Cue the Nostalgia

We're preparing to depart from Memphis in just about 2 weeks! Predictably, I'm getting all sentimental about what we'll leave behind...

Sounds
Memphis, the home of the blues. The birthplace of rock 'n' roll. The city's got a great vibe!

• WEVL, our local volunteer radio station. They place a huge variety of music, from bluegrass to swing to trippy electronica. I especially like their old-timey gospel music show on Sunday AM.
• The music at church (not just the choir, lol) - so many talented musicians play there!
• Cicadas, nature's buzzing harmonicas
• Thunderstorms, although my kids are starting to be scared of thunder so perhaps that's not a super sad one to bid farewell

Sights
To be honest, I've had to adjust my field of vision living here - I've never spent so long in a place that's so flat! When we first came here and I'd be driving on a overpass, I'd look around to see the mountains. But there are none. It's different, but I got used to it eventually. Here are some views I'll miss:

• The mighty Mississippi River flowing under wide bridges
• Crepe myrtle trees blooming for months on end
• The huge leafy trees in my neighborhood, especially as they change colors in the fall

Tastes
Everything. All the food. Seriously, Southern cuisine is the best ever! I hope that some Southern transplants to CA have restaurants where I can fill my cravings for turnip greens, smoked meats, fried okra, banana pudding, etc etc etc

Smells
The scents of tasty food fill our neighborhood, such as:

• The smoke from Corkys BBQ as you drive down Poplar. Smoked meat should be one of Memphis's official scents :)
• The aroma of Gibson's Donuts wafting over to the Kroger parking lot 

Touch?
I'm not sure I have anything specific for this last sense that I'll actually miss. I'm just fine with leaving behind the sticky summers, where you feel the sweat pool on your skin after a few minutes outside...

Oh, I know I'll miss the feeling of hugging our Memphis friends! Does that count?

"You'll Just Know"

I was chatting with a friend who's expecting her first child. I told her one of the most confusing parts of being a parent is that things are always changing. And, when you ask people for advice about how to deal with these changes, they say, "Oh, you'll just know!"

Guess what? You won't. Not always.

Ok, perhaps there are some parents out there who used to work in daycares, or had a bunch of younger siblings/cousins, or babysat all the time, or have infant ESP. Maybe those people intuitively know what their babies need. But this mom? I was (am) flying by the seat of my pants most of the time.

(Also, I think some of the "you'll just know" crowd are ladies who are now grandmothers and who've forgotten what daily life with little ones is really like...)

Take sleeping, for instance. Since a newborn sleeps a lot, it's important to know what works best for your baby. Let me emphasize the extent to which I DID NOT KNOW what I was doing on the sleep front. Why? A) I was sleep deprived myself. B) There were two babies. C) They kept changing what they wanted. D) There is no consensus in the "sleep expert" community. E) Every baby is different.

So what did we do? We experimented. We tried various sleep locations - swing, bouncer, pack-n-play, crib. We swaddled in blankets. We swaddled in velcro sleep sacks. We bought blackout curtains and a white noise machine for the nursery. We used different types of pacifiers. We rocked them to sleep. We let them cry (a little). We drove them around in the van.

Eventually, through trial and error, we found some methods to get our kids to sleep that were effective. Yay! But then we had to deal with nap transitions. That's another area where people love to tell you, "you'll just know when it's time." Uh, negatory, good buddy! Here's my thought process.

Hmm, Gus took about 20 minutes to fall asleep. That's a long time. I wonder if I need to move his nap back a bit? Meanwhile, Gibson fell right to sleep, but he woke up 30 minutes before his brother. So let's try pushing nap time a little later to see if we can get them to sync up. But I need them to be awake for at least 3 hours between naps, and then we're running into dinner time...hmm...

My powers of observation informed me there was a problem brewing, but my motherly intuition didn't immediately tell what to do. Instead, I formed a hypothesis about a solution which required further field testing. Ultimately, I suppose I learned that you can't really control your kids, even when they are infants. And although the craziness of multiple nap schedules makes you want to pull your hair out when you're going through it, that phase of life doesn't really last too long.

How did I arrive at that conclusion? I just know :)

Goodbye vs. See You Later

For a kid who spent the first 18 years of her life in the mid-Willamette valley, I sure have moved a lot in the subsequent 18(+) years. Here's a brief synopsis of where my moves have taken me: OR-WA-DC-WA-TN-soon to be CA. And there was also 1 college semester abroad in Costa Rica, if you want to count it :)

I've moved for school, for love, and for work (or more accurately, husband's job). Thanks to social media, I've been able to keep in touch with family and friends across the miles. And sometimes I've been fortunate enough to return for visits to places I've left behind. When I departed DC for Seattle, for instance, I had no idea that I'd be flying back to our nation's capital a mere 6 months later to attend a conference for my new job!

When we moved from Seattle to Memphis four years ago, I kept my same job; I just transitioned to working from home. Before we even loaded up our moving truck, I already had plane tickets purchased to fly back to SeaTac for two different exchange student events in the summer (and I managed to squeeze in some friend-visiting time, too!)

But what about our imminent departure from Memphis? Since we're moving for DF's job and I'm not currently working outside the home, we have no work ties to the Bluff City. We don't own any property here. We have made some wonderful friends, but we have no family in the area. All these different circumstances make me wonder, when will we be back to visit Memphis? The twisting paths of life can't always be predicted. We may pass through the mid-South again soon, or our road might go a different way. But hey, given my track record, maybe I'll get a job in Los Angeles that requires travel to Memphis or surrounding areas!

Thank You, Memphis!

As our time in Memphis comes to a close, I've been reflecting on all the kindnesses, big and small, we've been shown here.

I remember a few months back when our pastor said (in a sermon) that Southern Christians have to work even harder to show God's love to their neighbors because being nice is just the Southern way. I chuckled b/c I thought he was kidding. But based on comments I heard later on that day, I think my fellow parishioners agreed with his line of reasoning; they were pondering ways to go "above and beyond" expected neighborliness!

Here's a list of what I can recall that people in Memphis have done for us, just to be nice:

• Unloaded our moving truck and took us out for lunch
• Invited us to dinner and a movie after meeting us once
• Became friends with us even though we're total Yankees :)
• Picked me up from a medical procedure involving anesthesia when DF couldn't miss work
• Gave us rides when we only had one car, or carpooled just to be friendly
• Offered us free tickets to local events
• Invited us to numerous holiday celebrations in homes when we weren't able to be with family
• Packed our apartment when I was 6 months pregnant 
• Offered a "parents of twins" discount on rent
• Helped us move in the sticky summer heat
• Threw an elaborate baby shower that unexpectedly moved to a meeting room at the hospital b/c I was on bedrest at the time
• Visited me in the hospital 
• Brought us meals for months after the babies were born
• Gave the boys hand-me-down clothes
• Surprised us with black eyed peas for New Years
• Ran an extension cord to our freezer to keep the contents from melting when a branch fell on our power line
• Provided airport transportation
• Hid Easter eggs in the yard for our kids to find
• Babysat the kids for free
• Warmly welcomed my mother when she came for an extended visit - took her to lunch, connected her with a Sunday School class at church
• And many more!!!

Well, South, you've definitely got a good thing going here, and I hope y'all keep being as sweet as sweet tea to newcomers :)  It's going to be hard to say goodbye! I wonder if people in LA will be as friendly? Kind of doubt it...but I'll do what I can to keep spreading the love!

Beep beep

Public Service Announcement: children are little sponges who mimic their parents/care takers. "That's pretty common knowledge," you say. Yes, I'd heard it plenty myself. But we have a new development here that is really driving the point home.

I taught my kids to say "beep." It was fine at first. You know, like when you're playing with cars and trucks, and they drive around, they say "beep beep!" Well, without consciously thinking about it, I also say "beep beep" to the kids when I want them to them to move out of my way - when they're sitting in front of a cupboard I need to open, standing in the middle of a doorway I'm trying to walk through, etc.

So a few weeks ago, they started saying "beep beep beep beep beep!" to each other, me, Dad, and anyone else who is in their space. Gus lays down on a puzzle; Gibson pushes him while whining "beep beep!" I'm sitting on the couch and a kid wants my spot...a shrill series of "beep beep beep!" compels me to relocate. They "beeped" their grandparents and other relatives when we were visiting recently.

At first, it was cute and I cracked up about it. Then I realized that I've basically taught my children to say "beep" instead of any number of polite phrases we could have learned. Oh dear!

Now we're trying to backtrack. DF was playing trucks with them and had the truck say, "Excuse me! I'd like to drive through." I wonder if they can make the switch to "cooz" or something similar. Beep is so easy to say...

2 Years!

I'm a bit late in posting this two year milestone update, since we were traveling on the boys' actual birthday. So they get a little extra credit, I guess :)

Also, I've totally accepted the reality that this blog is my children's baby book. If I haven't started a physical book after two years, it's not gonna happen. If you, my adoring public, enjoy reading along, so much the better!

Here are some of Gus and Gibson's latest developments.

Physical/Motor Skills
Climbing is still a favorite pastime. I took the boys to a new park a couple weeks ago. Gibson made a beeline for a plastic rock climbing structure and was on the top of it before I knew what was happening. Meanwhile, Gus was slipping off a faux rock and I was trying to catch him while keeping an eye on Gibson as he went for a huge slide. We all survived! Man, they are adventurous.

They are getting taller and can open some doors. This is not my favorite development. Commence next-level babyproofing!

They can sort of play catch now. They've always enjoyed throwing. Now, they can even manage to catch a ball, sometimes.

They can't really dress themselves, but at times they do take off their sandals or socks. (To clarify: I mean on different days. We do not wears socks + sandals because we are not dorky northwesterners ;) ) If they work together, they can take off their pants, but luckily they don't do it very often. They can't get their own shirts over their huge noggins yet.

Eating/Drinking
We let them drink from regular cups once in awhile, when we're outside and it's just water. They can sort of handle it, but splashing in the open water is also very tempting.

Their favorite foods lately (and how they pronounce them) are chicken (bok-bok), blueberries (boo-bey), frozen banana slices (na-na), cookies (coo-ey), yogurt (go-guh), popsicles (pah-ih), applesauce (ah), potatoes (tay-oh), and orange juice (joos).

Talking
As you can tell from the previous paragraph, they've learned lots of new words lately! They have a tendency to add an extra consonant sound before words that start with a vowel, like "bapple" for apple and "Melmo" for Elmo. It's cute :)

Sleeping
We're in a solid one-nap routine here. They sleep 11-12 hours at night and 2-3 hours for their afternoon nap, usually. Nap time has been closer to 2 hours lately. If you must know, I am in denial about the fact that they'll ever reach a no-nap stage. Naps forever!

Favorite Things
Animals! They love all things animal-related. On our recent trip, we got a little book with animal pictures that the love "reading" by loudly making all the animal sounds. It's a chorus of, "meow!" "ooh-ahh!" "hop!" "squawk!" "neigh!" etc, etc, etc.

They're big fans of toys with wheels that they can drive, or pull around, or ride on.

Not Favorite Things
Gus is going through a "I hate baths" phase of life. It's unpleasant.

They're both getting picky about eating vegetables. For example, if a pea tries to sneak into their other food, they point at it, look grossed out, and say, "pea! pea!" until I extract the offensive legume... Sometimes they do eat peas, but not very often anymore.

Traveling with Twins: Airborne Again

The four of us took to the skies and headed west for a 2.5 week trip, visiting family and friends in Oregon. Compared to last year, this trip went much more smoothly! I wonder if it's because it's easier to travel with two year olds than babies, if we parents are more skilled at traveling with our kids, or if we really did just have an easier trip?

Flying
We flew to Oregon two days before the kids turned 2, so we didn't have to buy them seats. Score! They slept on the first (short) flight to Dallas, then stayed awake from DFW to Portland. We entertained them by feeding them snacks, playing with toys, sticking stickers on everything, walking up and down the aisle, and watching videos on our Kindles. Gus flung some applesauce on our nicely-dressed seat neighbor and Gibson got a big goose egg by conking his head on a seat. Those were the only incidents to report! No lost luggage, no creepy old ladies trying to get the kids to eat Cheerios out of her mouth, not too much screaming.

On the flights back home to Memphis, the boys got their own seats, since they'd had a birthday. We hauled their gigantic car seats with us through the airport. My luggage cart + bungee cord transport system didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped, but I think it was still better than trying to just free-hand carry them. And with their car seats on the plane, they boys did great! We flew through Denver, which meant we had two medium-length flights. Both kids napped for a bit on the first flight. Gus even slept through the really turbulent descent into Denver! (I, meanwhile, was awake and really not enjoying the bouncing...)

We had a THREE HOUR layover before our next flight. Sheesh! Not what I had originally booked - the flight schedule changed after I bought the tickets. The boys bounded up and down the moving walkways, and I attempted to hold onto their frog backpack leashes while they lunged in opposite directions. They pretended to talk on all of the pay phones/courtesy phones they could find. And, they found a display with about 300 flyers advertising United's credit card, which they threw on the floor and "swam" on top of. All of these antics seemed to amuse our fellow passengers during their layovers :)

DF found a yogurt parfait with blueberries, so that's what the boys ate for dinner. (Their lunch had been french fries...) Then we boarded the flight to Memphis and found out the seats had these handy little pockets we could rest the Kindles in so the boys could watch videos more easily. Score! And we saw some fireworks from the sky as we were making our landing.

Meeting New People
I don't think Gus or Gibson remember taking a trip last summer, so for them, it was pretty much like meeting a bunch of new people again. They did really well! They did seem to recognize their grandparents, aunt, and uncle from a family photo that we have at our house. But they were fairly flexible and friendly with lots of other people, too. Auntie Hipster threw a birthday party for them, and they had fun playing with the other kids who came. They even stayed in the nursery at my parents' church without too much of a fuss. They wouldn't sit on Great Grandma's lap for a photo, however...you can't win 'em all.

New Foods
They boys ate their first ice cream cones at Dairy Queen! They've had ice cream before, but not in a cone. They thought the cone was gross and spit out any little pieces they accidentally bit off, haha.

I think this was also their first time trying Jello. They like it! But it wasn't a good idea to feed Gibson red Jello when he was wearing a white shirt. Good thing Grandma has stain remover!

Beach Time
We stayed at the coast for a few days and it was so much better than last year, when the babies had hand-foot-mouth disease and spent most nights wailing. Plus they were not fans of sand. Oh dear, it wasn't very relaxing. This time, though, they were healthy (yay!) and excited to play on the beach (double yay!) Gus especially loved splashing in the ocean. They both liked digging in the sand, and no one tried to eat more than a mouthful.

Overall Pros (kid-related)

• Slept well
• Ate sufficiently
• Everyone stayed healthy
• Played on fun playgrounds
• Learned new words (chair, pumpernickel...)
• Good memories with family and friends

Overall Cons (kid-related)

• Gibson shattered a glass ball and startled everyone, including himself
• Tried to eat semi-toxic foxgloves
• Gus still hates bath time

I'd say the Pros outweigh the Cons! Guess this means we can take another trip someday :)