Happy Halloween!

To compensate for the blogs I’ve missed while my laptop was in the shop, here is a long entry with a several photos. We posted a reader’s poll for you to vote for the boys Halloween costume theme. Realistically we couldn’t wait for the poll’s completion before selecting our costumes because we knew the stores would be picked over and the best choices would be gone by now.

Accordingly, we began costume shopping four weeks ago, about the time the poll was launched. After visiting a dozen stores and several websites we discovered a limited number of options for our 11 month old boys. Costumes with masks were removed from consideration due to the boys’ young age. This eliminated most of the superhero outfits. We found animal costumes to be the overwhelming option left to us, so we hoped the poll readers would choose that option.

A 'tortoise and the hare' theme was our initial twins' costume idea, but none could be found. Then we couldn’t find a pair of like costumes in the same size. We bought a tiger at K-Mart, a horse at one Walgreen’s and an alligator at another. Carol searched in Evansville and Grandma Karen looked in Florida for matching costumes with no success. Grandma’s friend Lillian found us a lion costume in Georgia and mailed it to us, giving us four strong options, but no pairs or apparent themes.

Then the idea of team mascots came to us. The alligator was perfect for the University of Florida, Grandma Karen’s favorite college. We could have used the horse to represent the Southern Methodist University Mustangs (Sandy’s graduate school), but it seemed like a stretch. A better option was using the tiger to represent the University of Kentucky Wildcats, Daddy Dave’s school.

Checking photos on the Internet we found both the Florida Gator and Kentucky Wildcat mascots wear team jerseys over their costumes. Hot on a mission with less than a week to go, Daddy Dave, his friend, Kirk Duncan, and the boys spent Monday afternoon in search of team jerseys in size 2. With much effort, we found two acceptable garments.

Test fitting the costumes we found the Wildcat a little tight, so off to the seamstress we went Tuesday for alterations. I also thought the jerseys would benefit from some team and name lettering, so I purchased iron-ons from Hobby Lobby. Thursday we picked up the Wildcat, ironed-on the letters and tried everything on. The boys were unhappy with the costumes at first, but became accustomed to the them over time.

Luckily, the reader’s poll picked animals for the twins' Halloween costume theme and our college mascot costumes fit that category. If you can’t tell, Trey Davey is the Florida Gator and Benji is the Kentucky Wildcat. Everybody is excited and ready to dress-up again tonight and go trick-or-treating. Too bad the boys are too young for candy.

Spaghetti & Magnum Night Idea Premature

In the 1980’s, Thursday nights were Spaghetti and Magnum P.I. nights at our house. I could enjoy my favorite dinner and TV show together. Last night I thought maybe we could reinstate that tradition. With the addition of the boys’ first teeth, Sandy has introduced Gerber’s 3rd Foods line of dinners. These are meant for older babies, blending purees with tender bits of veggies and pasta, just right for learning to chew and mash. Sandy chose spaghetti, which actually sounded good to me, so while Sandy fed the boys their meal, I fixed us Spaghetti too. I was SO disappointed when the twins fussed about their Spaghetti and constantly spit out chucks. Then they ruined my dinner by staring at me in confusion while I ate. If they’re not ready for Spaghetti, then there’s no way they’re ready for Magnum PI reruns.

Sunny Afternoon

Sunday afternoon was an absolutely beautiful autumn day. Grandma and Granddad Roe climbed into the Minivan with Sandy, Trey Davey, Benji and me for a trip to Legion Park. We strolled around the walking trail for a couple of laps then headed for the swings. The twins completely love the swings and their laughter was contagious. When they were tired, we all loaded back into the van and took an impromptu ride through the country side. The fall colors were fabulous. Granddad particularly enjoyed seeing the tobacco hanging in the roadside barns. Our tour took us through McLean County where I showed the Roe’s historic Edds family sites. Everyone agreed it was a fun adventure.

Our October Surprises

Grandma and Granddaddy Roe made a personal goal to see the boys every other month, and last week they decided to visit Owensboro. This is no small task given that they now live in Florida, about 800 miles away. A visit involves a two-day drive each way in addition to the days they spend with us, so a trip requires a commitment of several days and quite a bit of preplanning. We were so happy to see them arrive on Tuesday evening just in time for dinner. Both grandparents were very surprised and delighted by the boys’ growth and development. Here Trey Davey showed Jim how he can clap hands. We enjoyed their company through the weekend and kissed them goodbye Monday morning until we see them again on Thanksgiving.

Slipping Grandma the Tongue

Benji is quite the charmer. He’s very expressive with his emotions and one seldom has to guess his mood. When he’s happy, he can turn the world on with his million dollar smile, and when he’s upset, the neighbors on the next block know. Benji loves people and seeks their approval. He delights in teasing loved ones. Today while playing in Grandmother Karen’s arms he jabbered happily and mugged for her love and approval. She engaged his every expression and gleefully solicited his joyful responses. He was momentarily surprised when she began rubbing noses, but soon recovered and responded with a gesture for her surprise.

Finding the tipping point

Both boys hold their bottle very well now but haven’t yet grasped the concept of gravity. When sitting on the living room floor, they easily consume the bottle’s first half but struggle to finish the container because it requires tipping the back higher than the front. About half way through their dinner they usually become frustrated and cry for help. Sometimes, Trey Davey will lie back flat on his back which puts him in a good position to finish his milk, but makes him susceptible to earaches from fluid draining into his ears. For this meal in the car, the boys successfully completed their bottles by themselves aided not only by their reclined car seats, but also by the steep grade Daddy parked the minivan on.

Where’s my ladle?

At this age toys can be anything. One day Sandy decided to offer the twins four big red plastic spoons. She then backed away to a safe distance and watched them play. Anything new in their environment must immediately be inspected and tested. They hurriedly crawled over and each picked up a spoon, waved it, beat it against the floor, tasted it, and then laid it aside to test another. Soon all four spoons had been processed and accepted into the toy collection. Benji particularly likes the spoons and plays with them often. They seem to be just the right length, weight and balance for him to happily hammer on the floor while jabbering. Daddy does draw the line when he begins hammering the furniture though.

Cool Baby

Granddaddy and Grandma Roe came to visit this week from Florida. They set a goal of visiting the boys every couple of months, and we’ve done a good job of meeting that objective with visits in Kentucky, Florida and Missouri. With each visit the boys are eager to show the Grands all the new skills they’ve developed in the interim. Jim and Karen are also anxious to teach their grandsons new tricks as well. Here Trey Davey climbed into Granddaddy’s lap and displays his ability to palm a rubber ball as he winds down for a nap. Granddaddy then taught Davey to wave bye bye. Maybe by the next visit Trey Davey will perfect smiling at the camera even if he’s tired and doesn’t feel like it.

Noodling Around

Toys don’t have to be expensive. You may remember from a previous blog our story of buying pool noodles for Jumparoo bar padding. It was difficult finding any pool noodles in late September, and after visiting many, many stores I finally found two in an end-of-the-season 75% off box in K-Mart’s back corner. Unfortunately, we needed one more, so I kept looking. By chance, I walked into a Dollar Store seeking something else and found a whole box of noodles for fifty cents a piece. I bought four more and stacked the extras safely in the corner in case we need to pad something else. Of course the boys found them and immediately christened them toys. Fortunately, they haven’t used them yet to sword fight or retrieve other toys from high shelving, but I know they will.

It’s too soon to Cha Cha

Overconfidence is a concern in the Trey David Edds Camp where exuberance over his substantial teeth lead has erupted in the form of spontaneous Cha Cha dancing. Meanwhile the race is tightening. Just today his opponent, Benji Edds, showed signs of a fourth tooth poking through on the upper right side. This draws Benji to within two teeth of a tooth tie. With plenty of empty gums left in this race, pundits warn that it’s still anybody’s ballgame to win. A dry spell in Davey’s teeth production and a late surge of new teeth by Benji could result in an upset of wooly mammoth proportions.

Look what I can do mommy

Our babysitter, Carol Cox, bought the boys this fisher-price walker recently at a garage sale. From the first they were drawn to it and enjoyed playing with the knobs and gadgets on front of the toy. It was also one of the many things that the boys would pull themselves up on to stand. But, imagine Sandy’s surprise Saturday morning when Benji, after pulling himself up into a standing position behind the toy, proceeded to walk behind it across the room. He received no instruction on this procedure; he just figured it out for himself. Sandy immediately called me and together we cheered him on as he walked back and forth across the room all morning. Just a few more steps and he’ll be mowing the lawn before we know it.

Thinking about time outs in the doghouse

Recently I put Benji in timeout for not minding and found myself in the doghouse. Sandy said children under the age of 18 months have no ability to understand that they are being punished for bad behavior. She also said the timeout rule is one minute for each year of age. What! This would mean our boys should receive only a fifty second punishment; my daddy’s old fashion spankings lasted longer than that, and they were more effective behavior modifiers. Researching this topic I found experts saying there's no evidence that using the one-minute per year marker works, or that time-outs themselves work. The technique is overused by parents and caregivers, especially for children under 3. So, I guess I’ll have to wait a while before I can punish the children again. I’ll be thinking about this while I sit in the corner of 45 minutes as Sandy’s punishment for my wrong doing.

Can you palm that one yet?

Benji was born with big hands. It was one of the unique characteristics that we noticed about him right away. We wondered if they would become more proportional with his body over time or if he would continue to have huge hands as an adult. At almost 11 months old, the hands are still big. Benji palms smaller balls that Davey uses two hands to lift. I wondered what benefits large hands would give him and found a google search unhelpful. Off the top of my head I would think large hands would be beneficial to his basketball and football play, giving him better ball grip and control. Also, I would imagine large hands would be advantageous to his piano playing, allowing him to span eight notes or more at once. What ever career he chooses, I hope it fits him like a big comfortable glove.

Photo suggests foul play

The Benji Edds campaign came out aggressively today with allegations of Trey Davey’s fibbing and fact fudging. This photo, taken during a recent dinner showing Trey crossing his fingers, was offered as proof that he has intentionally been telling whoppers. The campaign further alleges that Trey crosses his fingers all the time, but usually out of sight behind his back. Trey Davey’s camp responded this afternoon and admonished Benji for these false and negative charges. “All this proves is that our candidate now has yet another skill that yours doesn’t.” The response further suggested “let’s stop these vicious attacks and focus on the real race, which is growing teeth.” Trey Davey currently holds a 6 to 3 lead over Benji.

It looks like Wean is coming

The twins will soon need to be weaned from their bottles. Weaning is important because children being bottle fed are more likely to suffer from tooth decay. As their teeth are rapidly appearing now, it seems only appropriate to begin the gradual process. Already, we are supplementing their bottles with baby foods three times a day. Additionally, for one feeding a day we are supplying their milk in ‘sippy’ cups rather than bottles. Benji has embraced the change very well, but Trey still prefers his bottle. At the point where both boys are comfortable with the ‘sippy’ cup once a day, we’ll gradually increase its use until the bottle is phased out. Most children kick the bottle between the ages of 12 to 18 months.

Tooth or Fiction

Trey Davey Edds wants to narrow the maturity discussion down to simply counting teeth and disregard any other considerations. That notion is naive. If excellent teeth were the sole measure of maturity, Donny Osmond would be the icon of adulthood. Ask people who remember Donny Osmond, who know Donny Osmond, and who consider Donny Osmond a friend, and they would tell you Trey Davey Edds that you’re no Donny Osmond. You are still very young and have a lot to learn before you reach maturity. Benji Edds approves this message and pledges not to make age an issue and will not exploit, for political purposes, your youth and inexperience.

The tooth shall set you free

There you go again, Benji Edds, changing the topic away from the real issue. You don’t understand that this contest all comes down to who has the teeth and who doesn’t. No one is interested in breastfeeding, head-lifting, jabbering, clapping or sticking your tongue out. You forget Benji Edds about other firsts, like who smiled first, who jumped first, who stood first, and who crawled first. It was Trey Davey Edds, not Benji Edds, but that’s beside the point. This is a teeth growing competition and here is a news flash for you, Benji. Two more top teeth appeared today in Davey’s smile. That gives Trey Davey Edds six teeth to your one. Gum on that Benji Edds. I’m Trey Davey Edds and I approve this message.

Moving Pictures of Mobile Babies

We haven’t posted a movie to the blog since Davey and Benji were a week old. Due to technical difficulties, this video clip isn’t of high quality, but it does demonstrate the boys individual crawling techniques. The twins’ increased mobility now necessitates the need for video recording as well as still photography. Sandy and I are making plans to purchase new equipment and take training classes in order to record more of our babies’ milestones effectively. In the future, if you are invited to our house to watch our home movies, I suspect you’ll need to pack a lunch.

Shoe Chew….Eew

The twins have a strange attraction to our shoe laces. It’s very disconcerting to feel your laces being pulled loose while sitting at the dinner table. It tickles. Thinking I could foil their efforts, I tied my laces in double and triple knots. When the boys couldn’t get them loose, they began sucking the laces. This act totally grosses Sandy out. If you are wearing the shoes, you can redirect the child. The real surprise comes when you leave your shoes by the door and upon retrieving them you find your laces soaking wet. Tying wet shoe lacing and the thought of her boys sucking on those nasty strings just makes her skin crawl. That’s why our tennis shoes are now sitting on the fireplace mantle.

Time Out! What’s a Time Out?

Benji boy is very focused. When he sets his mind on a goal, he pursues it tenaciously. This is an excellent quality that, if applied positively, will take him as far in life as he wants to go. However, this stubbornness applied negatively will land him in a heap of trouble. Our job as parents is to teach him to make good decisions. One concept the boys haven’t grasped yet is ‘no’. Since they became mobile, the boys tend to gravitate to ‘forbidden zones’ like the fireplace or behind the chair that could be dangerous. When told no and moved, Trey Davey more often chooses another focus, where Benji will go back again and again. Today after repeated returns to the forbidden zone we introduced him to the concept of discipline.

Happiness is a baby break

Sandy loves having a home office. It’s not just because she no longer has a one hour commute to work, or professional dress code, or cafeteria food; she loves working from home because she is just 30 seconds away from her boys. Whenever she needs a twin fix, Sandy can just go upstairs to the blue room and play. No matter how bad her day is going, all is forgotten the moment she sees the boys. Upon hearing the door open and seeing her, the boys will stop playing, smile with their whole face, begin uttering mama and crawl to her. That reaction melts her heart every time and dissolves work stress. No office complex can compare with that perk.

Barefoot and Progressive

Kentucky, like many other states, endures a number of stereotypes. Some are complimentary while most are not. One old negative typecast is that most Kentuckians are a bunch of hillbillies who go around barefoot. Proud bluegrass state natives are offended by that label and a little touchy about shoelessness. So, a number of our family and friends have asked when we were going to put shoes on the boys. Years ago, very young babies would wear baby booties, and after they out grew them, their parents would bronze the booties as keep sakes. Today most doctors recommend waiting on shoes until after children are walking. Baby feet develop best when they’re bare; this helps build arches and strengthen ankles. This means in 2008, no shoes are the smart choice.

The rest of the story

Trey Davey talks a lot about my tooth, but he isn’t telling you the whole story. He implies that he is more mature, but the record just doesn’t support his claim. From day one, I was patient enough to be breastfed, which he never was. I lifted my head up first, learned to stick out my tongue first and began jabbering way before he did. I congratulate him on finally learning how to clap, but he failed to disclose that I was the one who taught him everything he knows about clapping. These are the facts and, if he claims anything different, he’s fibbing through his two bottom teeth. I’m Benji Edds and I approve this message because maturity is measured by more than one factor.

Time to Tell the Tooth

There’s been a lot of jabbering lately, and I’d like to take this opportunity to set the record straight. I was the first twin to grow a tooth. This is undeniable. I grew it on bottom and then, just to show that it was no fluke, I grew a second one on the bottom beside it. These teeth were clearly visible while my brother was still all gums. Now Benji, who considers himself a bit of a maverick, chose to grow his first tooth on top. I congratulate him on this accomplishment, but he went the easy route. Top teeth are a piece of cake compared to the bottom teeth. To prove this point, I am growing two top teeth at the same time. This brings my teeth tally to four compared to Benji’s one, and I’m still the only twin with teeth on the bottom row. I am Trey Davey Edds, and I approve this message.

Birthday Benchmark Photo – 10 months

Much has changed in the last month. There have been significant developments in the twins’ gross and fine motor skills. Not only can they stand, crawl, climb and clap with ease, they have also developed their pincher grasp to pick up small objects. Click on the left photo and magnify it and you can see Benji’s first tooth and all four of Davey’s. Both boys are responding well to their names and uttering mama and dada clearly. Check back to this web posting soon for their current height and weight.

Happy Birthday Grandma Ondra

You wouldn’t know it by looking at Ondra Edds, but she was once a tom boy. As a young girl, all her heroes were cinema cowboys like Gene Autrey, and so her daddy taught her target shooting and horseback riding. Not only was she an ace rifle marksmen, but she also had a sweet outside set-shot on the basketball court. Even today, she holds her own on a tennis court. So it is only appropriate that she should be blessed with two sons and three grandsons. Boy stuff is right up her alley. Two decades ago she followed her sons to ballparks and gyms all around Western Kentucky encouraging and supporting their athletic efforts. Now with her grandsons, look for her to be playing catch or shooting hoops with them soon preparing them for competition and success.

Too pooped to play

Benji and I are doing our part to get this family into better physical shape. Now that we are mobile, we’re in perpetual motion: crawling, climbing, standing and wrestling. This activity is not only a workout for us; it has kept Mom and Dad jumping lately too. If the folks exit the room and leave the door open we follow them, and they must carry us back. If they enter the room and leave the door open, we escape down the hall and they have to chase us for retrieval. If they close the door and leave briefly, we head directly to forbidden zones like the fireplace and freak them out. If they close the door and stay, we climb all over them constantly. Sometimes I play so hard that I poop out before I make it to bed.

New Viewer Poll: Pick the boys’ Halloween Costume

This will be the boys’ first Halloween, and we need to pick a costume. Halloween costumes are traditionally those of MONSTERS such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. Costumes are also based on themes other than traditional horror, such as TV/MOVIE CHARACERS like Elmo, Cookie Monster, Scarecrow, dragon, pirate, biker, clown, Elvis, Star Wars Yoda, snowman, Thomas Train, Mickey Mouse, and knights, SPORTS ATHLETES such as baseball, basketball, football, soccer, golfer, jockey and auto racer, OBJECTS such as pumpkins, strawberries, and Christmas ornaments, SUPER HEROES such as Batman, Robin, Superman, Spiderman, Hulk, Flash, PROFESSIONALS such as train engineer, cowboy, fighter pilot, and astronaut, ANIMALS such as fish, lobster, peacock, bee, spider, horse, tiger, elephant, bug, duck, bear, zebra, tiger, frog, turtle, owl, lamb, cat, dog, penguins and others. Vote today.

Recliners Ideal for Naps

Our reader’s chose recliners as their favorite place to nap, and we agree. In 1928, two cousins, Edward Knabusch and Edwin Shoemaker, created the first recliner in Monroe, Michigan. A recliner is an armchair that reclines when the occupant lowers the chair's back and raises its front. Three years latter they secured a patent for the first automatic recliner, and after an employee contest designed to pick a new company name, the Floral City Furniture Company was renamed as the now famous "La-Z-Boy". We purchased our recliner the day after the boys were born and use it daily to rock them to sleep. One problem with twins, as Carol illuistrates, is the difficultly exiting the chair with 50 lbs of sleeping boys holding you down.