Kate and the boys

Cousin Levi’s stay with the Grands was a day longer this trip which allowed him to visit us this afternoon. It was the first opportunity he’s had to play with the twins in their newly fenced backyard. As we gathered in the grass our next door neighbor, Mack, and his mommy, Kate, returned home from a walk. They accepted our invitation and joined us for some fun in the sun. None of the boys talk much, so conversations were minimal. However, one could clearly tell each enjoyed the others’ presence. Mack became fascinated by the lawn mower and Davey practiced kicking the ball, while Benji and Levi explored the fence perimeter and toy car. Before long they’ll be organizing teams and having a ball.

Story Time

“I think I can, I think I can,” he reads to his grandsons. His deep rich voice giving depth to the story. Granddaddy’s lap is a favorite place for Trey Davey, Benji and Cousin Levi. Each will often bring a book with them and place it in his hand to read. Of course, Pa is always all too willing to oblige. Tonight, Grandpa and Granny brought Levi over to visit after attending First Baptist’s church picnic. Everyone was exhausted from a very active day and ready to kick back and hear a good story about the little train that could.

Multiple Mothers of Multiples

Oh mom, that what she is, our mommy is an OMOM because she belongs to the Owensboro Mothers of Multiples. That is a group of ladies united by the fact that they gave birth to more than one baby at a time. These are super moms who do twice and sometime three times the work of ordinary mothers. OMOMs is a support group that shares ideas and provides encouragement to these extraordinary woman. The group’s principle fundraiser is a rummage sale held twice a year. Patrons are charged $1 admission at the door with all proceeds going to the organization. Each mother gets to keep the money for those items of hers that sell. Because it’s the best baby item selection offered, people come in droves and carry out items by the armload. Our mommy was the co-chairlady for this sale and it did very well.

Final Score: Mosquitoes 10, Benjamin 0

It seems our Benji is sweet meat for mosquitoes. Unfortunately, they are drawn to him like moths to a flame, but Benji Boy’s the one who gets burned. Before going outside, we coated his body everywhere with insect repellent except for his face. Regrettably those blood-suckers zeroed in on his one unprotected area. When we noticed several bites swelling on his face and neck we rushed him inside and treated all the areas with ammonia except around his right eye. By the next morning, the eye had swollen shut. The poor little fellow looked like a Mike Tyson victim. We treated him with Benadryl and the swelling was gone the next day.

Pillow Fort Commander

Boys enjoy building things, and they like small spaces. Since they really don’t have access to tools and raw materials yet, imagination and improvisation are required to engineer a toddler retreat. Trey Davey has recently begun adapting pillows and covers for his own personal hideout. Very carefully, he stacks the pillows and covers on the couch to create a makeshift tent. When he crawls into his dwelling he sometimes takes his toys or books with him. Then pleased with his accomplishment he will read aloud or sing in his refuge. When we act as if we can’t find him, he delights in jumping out and surprising us with his presents. It’s good to be the king in your castle.

Afternoon Delight

The weather has been unusually mild this August, and we have taken full advantage of the perfect mid-70’s temperatures. Each day after our afternoon nap we have gone out to our backyard to play. Unlike the park, we have full freedom to roam around our fenced backyard. There is plenty of room to run and play ball. We have our own swing and slide to play on and several riding toys to explore. At times the atmosphere can be very festive. The football practice field is directly behind our house, and when they’re there we stand at the fence and watch from time to time. Music sometimes plays from the school’s parking lot when the marching band is practicing. Because our fence is low and transparent, people can see us playing and don’t feel hesitant about approaching and joining us. We love it when neighbors visit especially if they are around our age.

You Said It!

The words are coming. Every day Benji and I add more words to our vocabulary. Like any foreign language, we can understand much more than we can say. Sometimes, we pretend that we don’t understand the commands we don’t choose to follow, but we understand. Talking is fun. At first we just spoke gibberish enjoying the sounds we were making. Then we fond certain sounds meant things. Once we matched a sound with an object, we’d repeat it over and over like when Benji says ball, ball, ball. I made the first two-word sentence when I said “kick it”. Then Benji saw our neighbor shooting hoops in his driveway and said “Zack ball”. Daddy posted a list of the words we’re saying in the right-hand column of this blog. Our goal was 50 words by age two, and I think we’ll make it.

Sharp Dressing Daddy

Like many men, I appreciate a little fashion advice from time to time. I like nice clothes, and I want to project some small measure of class and style beyond my meager understanding of current fashion trends. However, I will accept no fashion tips from diaper-wearing toddlers, which was exactly what I received the other day as I dressed for a funeral. Trey Davey and Benji thought it was their turn to pick out my clothing for the day. They flipped through my dress shirts, pulled several of my ties out to hand me and walked around in my dress shoes. All too soon they’ll be borrowing clothes out of my closet for their own sharp dressed affairs.

Home Side Box Seats

Owensboro High School is located on the block behind our home, and their football practice field is directly behind our house. Yesterday, OHS hosted Grayson County High for scrimmage games. While the varsity and junior varsity squads played in the adjoining football stadium, the freshman teams competed on the practice field. With all this excitement practically in our backyard, we took our lawn chairs out on the balcony to get a bird’s eye view. Benji and Trey Davey enjoyed watching all those boys playing ball, and they became excited when the crowd would cheer after a good play. We play to take them to their first OHS football game soon, but our seats won’t be this good.

Pit Stop

Crew members are getting dirty in the U-3 Master Tire pits as last minute adjustments are being made to get the team’s issues resolved and our driver back in the race. Spotters noticed leakage coming from one of our rookie’s rigs and flagged him into the pits for a quick look and see. Apparently the exhaust absorbent apparatus had been pushed beyond its capacity and failed. Luckily, the professional crew was prepared for just such an eventuality and packed the necessary replacement parts to make a change and get this guy back out there. Like in war, these contests are won and lost in the trenches. Thank goodness we were primed and ready.

Oh Boy! Hydroplanes

Daddy Dave has loved hydroplanes since he was a little boy, so it is only fitting that he should introduce them to his little boys. We might as well begin at the top. National high point champion Steve David, driver of the 2008 National Champion boat Oh Boy! Oberto, poses with us Friday night during an open pits autograph session. Steve is the class of the sport and one terrific driver. While his boat is sponsored by Oberto Beef Jerkey, it is owned by the city of Madison, Indiana and is also known as the Miss. Madison. Daddy intends to attend the race Sunday in Evansville, his first in two years, while mommy watches the boys at home. Before long though, Benji and Trey Davey will get to go racing too.

Robert’s Treasure Chest

Today we drove to Livermore, Kentucky to visit Great Uncle Richard Edds. He had something in his shop that we wanted to see. There we found an old tool chest that had belonged to our Great, Great Grandfather; Robert Henry Burnett. Born in 1864 near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Robert was a carpenter who primarily built barns, but he had been known to build a few homes as well. In fact, after his daughter Kitty married Bertie Edds and moved to Kentucky, Robert Burnett and his wife Maggie visited McLean County in the early 1920’s, and he built a couple of homes for family members during that time. Uncle Richard believes most of these tools date from the very early 20th Century, and some could be older. One interesting find was a few Civil War bullets lying in the bottom of the box. Grandpa speculated that Robert must have picked them up on job sites.

Dueling Remotes

Dominating the TV’s remote control device is a guy thing digitally preprogrammed into their DNA. Put two alpha males is a room with a single remote control and you have a power cig situation with a short fuse. One solution, if your males are only 20 months old, is to allow each boy to hold a remote, one for the TV and one for the DVD player/recorder. This will keep both boys busy and confused for a while. Once they figure out how each machine works, they can record your favorite TV programs for you. After all, you’ve never figured out how to record things on your DVD.

Double Occupancy

Maybe it’s the novelty of multiples, or perhaps there is some indefinable magic that these boys have that cause strangers to smile and stop to say hello. In those places that we frequent regularly, the employees seem to remember our twins and comment about their growth and development since our last visit. Clara is a high school senior who works as a waitress at Bob Evans Restaurant. She remembers us first bringing in the babies in car seats when they were just a few weeks old. With every subsequent visit, she always stops by our table to check on the boys as if we were part of the family. Recently, rather than carrying them, the boys walked into the restaurant holding our hands. While waiting for their high chairs to be brought over, they decided to take up a seat with Clara as she rested on a break.

Mattress Madness

If you try, you can find fun everywhere. It does not have to cost anything. Travel is not always required. It does not always require batteries. Fun just requires a little imagination. Say for instance your mommy is changing crib sheets and moves the mattress temporarily to the floor. Well, that is fun just waiting to happen. Seize the moment. Jump all over that fun and go crazy! If your brother butts in, play king of the mattress. Show him who’s king by exiling him to the floor. Then, do a king-dance. Go mad as a hatter just because. It’s fun!

Happy 3ed Birthday Cousin Levi

We always have a ball when Cousin Levi comes to visit. He’s our buddy, and our bond grows stronger each time we see him. Our sixteen month age difference was a hindrance at first, but that gap seems to be diminishing quickly as we all mature. Levi is our benchmark. We look at him and see what stage we’ll be in 16 months from now. For his part, Levi loves us too. He recognizes that we are babies compared to him, and he is always gentle and protective of us. This summer we’ve started playing together and soon we’ll be having conversations. This world better get ready for these three Edds’ boys.

Ever Expanding Reach

The boys have definitely expanded their reach this summer. Both have experienced growth spurts adding several inches to their heights. Their arms and legs have grown longer also as they mature from babies to toddlers. Add to this the ability to stand on tip toes and the fine motor skills to manipulate knobs, and you have the recipe for mischief. Items located safely out of reach last spring have become fair game this summer. Leave the room for a minute and don’t be surprised to find the vaporizer running or the TV remote control snatched from a high shelf. This keeps Mommy and Daddy on their toes as well.

Gateway Adventure

We have written about our hidden room before. One of our home’s most unique features, this hideaway is located in the boys’ room (den) upstairs behind the bookcase. Access is through a small door in the bookcase’s lower half. We currently use it to store luggage and out-of-season clothing. The space is irresistible to the boys. In fact, we had to install a door lock to keep them out. This action just intensified their desire to explore the unknown area. Today I needed to enter the hidden room to investigate a wiring problem. As I crawled in, I was trampled by two eager beavers seeking answers to the question “what is kept in the hidden room”? I wonder what they imagined.

What a Dirty Deal

It’s not fair. Daddy finally finished fencing the backyard, and Benji and I hadn’t been out there for the first time a full half hour before Mommy pulled the plug on our outdoor fun. During the course of construction, about twenty percent of the grass was removed or covered with dirt to level the yard. New grass has been sown, but hasn’t had the chance to grow. I thought the dirt looked attractive and decided to play in it. The texture was interesting, and I wondered what it may taste like so I put a little in my mouth. One little experiment and Mommy lost it. I didn’t swallow much and didn’t particularly like the taste of dirt, so I’m not likely to eat anymore. Still, we had to go inside and probably won’t see our backyard again until the new grass is in.

Pizza Pie Surprise

My name is Trey Davey Edds, and I’m a picky eater, though you can’t tell it by my size. For the last few months Mommy has been weaning my brother and me off “baby food” and introducing us to “real food”. Some of it I like, but most of it looks unappetizing to me. I don’t like to try food that looks weird. So when we came today to Pizza Roma and Mommy didn’t break out the baby food, I knew this was going to be interesting. Instead, she took food off of her plate, cut it into small pieces and served it to Benji and me. It looked funny, but smelled very good. I reached over to pick it up with my hand instead of using a spoon, and nobody objected. I popped a little in my mouth and was surprised by how good it tasted. I ate a little more and found this “real food” quite addictive. Maybe I’ll try something else new tomorrow night.

Unstoppable Crash

For the most part we have transitioned from two naps a day to one. It begins at 1:00 pm and lasts until 3:30 or 4:00 pm. Every morning Trey Davey wakes promptly at 6:00 am and requests his morning bottle. By the time I bring it in, Benji is usually awake enough to take his milk too. Occasionally, they will go back to sleep after they have finished their breakfast, but ordinarily they want to start playing and continue steadily until their 1:00 pm afternoon naptime. However, if they play extraordinarily hard their motors will run out of gas, and they’ll poop out even before lunch. Today was such a day. Both crashed about 11:00 am breaking our daily routine, but after all the energy they produced, they earned the rest.

Touching Trumpets

Benji is very expressive and makes a lot of faces. One of his first countenances was sticking out his lips as if to kiss. He began doing this long before he discovered kissing, so this mugging is just one of his natural expressions. Sometimes when he does it while dancing he looks like a little Mick Jagger. While dining with Cousin Levi recently we noticed that he also makes the same face. His mother Erin calls it making trumpets. We then encouraged both boys to make trumpets at the same time. These smart boys interpreted our request to mean kiss each other, which they did. We’re glad these cousins love one another, and hope they are not too embarrassed when we show this photo at future family reunions.

Behind the Photography

The finished product is what we frame and hang on the wall. Getting to that point is the artistry. My friend Brian Leazenby is an award-winning photographer. His work has appeared in newspapers, magazines and posters. We were lucky to get him to take our portraits at the family reunion yesterday. As it worked out, some photos were a team effort. Mommy, Daddy and Aunt Erin helped to attract all three toddlers’ attention while Uncle Stephen jumped in to make last minute adjustments. The people in the photo are Great Grandmother Kitty Edds’ Great Grandchildren. The top row is Abby and Trey Davey Edds, Rick Williams, Andrew and Levi Edds. The bottom row is Katy Williams, Benji, Taylor and Logan Edds. Evolyn Allen snapped this photo of the sausage being made.

Big Family Reunion

All of Great Grandmother Kitty Edds’ children and grandchildren were home for Thanksgiving in 1962, so they took that occasion to have family portraits made. Nearly a half century later, most of the family gathered again for Great Uncle Gene Ray Edds’ 80th Birthday Party. Ten of the 13 living alumni of that 1962 gathering were present. They were Granddaddy David, Grandma Ondra, Great Uncle Gene Ray, Great Aunt Gay Nell, Great Uncle Richard, Great Uncle Dick Williams, and four of Daddy’s first cousins Marc Edds, Rodney Edds, Al Williams and David Williams. In the years since this photo, many additions have come to the family through birth and marriage. The first was Daddy Dave born just four months after that 1962 Thanksgiving Day photo and the most recent were Trey Davey and Benji born just 20 months ago. With so many family members coming together again for the first time, we again enlisted the services of a professional photographer to take family portraits.

Williams Homecoming

For Great Uncle Gene Ray Edds’ 80th Birthday, Daddy Dave and Grandpa organized a family reunion. In addition to our more regionally-based family, Daddy invited all of Gene Ray’s nephews, nieces and more. For those who arrived early, we met for dinner Friday night. The man in suspenders is Great Uncle Dick Williams. He was married to Grandpa’s sister and they had three sons. After she passed away in 1970, he married Faye, the lady sitting beside him. They traveled all the way from Maryland. His son Al Williams, standing next to me, and his wife Rita and son Rick drove all night from Colorado to be here. Tomorrow afternoon, Daddy and Grandpa will give them a driving tour of Owensboro visiting the houses, schools and churches the Williams knew when they lived here 40 years ago. Al’s brother David Allen Williams, his wife Lynne and daughter Katie will join us tomorrow night at the birthday party.

Seeing Christine

When we traveled to the family’s cabin at the Lake of the Ozarks a few weeks ago, we saw all of Granddad and Grandma Roe’s clan except for Cousin Christine. Her vacation travel plans were delayed due to the summer classes she was taking for college. She arrived at the lake the week after we left. Because of her desire to see the twins, the Roe Grands detoured through Owensboro tonight so Christine could see her Kentucky cousins. They were on their way back to Florida, where Christine and Cousin Tyler will enjoy a week of sightseeing before returning home to San Diego, California.

Birthday Benchmark Photo – 20 months

When Grandma Karen visited a few weeks ago she commented repeatedly about how much the boys had matured and grown since she last saw them just two weeks prior. I suppose when you see them every day as we do their advances are less noticeable. But when you look at the photos and data you can see that they are in the midst of a physical and mental growth spurt. In the last two months, Trey Davey grew only ½ inch taller to measure 35 inches (93rd percentile), but added two whole pounds to weigh 29 lbs 3 oz (79th percentile). Benji shot up 1-1/2 inches to stand 34.5 inches (88 percentile) adding just under a pound to 28 lbs 11 oz (75th percentile). We’ve lost count of how many words they know but plan to make a list. Watching them grow is so much fun.

Room to Run

After waiting for what seemed like forever, we finally have a fenced backyard. Since Trey Davey and I began walking just before Christmas, Daddy has been talking about fencing the backyard for us. The principle delay was the high school, who took their sweet time replacing their chain-link fence along the back border of our property. Once their fence was in place, it took Daddy another two weeks to construct the picket fence around our yard. Now finally, we have the play area we’ve been waiting for all summer. It’s a rectangular area big enough for us to really run and stretch our legs. Mommy and Daddy have begun adding outdoor toys for us like a baby pool, sandbox, swing set and picnic table. Outdoors is the best.

Happy Birthday Great Uncle Gene Ray

Great Uncle Gene Ray Edds is Grandpa David’s older brother. When Grandpa was a baby, about the same age as the twins are now and just learning to talk, he couldn’t say Gene Ray and the word ‘brother’ came out Bubba. Even as he grew older and his vocabulary grew, Grandpa continued to call his older brother Bubba. Gene Ray didn’t mind the Bubba nickname for himself as he loved christening others with nicknames. His wife became Peaches. One son became Ick and the other Skeeter. He called one brother Mr. Johnson, a niece Tootie and a grandchild Ironhead. Gene Ray gave dozens of people nicknames. For years Daddy Dave knew Gene Ray only as Uncle Bubba. He was an adult before he realized he was essentially calling him Uncle Brother. Now it’s the twin’s turn, and they wish Great Uncle Bubba a Happy 80th Birthday.

Chippendale Audition

One of the twin’s goals by age two is the ability to partially dress and undress themselves. Insiders predicted Benji would be the first one to strip himself of clothing and run freely through the world flaunting his nakedness as a protest against what he considers passé Victorian morays of decency. On this occasion I believe his motivation was less political and more practical. It was a hot summer evening and he concluded he might be cooler without the long sleeved pajama top. It was interesting watching him figure out the procedure for removing the garment. Once he solved the mystery, he repeated the act each time we replaced his shirt. He slept topless by his own choice this night.

Go, Go Dawny B. Goode

Sandy’s friend Dawn Beckgerd loves to sing and dance. She is very active in her church’s music ministry and sings at every opportunity. A happy person by nature, Dawn is not one to sing the Blues. Praise and Worship music is her passion, closely followed by children’s music. When we traveled with her on a mission trip to Asia in 2005, she taught happy songs to children who knew not a word of English. Their happiness came not through the lyric, but through Dawn’s infectious, joy-filled enthusiasm. Now when she visits us, she sings to the twins, and they fight each other for the honor of dancing with her.