4th of July

We had a bar-b-que at your great grandparents house on the 4th of July. This was an exciting day because it was the day that you would meet your Grandma P and many of your cousins.




Evan, this is my absolute favorite picture of you from this summer! It pretty much sums up who we found out you are--a social butterfly! You are the friendliest baby I know:) You love people and you love to wave hello. And your smile? That smile warms your mama's heart something serious. Your cousin Jameriah is holding you. She was a big help that day!

This is your Grandma P! Can't you tell how excited she was to hold you two? :)

Of course your grandmother spoiled you!

This is your Aunt Angie. We went to visit Aunt Angie a dew days after this picture was taken and she actually watched the two of you for us. It was the first time your Mommy and Daddy could totally relax because we knew you were okay. We knew that you were with Angie and if you were with Angie you were in good hands.

Ryan, you are a bit more cautious than your brother but you enjoyed your folks as well. This is you and your cousin Priscilla.

So your great-grandparents' house is not baby-proofed and it didn't take you two long to figure this out! Your favorite thing to do was go in and out of cabinets and pull things out. Good Lord you two were busy! You probably heard the word NO no less than 25,000 times! We figured out a solution for keeping you out of the cabinets, but you always managed to find something else to get into!

Road Trip!

Dear Ryan & Evan,

You recently completed your very first road trip! We traveled 18 hours from our home to Connecticut to the home that Mommy grew up in in Tuskegee, Alabama. Daddy and Mommy were so proud of you! You made it through this long ride like champs. We made frequent stops along the way, we watched LOTS of Yo Gabba Gabba, and Mommy sang lots of silly songs. The plan was to drive about 9 hours and then stop for the evening. We tentatively had plans to stop in Troutville, Virgina to give all of us a break from the car. And guess what? Our plan worked!
In this picture the two of you are in Maryland at Waffle House. You were awake after a long nap and you guys were hungry!

Once we made it to Troutville, we stopped and had dinner. You both had a blast playing in the unbaby-proofed hotel room! It was quite a feat for Mommy and Daddy to keep you two out of trouble and danger. You wanted to get into everything! And poor Badger; you nearly worried him to death! Here you two are right before bed. I mean, right before we thought you were going to bed:)

Southern Living

I lived in Alabama most of my life. I never appreciated the charm of the South until I no longer lived there. Now I understand that the South is an alluring place. There's something about southern living that makes me more calm and at ease. There's a laziness about it. People move slower and talk slower. People aren't as self-centered as I have found some people in other parts of the country to be. People don't mind sitting and chatting for a spell. People speak to each other; make eye contact with one another and somebody always smiles. If you go anywhere in the South I'll bet you'll hear a mother teaching her children to say yes ma'am and no sir. If a mama calls her child and that child is crazy enough to reply, "What?" you'll hear what it sounds like to have a southern lady get on to said child. People who are absolute strangers will offer their food to you if they are eating something and you're not. You'll hear the standard, "Have some?" Of course you say no, but everyone knows that it's proper to make the offer. A southern lady can say "Bless your heart" and use it as a term of endearment or an insult. Hey, people are polite even when they're being mean! A southern gentleman will see you with an arm full of babies and wait for your food to be ready so he can bring you your tray. He's already eaten and was actually leaving, but that doesn't matter to him. You'll smile and say, "Thank you so much!" and he'll reply, "Yes, Ma'am. Y'all have a nice day." You don't know him and he doesn't know you. You understand that this is how he was raised. You don't get offended that he called you ma'am even though you're young and spry! You were raised this way too and you get it. A man you have never seen before will notice that you drive the same car as his wife and stop you to have a five minute conversation. You'll find out that he bought a cargo carrier like yours but couldn't get it to work and then he'll tell you about the transmission work he had to have done. Next you'll chat about going to Tuskegee University. At the very end of this conversation you'll find out his name! You won't mind, even though you were really supposed to be pumping gas so you can get back home to your children. After all, you're in the South. You're at home. This is who you are and this is what you do. It immediately comes back to you, no matter how long you've been away.

This is the foundation we want to establish for Ryan and Evan, our native New Englanders.


This is a part of who they are because this is a part of who we are.

This is why we hitched up the SUV, packed it to capacity, grabbed the dog, two babies, and the Yo Gabba Gabba dvds and took an 18 hour car ride. Yep, 18 hours. In the car. With a dog. And two babies. We weren't in any hurry; we didn't have to be anywhere at any particular time so we took our time. Ryan and Evan did surprisingly very well on the drive down. It was tough on them the last stretch of the drive, though. By the time we made it to Atlanta they were over being in the car seats and wanted out! The solution to our problem? A stop in Super Walmart! I tell ya, I miss me some Super Walmart. We don't have those here, and people don't know what they're missing! We made it to my grandparents' house in Tuskegee on Saturday July 3. I'm going to recap our time down south in a series of posts in letter form to Ryan and Evan. I want to "speak" directly to them since this trip was about so much more than visiting. There are life lessons to be learned one day. Lessons I want to teach our boys about good 'ole southern values.

Wow! What a vacation!! We finally made it home and let me tell you--it feels good to be back. We have lots to share and post so we can document our first family vacation. The Peas had an absolute blast with all of their family and it seems as if my sweet babies are trying to grow up on me. They are fast asleep right now and I'll bet that they are glad to be home too. Vacation recap is coming soon.

We made it ya'll!

Eat!

There's a party in my tummy! So yummy, so yummy!

Try it; you'll like it! Try it; you're gonna like it!

These are some of the lyrics to two songs from Yo Gabba Gabba that I used to sing like a madwoman to Evan to get him to eat. Ryan has always been a hearty eater, but not Evan. Evan was transitioned to Neocate from breast milk before he was discharged from the hospital because of a suspected milk allergy. He eventually passed a milk challenge and it was determined that he is not allergic to milk. I never thought he was allergic, but a real-life Dougie Howser child prodigy at Yale was convinced that he did. She put him on neocate and I didn't push the issue--my mistake.

If you know nothing about Neocate know this: it is the nastiest formula every known! It is nasty...as in gross and disgusting. I know this because in a moment of desperation I tasted it. YUCK! I never liked the fact that Ev was on it. Eventually, it became harder and harder to get Evan to drink this stuff. I told the doctor, but he said that Ev didn't know the difference. Uhhh, sorry sir but you don't know my child! Ev got to the point right before his party where he flat out would not drink it. He just wouldn't do it. It used to help if I waited until he was falling asleep and then he'd take it. Nope! That stopped working too. At one time he wouldn't have much to do with solids either. This put me in panic mode, as you can imagine, and I started obsessing over what and how much Evan ate. Thus began my stint as a singer/entertainer/magician because I tried everything to get Evan to eat.

Finally, I just gave him one of Ryan's bottles. I didn't know what else to do. And guess what? He drank it--willingly. No singing, dancing, or other methods of me making a fool of myself were required. He drank that bottle and he hasn't stopped eating since! Evan eats everything now! Well, I should say everything except baby food. He wants table food only! He literally will eat all of your food if you keep giving it to him. He'll attack over scrambled eggs, pry a piece of chicken from your hands, and seriously hurt you for a honey bun! It is amazing. Evan likes Haitian food, Spanish food, and of course soul food. Collard greens? Yep, loves 'em. Peas and beans? He tears those up too. Lord only knows how much this child will eat once we get down South! It's like he's a new baby. Sometimes he even eats more than his brother! I say eat on, Evan, eat on! :)

On Sunday my Line Sister, Quionna, and her family drove over to Connecticut for a visit. They live in San Diego but were in the city visiting Quionna's in-laws. It was the first time that I had a chance to meet baby girl M! Have you ever seen anything as precious as this little baby! M is such a sweet and calm little girl. And that hair?! Lord, Qui is gonna have so much hair to comb pretty soon! :) We had a great time catching up and we had a tasty lunch at an old southern favorite---Cracker Barrel! I know, we are SO high class:) What can I say, you can take the girl out of the South but you can't take the South out of the girl! Quionna is from Georgia, and she'll be headed down this week as will we. We were talking about all our fav restaurants from home that we'll have to visit while we're back, and Quionna mentioned how much she missed CB. We just happen to have one a few miles from where we live so that's where we went. The Peas were on their best behavior and got lots of attention as always. Twins are people magnets, I tell ya! It was so great to see Quionna, as we last saw each other over three years ago for out 10 year anniversary. We couldn't believe that we used to go to college together, pledged AKA together, and now here we are wives and mothers. Where does the time go?

We will be headed home this week and I can't tell you how happy we are about it! Sure I live and work in CT, but Alabama is still home:) I've been busy getting the boys all packed up, mapping out our route, and making arrangements with my girlfriends! HA:) This will be the first time many of our family members will meet the boys and we super excited to introduce them to everyone. I'll try my best to blog as often as I can, 'cause there will be lots of picture taking, and lots that I'll want the boys to know about our first family vacation.