Catching Up on Her Reading

Sandy enjoyed five vacation days at home last week. She used this opportunity to spend extra time with the twins and allow Daddy to work outside all day on the garage. Benji and Trey Davey loved this bonus Mommy time and together they shopped, visited the park, played games and read. The twins adore books and love to be read to while sitting on your lap. Over the five days, Sandy read most of the titles in our extensive children’s book library. They brought her some of their favorites over and over again to be read and reread. She read three or four books so many times that she memorized the text and could recite the entire book by memory as they hurriedly flipped through the book. Not surprisingly, by Friday some of the more popular books began disappearing from the boy’s selves.

Caught Red Handed

Yes, I heard you say stay out of the diapers, but I thought you meant something else. Well, yes I heard you say stay out of the dresser drawers, but I believed we were playing a game. I thought you were testing me to gage my physical and mental development. First you test my intelligence by moving two dressers into the nursery then tease my interest by hiding interesting items in the drawers. Then, you measured my initiative and dexterity by my ability to open these drawers and remove the items when you weren’t looking. Once I easily passed that test, you raised the degree of difficulty by removing all the drawer knobs. Today I was simply demonstrating my advanced problem solving ability, physical prowess and tenacious determination. A boy of my talents should NOT have to go to timeout for such a minor infraction.

Riding the Soul Train

Yeah babies, let your Daddy take you for a ride on the soul train. You don’t need a ticket for the soul train, just get on board. Slide me some skin, climb on in and take a toe hold cause your soul train ride is about to begin. Cling to me tight as you leave the floor. Bounce on your Daddy and leave him sore. Ride that soul train steady and belly laugh for joy, cause the soul train runs just for happy little boys. Now, there is no room for the careless rider who would risk a fall by letting go. Have fun but be careful. The soul train is running. If you can feel the rhythm then you got soul.

Real Food Break Through

Mommy decided it was time for the boys to eat real food. Our first attempts at this were largely ineffective. While Benji was generally receptive, Trey Davey wanted nothing to do with real food or feeding himself. We found the philosophy of “he’ll eat eventually” painful for everyone. However, today we reached a true breakthrough with takeout from Old Hickory Barbeque Restaurant. For lunch we served them chopped mutton sandwiches, potato salad and baked beans. Mommy cut everything up into small pieces and they ate every bite by themselves mostly using their own spoons. Now that these boys have discovered really good Owensboro-style barbeque, they won’t want to go back to baby food.

Busy Bee Indeed

How ironic that the twins want Al to read them a book about busy bees. Al and Daddy Dave have been very busy bees. Over the last four days we roofed the garage and dug post holes for the back yard fence. One look at Al’s sunburn tells you how intensely the sun has beat down upon us. After a long day working hard in the hot sun the bombardment of twin toddlers on your lap demanding story time can be a bit much, but “Uncle” Al took it in stride. He has three dogs at home that greet him much the same way.

You need one of those

Mommy has been on vacation this week, which has allowed Daddy Dave and Al to work all day each day this week on roofing the garage. Since we were so interested in the activities outside, mommy decided to take us out for a closer look. The work in our yard looked minor compared to the construction going on at the school behind us. They have lots of cool heavy equipment and make much more noise. Especially interesting were the cranes lifting steel atop the school’s new addition. That looked like a much easier method of delivering items from the ground to the roof than Daddy and Al’s technique of carrying them up and down the ladder.

Blog Number 600

For those of you who check the blog daily for updates, I suspect you wondered if I would ever get to the 600 blog mark. My postings have become almost two weeks behind and I’m afraid my loyal readers will fall out of the habit of checking on the boys daily via blog. It’s not that there isn’t anything happening in their lives, I simply have been too busy to blog. “Too busy to Blog” say it ain’t so Daddy Dave. It’s true. The weather has allowed me to work outside everyday for several weeks in a row, and the blogs have suffered. However, we have taken lots of photos and developed a long blog topics list, so I will soon be posting like a madman to catch up.

No Rest

Because of the nearly 100 degree heat this week, Daddy Dave and his friend Al Bell began roofing the garage each morning with the sunrise at 5:00 am when the day was coolest. After a full day of hard labor both men would shower and change for dinner. It would have been nice to just relax on the couch and watch the news until the dinner hour, but two men’s down time is tromped by two toddler’s prime time. Trey Davey and Benji loved having Al and daddy available to climb on before dinner. Here Davey takes Al’s sunglasses strap like a microphone cable and sings him a song of joy and fun.

A True Friend

I hope each of our sons finds a friend like my friend Al Bell. I’ve known Al for over 30 years, and neither time nor distance has diminished our bond. Although Al and his family moved to Nashville nearly 20 years ago, we have continued to stay in close contact through phone calls, e-mail and frequent visits. When he needed help moving or remodeling, I pitched in, and when I needed help with roofing our garage he volunteered to take a weeks’ vacation and lend a hand. As luck would have it, the weather turned incredibly hot with afternoon temperatures in the upper 90’s. Even beginning at 5:00 am didn’t totally save us from the heat. Al never suggested quitting or postponing. We instead focused on working smart and managing our time wisely. From the screened porch, the twins often watched us work and particularly enjoyed our shingle tossing routine.

Happy Father's Day

At first glance you might mistake this photo for a bowling team with an alternate and two mascots. Several weeks ago we celebrated the twins’ half birthday with barbeque and an ice cream cake. Instead of gifts, we chose to have family portraits made by our friend Brian Leazenby. We drove over a couple of blocks to Cap Gardener Park for a festive backdrop. The shirts were the result of an Evansville shopping trip. For Father’s Day each father received a CD of family portraits which can be printed and framed. It’s something we’ll all treasure, as will Davey and Benji’s children.

It Ain't Braggin'

Charming the ladies, that’s what Trey Davey and I are all about. We love women of all ages, and they seem to love us. Young ones, old ones, short ones, tall ones, smart ones, simple ones all appeal to us. There’s an undeniable attraction there, a chemistry that’s powerful enough to move mountains. And, we have a lot going for us right now. For instance, females love babies, and we’re kind of cute. People find multiples fascinating and we have that whole twin thing going for us. Both of us like people and enjoy making eye contact and flirting. We can say a few cute words, but not enough to say anything stupid. (We will quickly grow out of that advantage, unfortunately). We’re still light enough to pick up and hold, plus we have these big cheeks that are irresistible to kisses. This might sound boisterous, but like Mohammed Ali said “it ain’t braggin’ if it’s true”.

One Final Visit

They won’t remember it, but the boys can say they toured the inside of the old Executive Inn Rivermont. Its historic riverfront site was the location of Owensboro’s first settlement over 200 years ago. By 1975 the area had become a junky industrial site, but coalmining businessman Bob Green saw greater potential in the real estate and community. When he opened his Executive Inn Rivermont in 1977 it was the talk for miles around. This hotel was extraordinary for anywhere, especially Owensboro, Kentucky. It had a Las Vegas-type showroom lounge constructed over the river that offered weekly top-name entertainment such as Wayne Newton, the Beach Boys, and Dolly Parton. The hotel eventually grew to over 600 rooms and offered a 100,000 sq ft convention center. Millions of guests visited creating a tourism industry for the city. Unfortunately, this landmark has been in decline for a number of years and will soon be torn down, but not before the boys visited it.

Going Underground

It’s been a busy summer in our backyard. In addition to all the school construction, we’ve been actively improving our property too. Our most recent project has been relocating our utility service lines underground. Three wires hung diagonally across our backyard from the utility pole to our house. Daddy Dave removed a section of the sidewalk and dug a trench two feet deep from the house back along the garage, then across the yard to the utility pole. An electrician buried the power, cable TV and telephone wires in the trench. Here the boys and I are watching the workman up on the pole connecting our new power line. The old overhead wire connector is lying on the ground. We also ran new underground power to the detached garage. Not only are buried lines safer and more attractive, but tree limbs and kick-balls won’t be knocking out our power anymore.

Early Morning Glee

This boy must be part rooster. Every morning he wakes up early and happily crows a new day. Typically, this wake up call comes precisely at 6:00 a.m., but as the spring days grew longer and sunrise began to precede his normal appointed time young Trey David adapted. Daddy Dave first tried to ignore his son’s increasingly earlier revelry calls but found that strategy ineffective. Changing tactics, Daddy then elected to get up at Davey’s first call, often around 5:00 a.m., and serve the boys bottles of warm milk in a vain hope that full tummies would help the toddlers go back to sleep. This usually did the trick for Benji, but Davey rarely returned to sleep. This early riser prefers to make play while the sun shines.

Bark Bark not Meow

Our friends Aaron and Kelly Brown hosted a cookout recently for our Bible study small group and suggested we bring the boys. This group hadn’t seen the twins for some time, and they were amazed at the twins’ physical and mental development. Trey Davey and Benji’s constant movement and exploration of the Brown’s house stressed their parent’s nerves, but entertained their friends. Many have much older children and had forgotten the full-blown adventure of toddlerhood times two. Most amusing was Benji’s misidentification of the Brown’s small dogs, which he petted and cooed “meow” to the delight of the assembled adults.

Fruits of the Family

We only had a short visit with Sandy’s Aunt Roberta and Uncle John Hand, but I think they came away charmed. First we had an intimate little visit clustered together in the corner of our basement while a hail and tornado-churning thunder storm blew just past our home. Afterwards, we abandoned the home-cooked meal idea and chose instead to feast on Owensboro barbeque. We chose the famous Moonlight Barbeque Inn not only to sample the buffet, but also for the family friendly atmosphere. Roberta wanted to feed a boy and chose the sometimes difficult eater Davey. He was putty in her hands and spoiled not just a little. Seeing Uncle John’s water (in the photo’s foreground), Davey pointed and was not only was granted a sip of Uncle John’s water, but rewarded his lemon wedge.

Ball, Ball, Ball

Of the dozen or so words now in Benji’s vocabulary, it is clear to anyone with ears that his favorite word is ball. His enunciation of the word reveals his southern United States upbringing. He drawls the word out to almost two syllables; bawall. Each time he sees one, he points his left index finger and declares “bawall”. He sees them everywhere. Certainly we have stocked his toy box with balls of all sized, and he points out the ones he sees in the neighbor’s yard. In fact, when he saw his older buddy next door shooting baskets Benji said his first sentence, “Zack bawall”. One of the more interesting places he found his favorite objects was outside our Target store. Their logo is a bullseye and their store designers made their safety barriers spherical in line with the theme. Each time we visit the store Benji points out each one “Ball, Ball, Ball”.

My Second Childhood

Becoming a father has allowed me the opportunity to begin my second childhood. Suddenly I’ve lost interest in many of my more recent pastimes and rediscovered several of my boyhood hobbies. One of these pursuits is collecting baseball cards. I never had a large collection, but I enjoyed the limited one I composed back in the mid 1970’s. I was a casual baseball fan until the 1994 player strike when, in frustration, I chose to boycott the sport. Now I want to share the national pastime with my boys and I thought the best way to learn about the players’ names was through baseball cards. Though they are too small to understand now, I think the boys enjoy turning the pages and pointing to the brightly colored uniforms. Before long, we’ll have those players names and stats memorized.

The Extra-Grand Tour

Like people do, we tidied our home before receiving our guests and even cleaned back bedrooms, bathrooms and the laundry room in anticipation of a home tour. To this degree, we were prepared for Sandy’s Aunt Roberta and Uncle John Hand’s Thursday visit. About an hour after their mid-afternoon arrival the tornado sirens sounded. Sandy was in the back bedroom working and the boys were napping upstairs in the nursery. I gathered everyone and ushered them all down to the basement. Now, this was the one area not prepared for guest viewing. In fact like most basements, it is a dirty, disorganized mess. However, I believe our guests enjoyed the adventure. Roberta recognized the couch and chair from her parents’ home, and they both enjoyed watching the toddler’s climb and explore what was their Great Grandparents’ furniture. While a tornado did touch down a few miles away, we were able to safely weather the storm from our untidy bunker.

Who Needs a Plumber?

Even an amateur plumber, with less than 18-months experience, can clearly see that you have a major leak in your hose. Left unchecked, this problem could cause your entire front lawn to get wet. It’s a good thing you called Trey to save the day. My experience with such matters has led some people to label me, Mr. Sprinkles. I remember my brother having a similar plumbing issue. It was a tough problem, but we found a patch that kept our floors dry. The solution required strapping a sponge-like pad over his leaky area. While this fix is effective, it is a high maintenance solution. His padding must be changed about every three hours when it reaches its’ absorbent capacity. Given the number of leaks in your hose, I calculate a need for several boxes of diapers a day.

Sporting a Saucy Red Goatee

In addition to weaning the boys off Gerber and introducing them to real food, we are encouraging the toddlers to feed themselves. In this effort, Trey Davey is resisting while Benji is excelling. Unlike his brother, Benji eats all the foods that we offer him and prefers to feed himself. While his spoon skills are still under development, Benji’s persistence is remarkable. As is his tendency, Benji will stick with a task until it is mastered. He still needs to work on scooping the food onto the spoon and his aim getting the food into his mouth. While he’s learning to master his utensils, we will enjoy his interesting facial accessories.

Concrete Developments

There is a lot of excitement around the Edds home this summer. Daddy Dave continues his never ending quest to paint the entire house inside and out. Additionally, we are adding four feet and a new front to our garage. Today the concrete truck came to pour the footer. The best and safest place to watch the action was from the screened porch. The boys have just learned the word truck and were pointing to it and saying “truck, truck, truck” over and over. They watched the man fill the forms then spread the cement smoothly. Tomorrow, the concrete should be solid enough tomorrow to begin framing. It is a safe bet that the boys will be back in this spot watching the action.

Kroger Cruising

Grocery shopping with the twins is generally avoided. One baby fits in the shopping cart, but two babies don’t. Usually I push the stroller while Mommy does the shopping. The boys have no patience and want to be moving at all the times. They reach out and grab things on the bottom shelves and sometimes sing at the top of their lungs. Often the boys and I stay in the car cruising around and around the parking lot while mommy shops. Did I mention that they like to keep moving? Last week we tried something new. A few Kroger shopping carts have baby cars mounted on front. We buckled them in and away we went joyfully squealing. No one in the store missed our presents and many smiled and complimented their cuteness. We like grocery shopping now, as long as the cart keeps moving.

Sprinkler Fun

Sunday was a beautiful spring day too perfect to stay indoors. We considered a trip to the Legion Park swings and Spray Park but elected instead to stay home. The park can be busy on weekends, and little guys like ours can sometimes get run over by bigger kids. It was Sandy’s idea to bring out the sprinkler and my idea to invite Cousin Levi, who was in town visiting Grandma and Grandpa Edds. As soon as we turned on the water Trey Davey ran fearlessly into the stream. Benji and Levi were more tentative. The water was a little cold and a slight breeze made wet clothes a bit nippy. With encouragement, all the boys began to running around, and as they became hotter the cool water was more satisfying. It was fun trying to run through the sprinklers without getting wet, and when they did they screamed with joy.

Break Time Escape

After about 90 minutes of touring the Evansville Zoo recently, we decided to take a break. We found an air-conditioned building with restrooms and sat down for a few minutes to relieve our aching feet. At least the adults did. The twins, who had been confined to their stroller for the last 90 minutes after an hour in the restaurant’s high chair and another hour in the car’s booster seat, preferred to spend their break stretching their legs. Luckily not many other people were in this building, and the boys literally had the run of the place. They ran up and down the halls, in and out of the open rooms and pretty much cased every square inch of the joint. With all that energy, it’s too bad they couldn’t have pushed us back in the stroller.

Birthday Benchmark – 18 Months

Story to come

Ear Buds

Our babysitter Carol has an MP3 player, and she sometimes listens to music while the boys are napping. The twins are very curious about everything especially electronics, so she allowed Benji to have a listen. His expressions were priceless as he analyzed this device. One earpiece wasn’t enough, and he demanded the full stereo effect. Seeing this, Trey Davey wanted to know where the wire went and what was on the other end. Carol showed him the player and allowed him to hold it while Benji listened. He tried to adjust the device controls probably attempting to either pump up the volume to a painful level in Benji’s ears or turn it to a song his twin might hate. Brothers have a funny way of expressing their love for one another.

But We Like Gerber

Mommy says no more Gerber. It is time for the boys to eat real food. Sure, Gerber foods are nutritionally balanced and vitamin fortified, but at some point you have to wean off baby food. We’ve tried other foods before, and Trey Davey has resisted big time. Feeding the twins two different menus is just too involved, so we decided it was time to lose the Gerber. Going cold turkey has been a rough transition with several crying tantrums, but we seem to be getting the hang of real food, especially if it’s buried in fruit. Paraphrasing a song lyric, just a spoon full of applesauce helps the real food go down.

Hanging With the Tall Timber

Most of the animals that we saw at the Evansville Zoo were some distance away from us or behind thick safety glass. One exception was the Giraffes. Their pen allowed us to get very close to the big fellows. One guy was very tame and friendly. He took a liking to us and acted as though he wanted to join our party. Trey Davey and Benji got very excited. We believe they made the connection between their toy Noah’s Ark giraffes and these real examples. When Mommy picked some leaves and fed them to our friend, the boys were very impressed.

Shape Up Daddy

I recall one of the stories Grandpa Edds tells of the twin’s Great Uncle Dick Williams. He had three sons born within 19 months, and they were all boys. Uncle Dick was career military and his duty often took him away from his family. When he was home his boys were understandably excited and loved when he got down on the floor to wrestle with them. To show off for company, Uncle Dick would do one-handed pushups with all three boys on his back. The other day Daddy Dave attempted pushups with his two sons riding shotgun. I completed only a few, but in my defense I am 20 years older than Uncle Dick was at the time of the story. Maybe if I practice some more I’ll have a trick to show company.