Let the dance party begin

Ever since Pa bought Granny ballroom dancing lessons for their anniversary last year, she has developed a Ginger Rogers complex. Always someone who enjoyed dancing, she never became serous about the activity until recently, and last night, she may have bitten off more than she could chew. You see, with Pa, she always had a partner evenly matched in terms of technique and endurance. Feeling perhaps overconfident in her newly acquired dance education, she endeavored to teach all three of her grandsons a few steps. A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing and keeping up with one dancing pre-schooler can be a marathon undertaking. Engaging all three may very well wear holes in her boogy shoes.

A Tricycle Built for Three

We love to play with our cousin, Levi. Sunday night the family traveled over to Granny and Pa’s house, where he’s visiting for a few days. Coordinating our schedules can sometimes be tricky, because we nap all afternoon. It’s nice that he’s around for several days this trip to give us more get-together opportunities. The 16-month age difference is really beginning to diminish as an issue, and we are beginning to play together more as peers. While our toys used to be too young for Levi, we are increasingly advancing into the same age appropriate toys. For instance, this was our first experience on a tricycle. Up until now our legs weren’t long enough to reach the pedals, and we’re just learning how to make it go forward like Levi does. By mid year, we should be ready to give him a race. Now, that would be fun!

I'm Coming Daddy

In these early spring days when temperatures are just warm enough for outside play, I look for interesting opportunities for our twins to burn off excess energy. Recently we visited a cemetery to photograph grave makers for our family tree. Once unbuckled from their car seats, our heroes took full advantage of this peaceful venue to run and scream. At first they stayed close to me, climbing on and hiding behind the markers. In time they bravely explored new areas. When they would wonder more than 10 yards away I would call “Benji, Davey, come over here’, and Benji would reply, “I’m coming Daddy,” as he ran further away. After repeating this call and response several times followed by chasing them down for retrieval, it occurred to me that while he may be saying “I’m coming Daddy,” he actually means “I hear you Daddy,” which is an entirely different thing.

Play Time is Stacking Up

Stacking up is defined as to measure up or equal. It can also mean to make sense or add up. So it can be said that our twins stack up perfectly in terms of age, ancestry and environment, and the idea that they would compete continuously to gain physical or intellectual superiority also stacks up nicely. We see their twinship as a blessing. Each boy was born with a brother his exact age, a perfect peer. Unlike identical twins, our boys have individual looks, builds, and personalities which allow them to easily forge their own identities. Each has progressed in some areas ahead of his brother, and competition or imitation has helped the other catch up faster than an only child may have. The fighting can sometimes be annoying, but we hope the competition for superiority stacks up to higher achievement for both.

Stop, Squat & Drop

It’s no mystery what Trey Davey’s doing; the mystery is when we should begin toilet training. Our doctors have told us the key to this stressful endeavor is to not attempt training until the child is ready. Signs of toilet training readiness usually appear between 18 months and 3 years of age. They include staying dry for at least 2 hours at a time, having regular bowel movements, being able to follow simple instructions, being uncomfortable with dirty diapers and wanting them changed, asking to use the potty chair, or asking to wear regular underwear. While we don’t expect to begin toilet training anytime soon, both boys have begun developing some of these developmental signs. What’s unusual about this photo is that Davey is doing his business in the open. He and his brother usually hide when they have to go.

Reading to one another

Any casual follower of this blog has seen photographs of our many friends and family members reading to the boys. Benji and Trey Davey love books, and we have read some of their favorites to them many, many times to the point where Sandy and I have memorized some book’s text from cover to cover. What we hadn’t seen was the boys “reading” to each other. Left alone one morning recently, Sandy returned to see just this exercise. She heard the little voices talking and when she peaked in they were reading to one another, describing the objects in the pictures on each page. We hope they will one day help each other with their homework in the same way.

The “Our” Concept

The shared ownership concept must still be too complex for our toddlers based on the number of conflicts we mediate daily. They don’t fight over everything. Some objects are accepted as belonging to someone else. Color coding has helped us segregate common items such as bottles, shoes and some toys. Both boys accept that green is for Davey and blue is for Benji. Other objects, like blankets, are either Davey’s or Benji’s and they acknowledge and accept this fact without dispute. However, for many favorite items like trains, cars and books, physical and verbal conflicts are common. Even when we have two identical examples of a desired object, the boys scuffle over the same one. It’s as if the only item they want is the one thing their brother has. If only brothers could learn to share, then we could all live in a more peaceful world.

Spring Lawn Preparation

We have big plans for our backyard this year, and Trey Davey is helping to make those goals a reality. Easter falls on April 4th this year, and we want to have an egg hunt in the back yard. To prepare the lawn, we have begun watering and fertilizing the grass. Davey, Sandy and Zack have raked the winter leaves away, and Sandy has sowed new grass in the bare spots. We’ve asked Zack not to mow the grass inside the fence so it will be long by Easter and easy to hide eggs. These efforts and the recent rains have contributed to the lawn’s recent transformation from brown hibernation to a lush green carpet.

Theory and Practice

When we decided that I would stay home with the boys, I had the idea that I could multitask quite productively. Certainly I planned to engage in active play and learning with the boys, but I believed there would also be a great deal of computer time available for me. I saw myself in a large room typing away peacefully while the boys played independently on the floor a few away. There was some of that early, but as soon as they could crawl, Trey Davey and Benji wanted to do whatever I was doing. It became impossible for me to work with them in the room, because I received more help than I could handle. Little hands would push buttons indiscriminately creating utter havoc. The multitasking thing was a good idea that just didn’t work.

It's Mack Tonight

Oh the clock struck, half past five dear

As we played on, Sunday night.
In the door shot, young Mack B. babe
And the evening, ah, was a delight.

Ya know those baseballs, in our basket
The boy he’s got a, golden arm
I’ll get a glove, and, take young Mack B.
Outback to play, when, it gets warm

But tonight we’re inside, with our Toots train
And he watches, as I take the mic
I push the button, the red light glows, and then
That little train, well, it came to life

Mom fixed meatballs, and spaghetti
After a prayer, we, passed it around
We’re now big boys, we’re not babies
And now we want, uh, Mack B around

After dinner, we played piano
The night was filled, with, a joyful sound
It’s been quiet, on McCreary, but now
Vacation’s over, and young Mack, he’s back in town

Room with a view

We visited the Owensboro Museum of Science and History on Saturday morning to participate in the Owensboro Mothers of Multiples Easter Egg Hunt. After we found our eggs, we played in the Play-zeum area of the facility. One of the activities is a tunnel which begins inside the building, then extends outside the museum’s exterior wall before returning to the interior play area. The corners of the tunnel’s exterior piping are clear allowing a fine view of the downtown bridge towering over Main Street. Trey Davey and Benji found this spot was an excellent place to watch the downtown sidewalk activity.

Egg Hunt Tune Up

Easter egg hunting is about setting and achieving goals. To be ready for an optimal performance in an important hunt, one must train hard. Coaches can create drills and exercises to hone searching skills and picking techniques, but training alone does not completely prepare you for the big-time egg hunts. To prepare optimally for a goal hunt, you need to do one or more tune-up hunts. A tune-up hunt is simply a hunt of lesser importance that you use to help prepare for your goal hunt. We used today’s Owensboro Mother of Multiples Easter Egg Hunt as a tune up for the big one Easter Sunday. Here in our pre hunt photo, you can see all the competitors assembled. Moments later we burst onto the indoor playground and cleaned up our quota in record time. I think we’re ready for the big one now.

It's Hoops Time Baby!

Today we unveiled another new backyard toy, a basketball goal. It was a 2009 garage sale acquisition, which we deemed too advanced for them at the time. Retrieving it from storage this week, I hoped the boys were ready to play with it. Because toys deteriorate so quickly outside, introducing the goal too early would risk it becoming weather damaged before receiving use. We already have an infant sized goal in the living room, and they’ve been shooting big basketballs into the big baskets at church, but only with the assistance of Daddy and Pa lifting the toddlers above their heads. This is the first pre-school sized goal Benji and Trey Davey have seen, and I wondered if they’d be interested. My question was instantly answered when they each raced to make a basket.

Four Steps No Problem

Last summer the twins were just little guys, who were new to walking, running and climbing. We were very careful to keep them safe by controlling their playground toys. For instance, we started last summer with only two-step slides. Towards fall we added a three step model, which they negotiated without difficulty. At a garage sale I had also found a great deal on a four step slide, but Mommy believed it was too advanced for them last year. We stored it until this week and introduced it to our yard in anticipation of our first warm 2010 days. As the temperature touched 65 degrees this afternoon the boys kicked off the year’s first backyard play by heading directly to the new equipment. Under Mommy’s watchful eyes Benji eagerly climbed the four steps and slid easily down the slide as if he’d done it a thousand times before.

Green Day

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we played with our green toys today. Now, by green we don’t mean to imply that our boys have become all tree-huggy and discarded all their petroleum-based molded-plastic all-boy action-figures in favor of a bunch of environmentally-friendly organic-composite politically-correct she-man dolls, but in fact we literally mean they played with their toys that are colored green. Many of them were Trey Davey’s. In order to distinguish one twin’s possessions from the other’s, we try to purchase one green and one blue item. Benji’s color is blue and Davey’s is green. This usually works well, and limits the fighting to only neutral-colored items.

Happy Birthday Aunt Kristin

Here we were with Aunt Kristin last July. The Roe family gathered at the Lake of the Ozarks to celebrate Granddaddy’s birthday. While there, we also had a birthday party for Uncle Wes. Even though we don’t see her that often, we love the time we do spend with Aunt Kris because she’s so much fun. Last summer she cooked us special Mickey Mouse pancakes, installed a tree swing for us to play on and floated around the lake with us. Even when we’re apart, she is ever present in our lives through the toys we inherited from her. We love the popcorn popper, three men in a tub and, our current favorite, the magnetic letter board. Several of our favorite books had been hers at one time too. Her stuff rocks! When we get old enough to travel that far, we’re going to Utah to play at her house.

The Ides of March

For Julius Caesar, the Ides of March was a very bad day, but for us it is an exciting time. March Madness is in full swing and most of our family’s favorite teams are in the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament. Mommy’s Missouri Tigers are a 10 seed in the Eastern Region, and Grandma Roe’s Florida Gaters are a 10 seed in the Western Region. Daddy’s University of Kentucky Wildcats have had a very good year going 32-2, winning the South Eastern Conference championship and earning a number one seed in the Eastern Region. In this single elimination tournament, every team but one can expect to have a bad day in the next few weeks when their team is eliminated from the tournament. Benji, Trey Davey and I will be cheering our teams in hopes that one will finish on top.

Let them eat cake on Pi Day

You may not be familiar with Pi Day, but its popularity as a fun, new holiday is growing among math geeks like us. Held each year on March 14th, the holiday celebrates the mathematical constant π (pi). The date is derived from π’s first three digits 3.14 and is coincidentally also the birthday of Albert Einstein. Physicist Larry Shaw created the first Pi Day celebration at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988. To celebrate, some people marched around in circles and then consumed fruit pies. At our house we practiced counting to ten in English and Spanish using puzzles, then consumed the delicious chocolate birthday cake Mommy baked for Daddy’s birthday.

Back in the Swing

When you are two, time doesn’t fly by. You have no frame of reference or experience to guide you. Last summer might as well have been half a lifetime ago. For our twins playing outside in park playgrounds is something they did long ago as one year olds. Those had become fond memories of bygone days. So, on one of the warmer winter days recently, we took the boys outside on this year’s first playground visit, and they immediately ignited with delight. For them it was a wonderful experience, like reuniting with an old friend and rekindling a relationship that is very comfortable and easy to fall right back into just as if no time lapse had ever occurred.

Happy Birthday Daddy

This is the third birthday I’ve had as a father, but the first one in which my sons gave me a gift of their very own making. With their mother’s help and guidance, they began working on the gift right after Christmas, and it has slowly been taking shape over the last few months. They have made the gift no secret, working on its development openly in my presence. In this way, it has extended my birthday celebration over some time and added an element of anticipation to whether they can complete their project by my day of birth. Tonight after supper I received my completed gift. Benji and Trey Davey clearly sang all the words of Happy Birthday to me.

Mystery Reaction

Over the weekend of February 20 and 21 Trey Davey developed a troubling cough. By Monday he had developed a fever and clearly felt bad. On Tuesday we visited the pediatrician, who sent us to the hospital for x-rays and a flu test. The diagnosis was pneumonia. Dr. Neel prescribed an antibiotic and Motrin. By Friday, Davey was feeling much better and Benji began developing the cough and fever. A week later, long after we had stopped giving him the antibiotic, Davey developed a rash all over his body. It didn’t itch or seem to bother him in any way. After a few days, it disappeared. Everything seems fine now.

A S-l-o-w Eater Living Among Inhalers

One of Benji’s unique qualities is his very slow approach to eating. While his brother naturally eats quickly like the rest of the family, Benji absolutely gets in no hurry. He is not a picky eater; he just prefers to take his time. We quickly dismissed the family rule that no one leaves the table until everyone is finished because we all tired of watching Benji trod along so slowly. In fact, many times we go ahead and take Davey to bed after lunch and he is asleep before Benji finishes eating. Ironically, eating slowly is actually a good habit to have. It allows an individual to really enjoy their food, and helps to prevent overeating because their stomach has time to get the message to their brain to "Stop eating -- I'm full." Perhaps we should take a lesson from Benji, if we can ever make the time.

Cross-town Tactics

It was supposed to rain today, and instead it was warmer and sunny. After spending so many winter weeks bogged down in the house, we were busting to get out. Not yet ready to play outside at the park, we instead traveled downtown to play at First Baptist Church’s Christian Life Center. What made this trip extra special was Mommy’s attendance. She had a vacation day today and was able to join us. We played basketball, ran in the gym and played in the toddler room. Sometimes it is fun to just move the party across town and blow off a little excess steam.

Trust and Consent

As a parent it is often difficult to allow children the freedom to explore and experiment, especially when the result may cause real pain and suffering to yourself. This was the risk Sandy was taking recently when she allowed the boys to roll her hair with toy magnetic construction tubes. Any similarity to hair styling was a coincidence. The boys first tried to hide the toys inside Mommy’s hair, and then after they dropped out, they decided to try rolling them into her hair to hold them. Fortunately for Sandy, Benji and Trey Davey lost interest before they did any real damage to her do.

Drawn to the familiar

Last weekend when we visited Pump It Up in Evansville, the first thing the boys were attracted to was the Cozy Coupes. Here they were in a room full of inflatable bouncy toys, and they chose the one toy they already have at home. Come to think of it, aren’t we all just like that? When we walk into a room full of strangers, why do we seek to find any familiar face? Why would we rather have a redundant conversation with someone we barely know, than to meet a stranger and possibly make a new terrific friend? I resolve to encourage the boys by word and example to seek out new experiences and friends every day.

What do we do now?

Today Sandy left us early to work at the Owensboro Mothers of Multiplies Simi-Annual Rummage Sale. As Chairman, she was anxious to make sure everything ran smoothly. With mom gone, the boys were left wondering just what to do next. While warmer, the temperature outside was still a little cool for the park and the Christian Life Center’s gym was occupied. After breakfast and bathing we checked out a couple of the other rummage sales, visited mommy and all her friends at their sale, then took a long, leisurely drive in the Western Kentucky countryside looking for signs of spring.

Birthday Benchmark Photo – 2 years 3 months

In order to achieve this month’s benchmark photo, I tried a new tack. You see, for almost a year now the process of taking the monthly benchmark photo has been very stressful. The boys just didn’t want to sit still in the chair and smile for a photograph. At first we promised and delivered treats for sitting still, and all I had to do was photoshop the cookies out of the photo. Later, when food failed to keep them both still I would photoshop two pictures together in order to achieve one photo with both boys looking reasonably good. This month I used a different approach. I promised to play their favorite choo choo video if they would sit still in the chair. While this worked, I couldn’t pry their eyes away from the screen long enough to look and smile at the camera.

Dustbusting Fun

Sometimes I think our little boogers intentionally make a mess that would require cleanup with the dustbuster. They are enthralled by this appliance and will leave whatever toy they are playing with to watch someone clean with the dustbuster. Maybe it’s the noise, or the compact size that so fascinates them, but once it appears, the mini-vacuum becomes their center of attention. Unfortunately, they don’t quite have the cleaning mechanics mastered, or else we would be putting their enthusiasm to work. When given the opportunity to hold the device, instead of picking up crumbs, they prefer vacuuming larger objects like toy cars, baseballs and babysitters.

Rail Station Rendezvous

While we were in Evansville Friday we visited The Evansville Museum Transportation Center. The EMTRAC exhibits dynamically interpret the transportation in Southern Indiana from the latter part of the Nineteenth Century through the mid-Twentieth Century. The indoor exhibits address Evansville’s early river, rail and aviation advancements. When we stepped outside onto the platform we found the Museum’s prized train. On exhibit since 1967, the train provided Trey Davey and Benji with their first opportunity to examine the exterior and interior of three historic railroad cars up close. The fleet consisted of a 1908 0-6-0 steam switch engine, a fully equipped 1926 club car, and a circa 1900 caboose.

Model Training

Transportation Hall also features EMTRAC's anchor exhibit, Charlotte's Evansville. This intricate model railroad interprets the City of Evansville in the late 1940s. Recalling an era when steam locomotives were giving way to diesel power, this diorama incorporates model trains motoring through a model city composed of Evansville’s most significant structures of that era. A visitor activated voice narration provides an overview of the exhibition and the history of the period. The entire exhibit is built inside a full sized 1920’s railroad car connected to the EMTRAC facility. Benji and Trey Davey were fascinated by the exhibit and pushed the narration button repeatedly to watch the trains circle the town until we made them leave.

Choo Choos

Trey Davey pumps Choo Choo after walking through EMTRAC’s Transportation Hall. The exhibit boasts selected vehicles from the Museum's collection recalling travel in the period prior to the 1920s. Of special interest are: a hearse from the 1880s used by Alexander Funeral Homes; a steam powered fire pumper utilized by the City's Fire Department; a high wheel bicycle; and a Sears Motor Car built by Evansville's Hercules Buggy Company. The backdrop for the vehicles is a mural depicting rail stations and other scenes from Evansville's past. For someone like Davey who has only seen these things in books, it was exciting to finally see these vehicles in person.