so you have to try lots of different things. Other books say don't think of a nap schedule as a rigid, inflexible plan. It's just a framework based on when your daddy typically gets tired during the day. You know he should be napping in his bed, but he wants to be with you, so you’re willing to do whatever works. Thankfully, sleep experts say this isn't all that bad.

New Reader’s Poll: Favorite Places To Nap

Afternoon naps are wonderful. You can nap on a jet airplane, and you can nap on a passenger train. You can nap under a shade tree, and you can nap by the big blue sea. You can nap in a parked car, and you can nap on a sand bar. You can nap on a park bench, and you can nap in an army trench. You can nap at your classroom desk, and you can nap on your granddaddy’s chest. This month’s reader’s poll asks for your favorite place to nap. Please pick your favorite from the list on the right hand column.

And We Were Swinging

The August reader’s poll asked you to vote for your favorite playground activity, and you picked swinging. Early swing sets were handmade of nothing but wood and rope. Prairie families often had back yard swing sets for their children’s enjoyment after the day’s work. Not only fun for the kids, these swing sets provided entertainment for parents who enjoyed watching their children play. Shortly after the advent of rubber automobile tires, someone developed tire swings. Today’s swing sets are more commonly made of metal, usually aluminum and titanium, which are durable and longer lasting. While swing sets have changed much over the years in size and shape they remain extremely popular with kids.

Happy Anniversary Grandma & Grandpa Edds!

David and Ondra Edds were married only 18 months before they became parents, but were forced to wait 539 months before becoming grandparents. Two years ago when Steve and Erin’s son Levi was born, their longtime grandparent desire was finally achieved. So much has happened to them in the interim. Now at Levi’s second birthday party a few weeks ago, the couple had three grandsons to bounce on their knees. These children have clearly brought new energy to the pair, and the boys’ likenesses and deeds now dominate Grands’ home and conversations. Congratulations Grandma and Grandpa on your happy anniversary, and may you have many more ahead of you.