Trey’s favorite toys right now are Legos. Combine that with Star Wars and you’ve got something he can hardly contain himself over. He got quite a few Lego sets at Christmas and they were by far his favorite gifts.

Our friends Dr. & Mrs. Davis sent him a Christmas card with $10 in it and he had $5 he had already saved over the last couple months. I had a Barnes & Noble coupon for $10 off so I took him there and he bought a big $25 Star Wars Lego set he’d been eyeing for some time (and that I had previously said was out of our price range).

We came home and I helped him put it together. Then next morning, before we headed off on a 6-hour road trip he had me dismantle it all. He spent four hours of the trip putting it together on his own in the back seat.

Forget buying a car TV for my kid! I just hand him an pile of Lego bricks and he’s content for hours!

Their teacher ended with a devotional where each kid pulled a figure from a nativity set and talked about its role in the Christmas story. It was neat to see how the kids enjoyed having their turn in the spotlight and how seriously they took the task. Nice touch.

I stayed off it for a few days and went easy on it for two weeks. It was getting better and I thought I was on the road to recovery. One evening we walked down to the lake and on the way back it started hurting again. Something was tearing inside with each step and it got to where I couldn’t even walk anymore.

The next day I when to OrthoGA’s urgent care and had it checked out. Probably a torn meniscus was the diagnosis. The next day I had an MRI done and it was confirmed. A pretty bad tear too.

The menisci are ’semi-lunar’ cartilages that help disperse your body weight when you are moving. Since they are cartilage in the joint, they receive little blood flow and as a result don’t heal very well on their own (if at all). So my only real option was to have surgery to remove the piece that had torn almost completely off.

Yesterday I had the procedure done and it went well. It was my first ever surgical procedure and I had it done at Heidi’s own surgery center (she wasn’t allowed in the OR – and I don’t think she wanted to be in there). I’ve got about 4-6 weeks of rehab but I should be back to 95-99% in a couple months.

Here’s Trey designing the face for the pumpkin before I carved it.

Heidi was on call at work all day & night so he recorded this message for her about his pumpkin when we got home.

We bought him a loft bed from IKEA and it is perfect for a young, climbing adventurer like Trey.

Though he’s well on his way to becoming a “big boy” we still smile and are reminded of how much he still needs to learn each time he talks about how much he loves his new “loaf bed.”

Using Craig’s List, I found a family near Macon selling some of their laying hens. Trey and I picked up six – two 15-month-old hens, two 5-month-old hens, and two 2-month-old hens.

We decided to keep things low-budget, so we built their coop under our back deck. Our backyard is fenced in and during the daytime we let them roam around the yard and scratch for bugs.

Trey has enjoyed them thoroughly and named the youngest ones Gobin, Bobin, Sobin, and Nogin. I named the two older ones Lucy & Ethel.

So far only Lucy is giving us a daily egg, but man is it a delicious one! Trey enjoys having an egg for breakfast about every other morning now.

I tried taking a photo through the googles to emulate the 3D look, but it didn’t work. You’ll just have to drive to Georgia to see it with your own two eyeballs.

There were nine kids at the party, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it certainly was! Three of the four boys he had invited weren’t able to come (two due to chicken pox!) so there were a lot of girls present for his Spiderman-themed party.

Heidi and my mom organized some little games to entertain the kids and then they smashed a Spidey piñata. For dinner we had fajitas and after that a Spiderman cake.

Here’s a two minute highlight reel followed by some photos.

It took some work to explain to Trey the concept of extinct species and fossil records, but once he saw the giant tusk fossils he was won over.

He finally seemed to understand the difference between herbivore and carnivore as he saw saber tooth cat fangs and mammoth molars side by side. He also began to grasp the concept of how fossils are created.

Most surprising to me was his interest in the art gallery portion of the museum. Normally he wants to rush through that area in order to see the more interactive and permanent exhibits. This time he took his time with me as we looked through the Andrew Jackson Lyndon III collection on display. Of most interest were a William Segal painting that had an uncanny resemblance to Uncle Kenny in his “Yellow Cowboy” outfit and an original Pablo Picasso drawing that featured a naked devil holding a horse and sword fighting two other men in the nude. Should I be concerned that he was so fascinated by the latter?

It was wonderful explaining to Trey what exactly the moon rock was and how we (U.S.A!) had obtained it decades ago. He actually got to touch it (as did I) and as cheesy as it sounds, it was pretty stinkin’ awesome.

Oh, and even the local Abilene newspaper had a little write-up mentioning us!

PS. Listen closely for the constant buzz of the ever present magicicadas!

One of our vacation surprises for Trey was letting him break open an old box of Playmobile toys that I played with as a child. He loved the collection of soldiers and Indians from 1974 and played with it pretty much our entire week of vacation.

As a special treat, I drove a bit off course on our way to Tennessee and took Trey to the Lego Outlet store northeast of Atlanta. It was totally worth it. We spent a little over an hour in there but could have stayed all day. He loved the section of the store where there was a giant bin of legos for him to play with to his heart’s content.

Instead of buying a themed set (Star Wars, Harry Potter, pirates, ninjas, etc…) I payed $15 to fill a giant cup at the “Pick a Brick” section.  I also ended up buying him a Lego Star Wars t-shirt. It was one of those wonderful parenting moments. The way his eyes lit up and the enthusiasm in his voice when I pull the shirt off the rack and asked “Would you like me to get you this t-shirt?” was priceless. He hugged me and let out a loud “Sank you, Daddy!”At that moment he had my heart and I would have bought him everything in the store had he just asked.

It’s a perfectly harmless little slithery reptile so we brought it in the house for Trey to see. It’s also hanging around for a couple photoshoots (who doesn’t need a snake handy for some pictures). We’ll release it by our compost pile out back tomorrow where it can hit the all-you-can-eat buffet of earthworms.

“Can you read it, Daddy?” he asked.

“Rooz? That’s not a word,” I replied.

“Yes it is. It says /rōz/” he pronounced.

“Oh! ROSE, like the flower.”

“No, rose, because Jesus rose!”

The children were entertained with various “activity stations” and then everyone ate their picnic lunches. Trey mooched a prepackaged “lunchables” off some friends. Maybe he’s tired of Daddy’s HFCSFOPB&LSAFJonWGB sandwiches (high-fructrose corn syrup free, organic peanut butter and low sugar, all-fruit jam on 100% whole grain bread).

After lunch, the kids gathered for an Easter story and some song singing while the adults hid the myriad of Easter eggs. When it came time to hunt for the eggs there were so many that they just littered the ground. Trey was more concerned with the challenge of the hunt and would walk by dozens in search of the more elusive ones.

“You can eat it?” he asked suspiciously.

We head out tonight and won’t be back until next Sunday. We’re also planning to swing through Columbia, South Carolina to spend some time in Congaree National Park.

Here’s a video we made at Amelia Island the last time we were there:

Trey’s Nana and Pappy got to spend lots of with Trey in the evenings while I was at the show and brought him to the exhibit a couple times. We really appreciate them helping out so that I could take part in the festival!

Macon recently restored its historic Terminal Station. Trey and I dropped by to check it out one afternoon.

We met up with our friends the Crosby and Wilsons and let the kids enjoy some rides together. Trey opted out of the fire department’s “house on fire simulator” but really enjoyed a little train ride with Mommy.

Here are some photos – the one of Trey and his “best buddy” Causey holding hands even made it into the paper!

Here are his spoils:

Bruce and Jane, the owners, have a daughter name Suri who is Trey’s age. When she isn’t in school, she is usually hanging out at the restaurant. She is always thrilled to see Trey and invites him to her playroom in the back.

Last year, we invited Suri to Trey’s 4th birthday party and they recently returned the favor and invited us to Suri’s 5th birthday this past Sunday. It turned out that Suri and her father share the same birthday and even birth time – so it was a double party. We assumed it would be a typical sing, eat cake, and open presents event – boy were we wrong!  The family had us join them for a feast of Vietnamese fried chicken, crawfish, sweet & sour beef stew, bubble tea, and more… oh, and of course birthday cake.

Being a Sunday afternoon, business in the restaurant was slow and the kids had a great time running around the place playing together. Heidi and I also enjoyed getting to know Bruce, Jane, and their friends and family even better.

All in all, a wonderful party! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SURI!

He recently had to sit in time out at school for not listening to his teacher and I heard about it. He had been pushing a book back and forth with another kid and they ignored her instructions to stop. When we got home he lost his pre-nap playtime and had to write an apology note for her. Here’s what he came up with.

The drawing shows her telling him to obey and him saying “Yes” and putting the book up. Notice the elbows and knees in his people drawings – he seems to put a lot of emphasis on those joints of late.

The great news is that his eye is completely healed and the accident doesn’t seem to have affected his vision at all.

I’ve got to give props to Dr. Clayton Smith at Brown’s Eye Center in Macon for not only his expertise, but his concern for Trey’s well being. After the initial emergency visit (for which he stayed after hours without a single complaint), he had Trey come back numerous times in the days and weeks that followed so that he could check up on his progress.

I must admit, I was a bit skeptical at first thinking it was a scheme to get us back in the door and back in our wallets (I was burnt by a sleazy Florida optometrist a few years ago and still haven’t recovered). The truth was that he was genuinely concerned about my son’s vision. He never charged us a dime for all the follow-up visits, when he very rightfully could have.

Best of all, his interaction with Trey was great and he really got Trey relaxed and comfortable. Even on the day of the accident he had Trey laughing and enjoying himself. Trey was actually excited each time I told him we had to go to the eye doctor again.

So a big thank you from Heidi and me to Brown’s Eye Center in Macon for the great service they provided us. Here’s a little note from Trey:

Today, Trey had a terrible accident – he was playing with bungee cords he had tied to a tree. He was stretching one when it slipped from his hands and the cord hit him directly in the eye and with great force. It left him screaming in pain and caused serious trauma to his right eye.

Where was I when this happened? 4 feet away, around the corner, under my house trying to fix a busted pipe that had been spraying boiling water from our water heater.

The optometrist diagnosed him with traumatic iritis (inflammation of the iris or colored part of the eye) with hyphema. Basically his eyeball took a serious blow, the epithelium (outer layer) was ripped off, and the internal chambers of his eye have filled with blood. Tomorrow we go to an ophthalmologist for a more in-depth examination.

It’s very tempting to beat myself up over this. Why wasn’t I watching him? Why did I let him play with the bungee cords? But I’ve actually been waiting for this moment. In fact, I was convinced it would happen on our road trip out west (remember my road trip accident in 2004?). At age 4, I broke my arm and wore a sling for months. At age 2, Heidi drank cleaning solution and then drove her parents’ car into the road while her mom was on the phone with Poison Control.

Accidents happen and we can thank God that He has foreseen them all and made kids so resilient. We can also find reassurance that He has also foreseen a way for us to get through them and the trauma & drama that they cause. Thanks God!

Trey passed a lot of the time wearing a Batman mask and watching a collection of 1940s Superman cartoons that we found. Due to his recent superhero obsession, my parents let him open a Christmas present that was a new Batman-themed hoodie – something he promptly put on to accompany his mask. I told him it was a “Thanksgiving present” and he was supposed to be thankful for it – he was.

My grandparents’ mental and physical health is degrading rapidly – they are, after all, both over 90 years old. Trey doesn’t really notice at his age but it is a fact that is tough on the rest of the family.

I’m always happy to photograph Trey interacting with his great-grandparents so that years and decades down the road he’ll have some reminders of his time with them. I was also glad to do a photo session with my own parents on the family farm. It’s about time that they get some professional photos of themselves!

The kids all had a blast and of course there was the cuteness factor of those picking their noses, spacing out, or constantly waving at their parents.

Gobble, Gobble (lyrics)

Whisky Frisky (lyrics)

Below are some photos of Trey having a blast and you can head over to our church web site to see more photos that I took of the fun.

Trey’s teachers were nice enough to organize a folder for us with all of his daily lesson worksheets for the next 7 weeks! So every day we’ll be able to keep him practicing drawing his letters and recognizing the sounds they make.

Thanks a ton Miss Laura & Miss Jessica!

Today while relieving myself in the wee hours of the morning (pun intended), I spotted a scorpion hanging above me with 6 babies on its back. That doubles our count and puts us up to 14 on the annual count. So much for the decreasing population.

One thing that we learned this year is that these wood scorpions don’t pack too much of a sting. I grew up in West Africa with the terrifying emperor scorpions – those suckers looked like lobsters. The region also had some smaller species that had incredibly strong venom – a sting from one of those would pack a whoppin’ 24 hours of excruciating pain.

How did we learn that our Georgia scorpions aren’t so bad? No, not from UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences article on ”The Scorpion Myth” (I didn’t trust that).

One got in our bed and stung Heidi while we were sleeping. It pricked her on the knuckle and it was painful but she says it was no worse than a wasp sting. Nonetheless, I don’t want to see any more hanging over me in the bathroom.

http://www.tbcmacon.com/2010/08/12/sunday-school-is-cool/

He also interrupted at one point to steal Casey from her boyfriend as they were walking along holding hands. “Let go of his hand,” he said as he took her hand in his own.