Life in the Burbs

Well, the last 48 hours or so have definitely been interesting. For the first time since the boys were born, Gina is out of town and I am with them all by myself. Gina has become a pro at holding down the fort while I am away, but I had never taken on the “around the clock” duties by myself until now. So, how am I doing? I would say I am doing pretty well so far. I mean, I am writing this blog post, so I must have things fairly under control.

I had to teach this morning, and I had a faculty meeting yesterday, so we had a baby sitter come in and watch the boys while I was at work.  Getting to spend so much time with the boys has been great, and we have managed to have a lot of fun. On Tuesday, we took a long walk outside and had a great time naming all the things we saw … puppy, car, light, truck, bus, ball … the list goes on and on. The walk took a little of a negative turn when Nate stumbled and fell on the sidewalk. His feelings were hurt more than anything, but there was a fair amount of crying on the way home. Yesterday we ran errands around town, which included a stop at Hobby Lobby, the post office and the grocery store.  We liked the grocery store the most because they have those cool buggies for kids with a steering wheel. Our mode of transportation on this particular visit was a space shuttle, but Sam still called it a bus. For Sam, calling a four-wheeled motorized vehicle a bus is the highest honor. If you are an automobile of any kind and Sam calls you a bus, then you have his ultimate affection. And if you happen to actually BE a bus, well, you will be his obsession. And if you are a car or bus and you can actually read this, then I definitely am watching too much Disney and probably need medication.

Anyway, the major events of the day have gone off without a hitch. They are both taking good naps, sleeping well at night and eating great at mealtime. I have managed to have them fed and dressed by the time the babysitter gets to the house (which was 7:00 this morning … ouch!), and neither of them are walking around with boogers in their noses or food all over their faces. This is a win in my book. More than anything, I have a renewed appreciation for Gina and how much of a rockstar she really is. I mean, last year when I was traveling all over the country for conferences and job interviews, she gladly took on the parenting responsibilities by herself. And this was while she was finishing her dissertation. Parenting is hard work, parenting twins is even trickier and parenting twins alone is exhausting. There is nothing like a glimpse of the “big picture” to see how blessed I really am.

Yesterday we had a birthday party for Sam and Nate, and it was a pretty big hit for everyone that came. The boys have made some good friends since we moved here, and they were all able to make it to the party. As you can see from our invitation, the theme was a Cowboy party. The boys have cowboy hats they got from Uncle Clay and Aunt Gail, and we bought them some cowboy boots on our trip to Texas over Thanksgiving. So, all the conditions seemed right for a Cowboy Birthday Roundup.

We were able to find some great Western decorations for the party, including a saloon-style swinging door decoration, which the kids loved running through. I also brought the boys’ rocking horse in from the garage and let everyone take turns riding the bucking bronco. On more than occasion a child snuck off to get  a solo ride on the horse without any other kids around (Sam did this 2-3 times).

Once again, Gina hit a homerun with the cakes. You may remember, she made two football players for their Super Bowl birthday party last year, and this year she continued with the Cowboy theme. And trust me, the cakes were every bit as delicious as they look.

Other activities included decorating a personalized cowboy hat, making a horse puppet with a yarn mane, eating snacks and participating in a good ole’ country sing-along (led by me, of course). Every one had a great time, though I can say I would love to do it again, I don’t even want to think about the boys’ 3rd birthday. I am still letting this moment sink in.

There are a lot more pictures of the party, which you can find here. Toward the end of the party, I did feel a little sadness as I thought about the party last year and how excited Big Mama was to get all the details. I even made her a DVD of the party, which I think she watched over and over. I will really miss not being able to tell her about the boys and all the milestones in their lives. Being a native Texan, she would have really gotten a kick out of this one.

Here is another collection of Big Mama’s voicemails.

 Big Mama Voicemail 2: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On Monday our family experienced a great loss when my grandmother, who we called Big Mama, passed away. She died peacefully with my uncle in the room with her. For those of you who met my grandmother, you were quite unlikely to forget her. She was an amazing woman who absolutely loved people, especially children. She had an unbelievable ability for making children feel special.

Some of my best memories as a child are on the farm. It was a magical place for children, with plenty of places to explore, a ton of scrap wood to build things with and plenty of fast toys like a motor scooter and a go-cart. My cousin Amy and I used to have so much fun playing together at Big Mama’s house, taking turns on the go-cart and eating all the candy, soda and ice cream we could handle. If you follow my sister’s blog, she has already covered most of this.

One thing that could not be denied about Big Mama was that she LOVED to talk! She would strike up conversations with just about anyone, and when we got together as a family, she always had plenty to say. And she didn’t have to be in person to talk, either. She routinely called us about once a week or more, and always loved hearing from her, even if it was for just a few minutes. So, what happened if we happened to not be home? Well, she would just leave a message as if we were having a conversation (she usually did most of the talking anyway). Gina and I got the idea a couple of years ago to record some of her voicemails. Well, Big Mama didn’t disappoint and gave us several good ones, which I have posted below.

 Big Mama Voicemail 1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download