I just got back from my mom's for a week because my brother, his wife and his two kids were visiting. My niece is now 4 years old and my nephew is 15 months. They are adorable! Being around such young children really makes me think about what excited me as a kid and how I couldn't understand how these adults didn't like the things I liked because what I liked is the most awesome thing ever. For example, I remember saying to myself when I was like 8 that I could never see a time when I didn't want a toy for Christmas. Clothes and practical things were boring. Why did my mom get excited when she opened her new coffeemaker? It wasn't a new Cabbage Patch Kid so it wasn't awesome.
Abby and Brady were obsessed with the park. Dothan has this new park that is made for all kids but especially for handicapped children. It is wheelchair accessible and has soft rubber ground so the kids won't get hurt. I have never seen this before and think it's brilliant. You should have seen their faces light up. We went everyday. Abby also got so excited playing with Alli. She couldn't get enough of throwing the ball to her.
Perhaps my favorite part was taking Abby to see Gnomeo and Juliet. I haven't seen a kid movie in the theater in at least a decade and a half so it really took me back. It was a real cute movie, but Abby was even cuter. She was so elated to get some candy and a soda and we had to sit in the front row. My niece is extremely tiny for her age(my nephew, on the other hand, eats more than I do at 29!) so she almost couldn't sit in a chair by herself because she didn't have enough weight. But her face was priceless. I love being an aunt!!!
It was so refreshing having some pure kid time. It makes me think about my own kids someday and what will make them happy. I hope they hold onto those Cabbage Patch Kid days in lieu of coffeemakers and the practicality of adulthood for as long as they can.
On a side note: I finished the second Dragon Tattoo book. It was better than the first and I got the third book. I will take a break from it, but I will eventually read it and do a post on the whole trilogy. Happy reading!
I have a twin sister. We are not identical or fraternal, but half-identical. Not going into too much biology, but instead of having one egg, fertilized by one sperm and then a split like in identical twins, and unlike two separate eggs and separate sperm like in fraternal, our situation occurred that one egg split and then was fertilized by two separate sperm. Basically, we share the share DNA from our mother but different from our father, as opposed to both or neither as in the other cases.
I have never really thought about the schematics until recently when I read this book Identical Strangers written by twins that were separated and adopted by different families unknowingly and were reunited later in life in their thirties.
I couldn't imagine what my life would be like without Aileen, or what it would be like meeting her for the first time at age 35. We are so different yet so similar. She is quite honestly the only person in this world that I feel I can be completely blunt with. I don't know why this is, but it is. I don't understand some of her choices and sometimes I wonder if we would ever be friends if we weren't sisters, but at the same time I have these urges to be with her sometimes and I have this overwhelming sense of missing her. I can't explain it.
It was interesting to read about these women noticing their similiarities and differences and grappling with the huge idea of identity and nature vs. nuture while trying to find their birth mother. It makes me feel lucky to have spent my whole life with Aileen.
Many people have asked me what it's like to be a twin. I usually tell them I don't know what life would be like not being one. But if I am in the mood to talk about it more, I usually tell them it's both a blessing and a curse. I don't enjoy always being compared to her both physically and emotionally and I didn't like having to share things sometimes, especially as a young child (i.e. birthday presents, milestones in our lives). But I have cherished the fact that I always had someone to talk to at night before going to sleep, someone to eat lunch with on the first day of school in a new city, and someone to play with when my friends couldn't come over.
But what struck me as the biggest blessing after reading about how these twins missed out on their childhood together, is that Aileen was there with me through all of it. She is the person's whose life is closest to my experiences. She is the only one who can commiserate with me the time I had a 105 temperature and didn't tell my parents because I wanted to swim, the time we petted what was most likely a rabid racoon at my grandfather's house in Florida, how it felt to be on my own for the first time in North Carolina and many other events. On my wedding day, my sister wept behind me as my maid of honor as I said my vows. I asked her later what made her cry. She said it was because she realized all the emotions I went throught to get there and how much I wanted this to happen in my life ever since I was a little girl. It made me cry at how grateful I was to have her beside me.
And though we are so different in so many ways in that I can't explain away through simply just genetics or environment, I believe it is because we grew up together and share some of the same genes that we will always share something in common...we will always love each other intensely forever.
I was named after my great-grandmother. That's my mother's mother's mother. I'm Mary Welby, my mom and grandmother are Janet Welby and my great-grandmother was Mary Welby Baker. I hear that I am so much like her and I like to believe it. My mom likes to tell me about the summer she spent with her in her house in Florida toward the end of her life. There were lots of grandkids and my mom felt blessed to have some time with her after my mom had spent time abroad in South America. I like to imagine what their time together was like.
I never met her. But my mom did find a picture of her with my great-grandfather Orville(it seems to me that all men at the turn of the century were named Orville..now, not so much) on their wedding day. She gave it to me at one of my bridal showers. It's on my bookshelf, I look at from time to time. She seemed like an awesome lady and I think I did resemble her for sure.
Anyway, since I am getting in the recipe mood since naturally now I am a housewife and I am nesting, I asked my mother for her banana bread recipe. Man it is serious good stuff!!!! It was so good when I was growing up that I would eat a piece and then lick my fingers when I was done. THAT'S GOOD!!!
My mom wrote me an e-mail with the recipe and mentioned to me that it was Mary Welby's recipe. It makes me happy that I loved it like she loved it. Michael was sure that he would not think it was the best ever because he knows what's best but he agreed that it was finger-lickin' good. Gumbo even gave his approval...it was on the counter and he jumped up and licked what was remaining, though Michael and I had no more after that:)
It's neat how you can have a connection to people you have never met through stories and food and traditions. I definitely feel I know her a little better. Maybe if I am blessed to have a daughter she will get the recipe. In honor of the tradition, I'm going to pass it along right now. Let me know what you think!
BANANA BREAD
(this recipe is not to be taken strictly and can be with whatever is handy)
INGREDIENTS
½ cup shortening, 1 stick margarine or 1 stick butter
1 cup sugar (brown, white or raw)
2 eggs
5 bananas (extremely ripe) mashed
2 cups flour (sifted) (bleached or unbleached)
1 tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Baking soda
1 ½ tsp. Vanilla
2/3 cup chopped nuts (optional) pecans, walnuts, almonds or whatever kind
2 quart loaf pan
METHOD
You need two mixing bowls. The smaller should be used for preparing the dry ingredients and the larger one for assembling the batter. First, in the larger bowl let the shortening, butter or margarine get soft naturally. Do not microwave. When soft add the sugar and cream well. Add the eggs and beat. Add the mashed bananas and mix. Add vanilla. In the other bowl combine the flour that has been sifted, the salt, and the baking soda. Mix dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and stir thoroughly. Add nuts. Place the mixture in the loaf pan and bake in a 300 to 325 degree oven for at least one hour. Use a clean toothpick in the center of the loaf to determine how long to bake. Toothpick should come out clean and not with dough on it. It is important to use a lower temperature and longer cook time if you want a moist loaf. I usually had to bake it longer than one hour but ovens vary so check it. Take the loaf from the oven and set it out to cool. You need to leave it for at least one hour. Remove from loaf pan and keep in refrigerator till serving. It slices better if it is left for one day before cutting but it can be served the same day.
This song makes me cry everytime I hear it. It is so beautiful and emotional. I may be a sap but I don't care...
This is also reminds me of a concert I went with my sister when I first moved to North Carolina when the Chicks played with the Indigo Girls and Ben Folds. Aileen wanted to see Ben and I wanted to see the Chicks. It was rainy and at Verizon so it was outside and we were late because we got off work late but we bought ponchos at the amphitheatre and we sat out there in the cold and rain and watched them perform and at popcorn and laughed and it was FANTASTIC. I love my sister and that is one of my fond memories with her...
The Dixie Chicks just rock. I need to see them in concert again :)
