Final Swimming Lesson

Today was the boys’ final swimming lesson for a while. We will take a break during the rest of baseball season, which tends to dominate their schedule for about 6 weeks. Most sessions are twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays or Tuesdays and Thursdays for 45 minutes each. This session was different for us as the Y allowed us to attend two sessions on Tuesdays back to back. This would allow us to attend baseball practice on Thursdays (we had no idea there would be so many rain outs). Going back to back required much more effort and was an endurance challenge, but our boys completed the task with smiles and always slept well on Tuesday nights.

Extreme Decorating

Each month, our Pack 10 members are decorated to mark the accomplishments they have earned over the last 30 days. Tonight, each of our twins received a uniform makeover with a large number of new rewards. Awards come in the form of belt loops, pins, discs and patches. Sandy was responsible for helping them earn these many commendations, and unfortunately, she will now have the unenviable task of having to sew, pin and otherwise attach all these items to their uniforms. No good deed goes unpunished. 

My Snuggle Buddy

In our normal routine, there is a wind down period between 7:30 pm and 8:00 pm every night. At about 7:00 pm the boys take turns showering to wash away the day’s dirt. (It’s hard to believe people just a few decades ago commonly bathed just once a week.) After they have each put on their pajamas and brushed their teeth, the boys usually relax to a bedtime story read by their mother. Benji usually showers first, and then during Davey’s bathroom time my mini-me climbs into bed and snuggles next to his daddy. I love his clean smell and warm closeness. It is our special time to just hang out together and watch TV.

Frozen Home

With so many baseball practice rain outs this spring, Coach Hood wanted desperately to have an Orioles workout this morning. There were clear skies and the sun was shining brightly, but unfortunately the temperature on this crisp Saturday morning was just 24 degrees with a northerly wind blowing a biting wind chill. The players tried courageously to play through the cold. Several slipped on their batting gloves to keep their hands warm, but then found they couldn't grip the baseball well enough to throw it. The cold wind found its way around hoodies and up warm-up pants to create an unbearable situation for the seven year olds. After 20 minutes the coach conceded and another practice opportunity was lost. This is why the Major Leaguers hold spring practice in Florida.

Library Escape

You would think that living just one block away from the Daviess County Public Library would encourage our constant attendance, but the fact is that we underutilize this wonderful resource. Now that the boys are getting older, this will change. Certainly the library offers more to curious youngsters who can read, and now we have two of those. In addition to train books, they boys have shown increased interest in cowboys, animals and automobiles. In addition to books, the library offers a playroom full of educational toys. We needed to get out of the house recently, so I brought the boys over to the library where I read a book while Davey made some new friends playing with a Thomas train set and Benji built this interesting gear-mobile.

Bowling Badge

We took off our baseball cleats Monday night and laced up our bowling shoes. The boys’ scout den had an outing to Diamond Lanes South to bowl a game and earn a merit badge. We drove to the lanes directly from baseball practice. This was really exciting to the twins because ever since they bowled the first time with the OMOMs last year, they have been bugging us to go bowling again. For the little guys the venue raises the gutter guards to keep the balls on the alley. Even with this advantage, the boys were awful, and for once I let them go. We can develop better techniques later when they’re stronger. On this night, Benji finished strong to beat Davey 75-72. They finished 3^rd and 4^th in their group, but had a wonderful time. 

Between Practice Practice

This has been a very wet spring. Almost every practice has been rained out, which makes it really difficult to prepare for the coming season. The league has a prepared practice-field schedule, so if it rains on your scheduled time, you can’t just postpone practice to the next day. Davey and Benji need to practice, so today we bundled up after school and headed to the diamond. We’ve done this several times, and the boys really enjoy it when Daddy hits the ball and “runs” to first base. They LOVE getting me out! And, they really rub it in. Forget that I’m hitting the ball directly to them. Forget that I’m walking to base at a brisk pace and slowing down for close plays to give them the out. My boys LOVE to “bust my chops” with every out they make. If it motivates them and improves their game, bust away!

Winter Training

Swimming is such great exercise. It is a healthy workout that can be done for a lifetime. The activity is low-impact and generates very few if any injuries. Swimming strengthens the body and clears the mind. Our boys have been taking swimming lessons at the YMCA for years and have really improved. We have made no goals to competitively swim, only develop their technique and master the four strokes; freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. The YMCA offers two-week swimming lesson sessions year round, and we sign up whenever there is downtimes between sports. Those breaks are most common in the wintertime and by swimming all winter Davey and Benji enter spring baseball season to top shape.

First Practice

Today we attended our first Orioles baseball practice. This season the boys have moved up from coach pitch to machine pitch, and the tone feels a lot more serious. Here Coach Tim Hood is demonstrating the proper battling technique. One difference I see is the swing is a lot more compact. Hitting off a t, one could use a long stroke like a golfer. Benji was excellent at this and it contributed to his t-ball power. Unfortunately, that long swing technique doesn't allow him enough time to respond to the pitched ball. After his illustration, Coach Hood took the boys into the batting cage and introduced them to the machine, and they did pretty well for their first time.

OHS State Champs Again

Congratulations to Coach Rod Drake and his Owensboro High School Red Devils on winning the 2015 Kentucky Boy's State basketball Championship. The last time OHS won this title was 1980, when Rod was a senior star player and I was a junior student. He is the only person to have ever won a Kentucky state basketball championship as both a player and coach for the same school. This was OHS's fifth basketball title, which places them third in total Kentucky state championships. Prior to 1980, the school won in 1972 when I was in the third grade. With the twins currently in first grade, there's a good chance they'll see another OHS basketball title in their school system tenure over the next 11 years, and maybe they'll contribute directly to it.

First Pitch Ready

Last year when the boys were chosen to play on the “A’s” baseball team, I wanted a cap to wear to show my support, but we couldn’t find one anywhere in Owensboro. We even made a couple of trips to Evansville looking for MLB team-ware vendors and found none. When asked what I wanted for my birthday I replied a baseball cap for the boys’ new team. This time Sandy ordered me one online at it came today! Now I can’t wait for the first pitch of the opening game!

Subtle Messages

On the surface of the carpet Benji’s message here seems rather straight forward, but I think there’s more to learn here. From the age of two, the twins have loved trains. It was one of their first spoken words. Then about a year ago, Benji asked me if I had a lot of trains when I was a little boy and loved them as much as he and Davey do. I confessed that, while I liked trains as a boy, I was crazier about cars. From that point forward, Benji began a strong interest in old cars. At first I thought he was just mirroring me to garner my approval, which is probably true, but I also believe this is beginning of Benji developing his own identity apart from Davey. He has learned much about cars in the last year, which usually leaves Davey with all the trains to play with alone. This makes them both very happy.

Book Fair

Huckster – noun – a person who sells small items, either door-to-door or from a stall or small store. This is what they are teaching our kids in school these days. It all begins so innocently. The school is having a concert or an assembly for the parents and “Oh look Mommy and Daddy, there’s a book fair in the school library. Let’s go look!” This always costs me money, but they don’t stop there. Next, these shameless hucksters invite grandparents to join them for lunch at school and while they’re there the journey takes them through the book fair, where the solicitation begins. It’s a cleaver plan. Who could turn this sweet face down?

Pa in Charge

We missed the parent/teacher conferences two weeks ago due to snow and they were rescheduled for today. Sandy has the honor of Jury Duty this month and our rescheduled conference fell on one of her Jury days, which meant if she were chosen as a juror, she’d probably miss the teacher meeting. Grandpa Edds is seldom too busy to watch his grandsons and was delighted at another opportunity. Sandy was selected today, her third time in three appearances, but finished in time to make it to the school meeting with me. As expected, we discovered that our boys were doing very well with still a little room for improvement.

Designer Train

One of the most thoughtful gifts I received for my birthday was a Lego Train. This wasn’t made from a kit, it was entirely custom made. Davey said he designed it specifically for me from brick one. Sandy said he took great care in choosing each piece to create a train that I would like. His design included a boiler, bumper, light, funnel, sand dome, bell, whistle, coupler, wheels, piston and a cab with a Lego engineer inside. He love explaining each detail and its purpose. I feel so honored that he would use his considerable skills and talents to create such a special gift for me.

Last One Gone

The four middle teeth on top and the four on bottom are called incisors and children begin losing their first baby teeth around the age of 6 or 7. Once each of these teeth became loose, Davey couldn’t help fixating on the offender. Rather than letting it take its course, he compulsively wiggled the loose tooth until he freed it from his mouth and collected another Tooth Fairy dollar coin for his trouble. His left upper lateral incisor was his latest trophy and the last of the eight baby teeth he is expected to lose at this period of his life.  It became loose Sunday morning and he worked on it all day. He reached his goal 30 minutes after lights out last night and collected his hard won bounty this morning.

Happy Boys

These smiles are brought to you by Italian food. I studied our genealogy back a dozen generations in every direction and have found no Italian blood anywhere, but this family just loves Italian food. When one looks at the popularity of this ethnic food they will find that we are not unique in this affinity. And to think this cultural phenomenon is relatively new to this region.  My great grandparents probably never had a pizza or plate of spaghetti. Tonight we are dining in Pizzaroma, a local eatery established in 1963. It was one of the first pizza parlors in Owensboro and still among the best. When we count our blessings, Italian food is on that list.

Rollin' on the River!

The boys attended a birthday party at U-Bounce Party House this morning located on East Second Street near Daviess County Middle School. After dropping them off, Sandy and I decided to drive down to Smother's Park to see how high the water had risen. We knew from the news reports that the river was near flood stage. As we walked along the shore Sandy noticed the fog rolling in. Before long, the RiverPark Center disappeared behind her. It was eery, like a low budget horror movie. As the swollen water lapped at the very top of the bank, I half expected a sea creature's tentacle to mysteriously extend out of the thick fog and drag one of us into the water. Luckily, our unusual London fog soon lifted and my fears quickly evaporated. 

Siamese Twins (Not)

The boys were horsing around today and thought it was funny to share the same jacket. I said they looked like Siamese Twins, and they had no idea what I was talking about. Seeing this as a teachable moment, we opened up Google and began talking about conjoined twins often called Siamese Twins. Now, our twins are fraternal rather than identical, so this condition never threatened them. Identical twins develop from a single egg and conjoining occurs when the individuals don’t completely separate. We looked at the various photos of conjoined twins and they became very sad for those poor siblings, who have to struggle through life connected to one another. Today we learned of yet another thing to be thankful for.

Wonderful Birthday

I am so blessed. At my advanced age, the love of friends and family mean more to me than anything. Sandy shows me her love in so many ways, and my birthday cake is but one example. Since she found out that chocolate birthday cakes are important to me, she has never failed to bake me one. Benji made sure my cake was decorated with classic muscle car hot wheels. Davey built me a custom made Lego steam train. Sandy and the boys also delivered a new baseball glove and Orioles cap (the boys new little league team). My parents offered to babysit Friday night and bought us a birthday dinner at a fine restaurant, and my in-laws offered us the same when we visit Florida. Additionally, I received birthday greetings from over 100 Facebook friends. Life is good!

Lego Zepplin

We love to see our boy’s creativity. They enjoy building things with Legos; trains, planes, cars, boats, buildings, etc. As future engineers, it is fun to see their minds develop. First they learned to stack and lock bricks into columns. Then they discovered that by weaving bricks they could create walls. Square buildings soon followed, and then more complex structures. After they grasp form, they began to think about design by carefully coordinated the color of the bricks used. Today, Davey began accessorizing with balloons. I don’t think he’s ever seen a blimp, so he imagined that his passenger train could fly if it were tied to giant helium balloons. We can’t wait to see what he’s come up with next.

Sutton Singing

Tonight we attended a First Grade Concert at Margaret Sutton Elementary School. Nearly a hundred students participated representing four classes. We were proud to have both of our boys involved. Benji was on the top row, the fourth one on the right. Davey was one row below in the very center. The program lasted about 15 minutes and was comprised of a dozen short songs, which all the students sang by heart. For one song, Benji came down front and played a bucket like a drum. Davey sang with his typical animated glee. Unlike Benji, Davey never suffers stage fright. I think we have not seen the last of these boys on center stage.

Homework First

As a boy I couldn't wait to get home after school every day. After immediately fixing a bowl of cereal, I’d head directly to the family room to watch Gillian’s Island or Brady Bunch reruns. If it was warm, I would often go outside and play with my friends. Off campus, school was my last priority, as it was for most of my friends except Earle Adams. His mother insisted Earle complete all of his homework before he was allowed to go out to play. I thought this was very unfair. After all, I protested, he had been in school all day already. But, Mrs. Adams wanted to teach her son the discipline of getting his work done before playing. I didn’t appreciate that then, but I do now.  I left for college not knowing how to study properly, and we want our boys to learn first things first from day one. Every day after school we complete our homework before playing. It’s part of our routine and a great habit to learn. It certainly contributed to Dr. Adams earning a post doctorate degree in chemistry from Yale University.

Happy Parents

For many years Sandy and I defined ourselves by our professions. Our careers and identities were well-established by the time we met and married. Life was wonderful as a couple, but incomplete. Not until we became parents did our lives become whole.  Maybe if we had been younger and less established or if pregnancy had come easier, would we take parenthood more for granted. Instead, we feel exceptionally blessed by God every to have Davey and Benji in our lives. At this stage of our lives, parenthood is our top priority, and we make it a demand responsibility. Sometimes, this is unhealthy and a short vacation from the boys is required to recharge our marriage. Thanks to our parents, we are able to get away occasionally and restore our balance. Life is good!

Baseball Tryouts

With snow on the ground, tryouts for Owensboro Southern Little League moved inside to the gym of Owensboro Middle School South, the 5-6 Center. These are now actually tryouts because no children will go unchosen, rather this was more a skills assessment. This league has four divisions; major, minor, machine pitch and coach pitch. As seven year olds, we are moving up to the machine pitch division this year. Having played on six t-ball teams already, the boys are ready for this next challenge. Due to the weather, we only had the opportunity to practice baseball once before this tryout and the boys were a little rusty, but I would rate their performance as average.

Another Snow Day

My neighbor across the street, Rose Helwig, took this photo of our house after a foot of snow fell on Owensboro last night. You’ll notice no footprints in our snow yet as we are still snuggles all warm in our beds. This is the second big snow to fall on us in three weeks. On days like this I know Sandy loves having a home office. Like most of our neighbors, I filled my grocery cart at Kroger Tuesday in anticipation of a large snowfall. In fact, they closed the schools Wednesday before the first flake fell because the forecast called for heavy rain turning to sleet in the morning then to snow after lunch. It looked early yesterday like an overreaction, but then the snow started falling heavily in the late afternoon. The beginning of spring is just two weeks away.

Benchmark

Today the boys have been with us 87 months, which makes them seven and a quarter years old. Their lives right now are filled with first grade, cub scouting and swimming lessons. Currently on a break between upward basketball and spring Little League Baseball seasons, the boys have spent a lot of time trapped inside lately by snow and extreme cold. This captivity has produced an interesting crop of new drawings, Lego creations and model train layouts. They have continued to play learning games on the computer as well as search the net for “new” old television programs featuring westerns and super heroes. As always, they are very active.

Wasted Snow Day

The stomach flu is going around. Davey had it last Thursday night and missed school on Friday. Last night (Tuesday) was Benji’s turn to be up all night vomiting, and he would have missed school today (Wednesday) too had classes been in session. Due to approaching inclement weather, the superintendent proactively cancelled school. This created a problem. When Davey had this 24 hour bug all he wanted to do was sleep all day, which was easily accomplished with Benji at school. However, with Davey home on a snow day, Benji had nowhere quiet to sleep. We solved this problem by making him a bed on the living room couch, well away from his brother’s noisy playing.  The rest did him good and he was back to normal by Thursday.

Shear Perfection

Kim Haire Hardy has cut the boy’s hair since the beginning. I think it has been as much a learning experience for her as it has been for them. She has always been so patient and creative at finding ways to help them relax and be still. One method she has used for the last few years is the privilege of playing a train game on her phone while she cut their hair. As they got older, the boys began paying too much attention to the phone and not to her instructions. On our last visit, she told them that from now on they could play train games on her phone AFTER they sit still for a haircut. Here Davey is toeing the line by sitting like a stone statue waiting for his turn on the phone game. Nicely played Kim!

Scouts at Work

Scouting is something our boys usually do with their mother. Sandy is a veteran of many years of scouting. As a girl, she achieved the First Class level, the Girl Scout’s top honor. She usually takes the boys to their weekly Monday night meetings, but I filled in for her tonight as she had a conflict. Their den meetings are held on the second floor of First Baptist Church’s Christian Life Center. Pat Bowlds, their scout leader, is an extremely patient man who always organizes interesting meetings for the boys. Tonight only 4 of the 9 boys were in attendance, and this led to a very productive meeting. I expect these boys to have several more awards earned by the next pack meeting.

Watching the Wheels

Yesterday was a busy day. We began our morning at 8:00 am with our final Upward Basketball game. Ironically, the next thing on our agenda was to register for Southern Little League, with baseball practice beginning in about a month. Once that was done we had a few hours break so the boys and I drove over to Evansville to catch a model train show. The boys love these. Trains of all scales are for sale in all price ranges. While it’s fun to look at all of the trains for sale, seeing them running is even better. Davey spent almost his entire visit watching the trains while Benji and I toured the vendor booths. The boys are not yet old enough for electric trains, but when the time comes we’ll be ready.