Father of the Year

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• A Fond Farewell

  Well, this will be my last blog on Babble.  I can't thank you all enough for caring enough to check in on the kids and me and to those of you who wrote comments, thank you so much for your sage advice.   I've enjoyed filling you in on our comings and goings (although sweet A was less thrilled about how much I like to share).  We're all doing so well together.  Our families are blending together very nicely.  Even little Chet is finally coming around (A made him his favorite vegetable, spinach, of all things, and he loved it.)    If you still want to check in on us you can reach me at treyellis.com.   And stay tuned for Bedtime Stories, the TV series coming from executive producer Chris Rock.    love,   Trey Posted Sep 24 2008, 06:15 PM by Trey with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: single parent dating, single father, dads

• The Beginning of the Beginning

  A huge week for us here. The kids, Ava and Chet finally came home!  I missed them terribly. I hadn't seen them in two weeks. They're sleeping now. I worked them to the bone and they start school in two days poor things.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.   A and I have been working at least twelve hours a day moving her stuff. Half of it goes to my place, the other half to Boston where she will be getting her Ph.D. in sociology three days a week. She'll be making the four hour drive twice a week to see us and to teach a college writing course.  I know it sounds nuts but if anybody can pull it off she can. She's amazing. Read More... Posted Aug 31 2008, 10:48 PM by Trey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: single parent dating, single father, blended families, moving

• My New Family

  I talk to my kids every day and saw them just last week but really, this month has been about getting to know M, A's amazing little girl.  I find myself calling her "Ava" by mistake sometimes because her antics so bring me back to how my now ten-year-old used to be when she was just two. Here she is jumping on the Dora bed that I made her.   .     Read More... Posted Aug 22 2008, 09:58 PM by Trey with | with 12 comment(s) Filed under: single parent dating, single father, dads, adoption

• Country Mouse/City Mouse

  I flew down from Manhattan to celebrate Chet's actual 7th birthday with him down in Social Circle, GA, where he and Ava spend the month of August with their grandparents, my ex's mom and step dad and their cousins.  My ex has also been living down there for the past two years, ever since I moved the kids to New York.  I come for two days at Christmas and this year three days in the summer.  These few days are  the only time that the kids have their entire family all in one place.  Two of the three cousins, pictured above, Athan and Jovan, are wonderful kids and probably Chet's best friends in the world.  Chet, especially, adores it down there and said many times that his dream is for us all to move down there and live all together in this huge log cabin in the middle of the woods...  Read More... Posted Aug 16 2008, 12:09 PM by Trey with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: birthdays, single parent dating, single father, georgia

• Surviving Birthdays and Packing Again

  It feels like I haven't had a moment's rest since coming back from Ethiopia.  Chet's party was the day after and then two days later I was driving Ava and three of her best friends to the Hamptons for a slumber party.  Ava'd been planning this for at least ten months, ever since I'd told her that my Uncle Billy was kind enough to allow us to use his beach house whenever we wanted.  I also hit him up to borrow his big Mercedes so the girls got chauffered out there in style.  It was Radio Disney on the radio and Nanny McPhee on the portable DVD player in the back for three hours.  A and her daughter M and Chet drove in A's car.  I was still a bit off balance, remembering that just a few days before I was watching donkeys pass through a traffic jam in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  If it weren't for A's help and M being the cute mascot to all the little girls I'd never have made it.  I was also still battling my GI tract.  It felt like a rabid family of ferrets were wrestling inside my stomach.  But Ava had a great time, the ice cream cake and the pizza and the beach were just perfect.  I hope she remembers it for years to come.   Now back in the city for a few days we have to pack tomorrow for two weeks in France.  I'm not thrilled with the idea of getting back on a plane but the kids have been looking forward to the trip for months... Read More... Posted Jul 01 2008, 10:44 PM by Trey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: birthdays, single parent dating, single father

• Back from Ethiopia

  I've been silent for a week but not out of laziness. I've been in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, helping them start up a film industry.   The kids' mom flew up from Atlanta to watch them.     Here is one of my favorite buildings in the bustling city of five million, a bar shaped like the space shutte.        Here is a typical street scene    Here's my favorite photo from the teff grain store of the "Former Women's Wood Carrying Collective."     And here's just outside:   Most of the rest of the city is more chaotic and urban.  I was just there a week but am already looking forward to coming back.   What I wasn't so much looking forward to was what's happening right now...   Read More... Posted Jun 27 2008, 11:49 AM by Trey with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: birthdays, single father