Two for the Home Team

It is interesting to observe the differences in the twins’ personalities by the way they play basketball. Davey always has a smile on his face. He loves the running and the contact of the game. Unfortunately, Davey has little to no idea what to do or what’s going on, but he’s enjoying every minute of it! Benji, on the other hand, is dead serious. Winning is important to him , and he wants the ball in his hands with the game on the line. Benji may be a little smaller than the others, but he won’t back away from anyone. With a much greater understanding of the game he knows just what to do when he gets the ball. At every opportunity, Benji will bring the ball down court, make a move to the paint and take the shot, like a typical point guard. On Saturday, Benji scored his first basket this season. It won’t be his last.

Covered Owensboro Wagon

TBT – Look how little Benji and Davey are here. We tried to photograph every old train along our way to California in 2011, and we found a real surprise at the Arizona Historical Society Pioneer Museum in Flagstaff. It was an “Owensboro Wagon”, and a covered one at that! I’d never seen one of these. At first, I thought maybe a pioneer family bought it in Kentucky for their migration westward, but the local “Owensboro Wagon” dealer’s stamp was printed clearly right on the sides, “Sold by Babbitt Bros Trading Co Flagstaff Ariz”. Now how cool is that? An authorized Owensboro dealer in Arizona!

Amazing Talent

Benji entered my room and asked how to spell “Draw”, and then ran back to his room with the answer. Soon he returned asking me how to spell “How” and then disappeared again. After it was uncharacteristically quiet for a while I wondered into his room to see what was going on. It was amazing. On his own, he figured out how to find Google on his computer, and then he typed “How to Draw Abraham Lincoln” and found a YouTube video on that exact topic. Benji had a book on the president but didn’t like the drawing in it, so he decided to draw his own. He is an extremely talented artist, but also a pretty smart, capable, and determined first grader. 

He Won't Back Down

As he learns the game, several of Davey’s natural traits will serve him well in becoming a great basketball player.  Davey’s not afraid of contact, in fact he relishes it. He began life posting up his twin brother for the first position in his mother’s womb, and so holding a basketball defender in check in the paint is second nature. Davey’s also courageous. He’s never been afraid of older, larger kids, even when that would be prudent. Perhaps seeing this, Davey’s coaches often match him against the opponent’s biggest players, as they did Saturday.  While he couldn’t quite yet match their size and basketball experience, one learns from the best and by season’s end, Davey will be better a better player. 

Snowmen

It was a gloomy, rainy Sunday afternoon, but mommy made it fun. I wondered why she was saving empty milk jugs. Today, Sandy and her boys brought them to life with a little felt and glue. What this photo doesn’t capture is the blinking Christmas lights flashing inside the jugs. Not only was this a fun family project but also another Cub Scout project. Well done!

Large Lego Train

Davey is so proud of this train! He built it completely by himself. Earlier in the week, he made a mistake at school and his punishment was one week without his train room. All of his favorite toys were off limits, so he built his own. First he built the locomotive complete with cab, boiler, smoke stack, dome, and cowcatcher. He then built the tender and passenger cars. This project illustrated his thorough understanding of trains, his ability to assemble his vision for the materials available to him and his stubborn determination to play trains even when they are all off limits. He is a very capable boy.

The Bat Cave

Applesauce for Benji - Compared to his twin, Benji was slow to lose his baby teeth. However, he's been catching up quickly. In a short period of time he's lost four front teeth. Such a hole will slow his apple a day habit, but applesauce will keep him healthy. After seeing Benji's new smile, several people suggested the hole looks like the Batman logo and Granddaddy Edds began calling it the Bat Cave, which Benji loved!

Tall Cotton

TBT - Here I am in tall cotton in 1992. I'm talking to Former Owensboro Mayor Waitman Taylor and Former Kentucky Governor and then US Senator Wendell Ford. Six years later I chaired a "Welcome Home Wendell" fundraiser for the Ford Governmental Education Center at the Owensboro Area Museum of Science and History. Our keynote speaker was Wendell's close friend, former astronaut and then US Senator John Glenn. Wendell Ford died this morning at the age of 90. 

Dressed For Radio

On Monday night, the boy’s Cub Scout troop toured The Cromwell Group radio studios at 1115 Tamarack Road. This Nashville based firm owns and operates seven local radio stations. They are on FM 94.7-WBIO, 93.3-WTCJ, 101.3-WKCM, 97.1-WXCM, 105.7-WCJZ, and 102.7-WLME, which they boys recognized as my favorite radio station broadcasting ESPN sports radio. They also own WVJS, 1420 AM. I don’t think the boys had any idea what to expect, but Sandy was surprised how small the facilities were. Most of these stations are affiliated with national networks and almost everything is controlled by a computer. The boys got all dressed up to impress the station staff and found just one engineer dressed comfortably.  

Runnin' Fun

We play a lot of sports these days, and if you ask Davey his favorite he says basketball. This is surprising. I would rate his best sport to be swimming, followed by football, baseball, soccer and basketball in that order. In fact, at this point Benji has a much greater concept and mastery of basketball techniques than his twin, but Davey will catch him eventually. Davey is tall for his age and will likely be a tall man. He is fast and loves to run, run, run! Those are great tools for basketball, and he’ll likely be a good one.

Park Music

It was a beautiful Martin Luther King school holiday in Owensboro, and we took advantage of the unseasonable warm 55 degree temperature to go play outside at Smother’s Park. Under a gazebo the boys found a brightly painted upright piano just begging to be played with maximum enjoyment and soul. Together they dueted on a most spirited rendition of The Eagles song “Take It Easy” in the universal key of C based on the use of only white keys. Musicians probably would have cringed, but I found it a joyful call for an early spring.

A Cut Above

Great Uncle Richard Edds generously agreed to help us build our first Cub Scout pinewood derby cars this afternoon in his fully stocked shop. The twins and I had a wonderful time watching him transform our blocks of wood into competitive speedsters. After he cut out our designs, we took turns sanding them smooth. It was a great learning experience hosted by an outstanding retired educator. Next for us will be painting.

Hole-ly Smile

Benji lost yet another tooth last night, his third in about as many weeks. With two missing on bottom and one on top, corn on the cob is probably not an option for a while. 

Snow Day = Swimming, right?

A snow day equals a swimming day at our house. Today was a wonderful day to begin another session of YMCA swimming lessons. With no school, our house couldn't contain all the excess 7 year old energy and the pool is a perfect solution. 

Benji Under The Trees

Benji is not a small 7 year old at 48 inches tall and 54 lbs. Growth charts show him in the 75^th percentile, which project him to reach 6 feet tall. However, the twins have moved up this season to a first and second grade division where they are among the youngest players. Additionally, we have become aware of a number of parents who have held back their children a year in school to allow them to mature more physically and emotionally with their peer group. So in a league grouped by grade rather than age, some of the players may actually be two full years older than our boys. This may be to the twins’ disadvantage in sports early in their career, but they’ll catch up in time. In fact, the growth chart projects Benji will grow 5 inches in the next two years making him about the size of the boys standing behind him. At 51 inches now in the 95th percentile, the division’s age gap affects Davey less.

Coach Sandy Encourages

Granny Edds looks on as Sandy explains to Davey how to better get open while playing offence at Saturday’s season-opening Upward Basketball game at Bellevue Baptist Church. She has come a long way since we met. It’s a safe statement to say Sandy saw more sporting events just last year than she did in all the years combined before she met me. Now that she has two sons playing multiple sports, she is becoming quite the engaged fan….and sideline coach.

Six Years Old Boys at Play

This is another father and sons reunion made possible by Photoshop. My photo on the left was a recent gift from my Aunt Donna and Uncle Dusty Embry. There is something very special about receiving an old photo of yourself that you've never seen before. Made more special is the fact that it was taken when I was the exact age that my boys are now. Tools like Photoshop allow us a new way to warp time in a way so that we can compare ourselves to our children.

A Talented Artist

Sandy and I found quite a surprise in Benji’s backpack this week. Here is his crayon interpretation of the Flag-Raising on Iwo Jima. We asked him if he drew it from a photograph he saw in a book, and he said no. He remembered it form a show he saw on TV, “only that was in black and white, and I drew my picture in color.” That ok we told him. This is a pretty awesome picture drawn from memory by a first grader don’t you think?

New Year’s Resolution

For several years now, I have intended to renew my postings to this blog and today I begin again. As the boys got older, maintaining a daily blog became difficult and I became backlogged. I stopped blogging altogether when I went back to work full time. While they understood, our most devoted followers were disappointed to lose this simple daily contact with our lives.  We missed it too. Later, I found Facebook and became a regular poster, but not everyone on there was especially interested in my boys’ daily box scores. This blog is a much better tool for sharing our lives with close family and friends. I still plan to periodically post to Facebook, but this will be the primary media for family communication. I will try to go back and fill in some of the gaps of the past, but my main emphases will be on documenting the present. Thank you for reading! Dave