Legos Anytime, All the Time

Last summer Shelley, along with her sister Natalie and nephew Matthew, took Andrew to Legoland in California. For Andrew it was the experience of a lifetime. For a kid that doesn't talk much, Andrew gets animated talking about all the lego creations and landscapes made out of legos he saw at Legoland.

Andrew spends hours in his room creating buildings, vehicles, and people from legos. He is protective of his lego creations. Perhaps that is because he doesn't want his room, which is orderly and organized, to look like his brother's room (shown below).

It will not come as a surprise that for Andrew's birthday, he wanted a lego-themed party. Shelley planned a birthday party around legos. She made chocolate legos to decorate cupcakes. She also organized several games, such as a contest to build the tallest tower, with the eight-year-olds boys who came to Andrew's birthday party.

At the American Community School, getting into the lego club is almost as tough as getting an invitation to a royal wedding. Andrew has been in the lego club at school the last two semesters. Since he has already far exceeded his lego-club term limit, Shelley found another way to get him in: he might have a better chance of being accepted if he were related to the Lego Club teacher. You can probably guess the rest of the story.

Hiking a Wadi at the Dead Sea

Last weekend we decided to get away from the cold, 65-degree weather in Amman and head for the warmer, 85-degree weather just 30 minutes away at the Dead Sea.

We drove down with the Stowe family who have three kids about the same ages as our kids. As we had planned, we headed out on a hike that started directly across the street from the Marriott - where we were staying the night. Luckily the guide book was specific enough that we knew to go right in the middle of a construction site to park our cars and start the hike.

The wadi we walked up had a stream of clear water going down it. Needless to say, the kids preferred to walk in the water most of the way and they threw rocks the entire hike.

It is hard to tell from the pictures below, but the geology of the place was impressive. There were all types of rock formations and different types of rocks.

We passed a young shepherd who was tending to a flock of a couple hundred goats.

Dentist Drama

Shelley took Andrew to a pediatric dentist a few days ago. The dentist she took him to has a very modern and impressive facility. However, they were sent to another medical facility to have x-rays taken of Andrew's teeth.

Despite already being an unnerving situation for Andrew, they were greeted by the below picture of a little girl in tears. Perhaps it was intended to portray another message, but for Andrew it was a bad omen.

Shelley and Andrew sat in the waiting room as they watched people enter and leave the x-ray room. Once it was their turn, they cautiously entered the x-ray room. To their surprise, they found an old lady veiled in a burka lying on the table. Apparently, she was taking her nap on the table as patients entered and exited the room. The x-ray technician and the other patients did not seem to be bothered by a mummy-like napping grandma on the table.

To make matters worse, prior to shooting the gamma rays, Shelley and the x-ray technician left the room leaving Andrew alone in the room with the napping grandma lying on the table next to him.

Thankfully Andrew finished the procedure without looking like the girl pictured in the frame.

The x-rays reveal that Andrew's permanent teeth will not be orderly coming in after his baby teeth. Time to start saving up for braces that will inevitably be needed.