12:12am, January 7th, 1998.

The most anticipated moment of my life, after 10 months of pregnancy and 17 hours of labor, my son was born. The tiniest, most intense, most amazing blue eyes I’ve ever seen met mine and we quietly regarded each other while the world kept spinning. Doctors, nurses, family members came and went, and we were oblivious, watching each other. He gripped my finger like his life depended on it. My breath and his synced for a moment, and I’m sure our hearts did, too.

My world changed forever. “Welcome to the world, Dru,” I whispered.

Today, he is eleven years old. The most amazing, whirlwind, exciting eleven years of my life, and I thank the gods every moment of every day for this kid. He’s my best friend, my sweet baby, my not-so-wee-anymore little man, my rapidly-growing-up son.

Happy birthday, Dru. May all your days be filled with light, may every pain bring a lesson, may every step take you where you want to go.

This year for Yule, we gave our son Dru a fun quest to complete. Y’all can join in the fun remotely. (:

The quest began when we handed Dru this piece of paper:

At first, he didn’t know that it was a clue, but when we told him we weren’t giving him anything else for Yule (it was technically true, because he was going to find them himself) he figured out that this clue referred to the game “Ticket to Ride” on our game shelf.

Inside Ticket to Ride he found an action figure of Hercules (he’s into Greek mythology) and his next clue:

He noodled for some time about what this could mean. “Nemean Lion crossing? Aegean Boar crossing? Hydra crossing? Dragon crossing?” but then he figured it out! “Unicorn crossing!” he said, and went outside to investigate the sign outside the front door of our apartment!

An action figure of the Cyclops was hanging from the lower nail. He grabbed the Cyclops but couldn’t figure out where the next clue was. After a bit of looking and searching, he pulled the sign off the fence find the following clue taped to the reverse side:

“The rats!” shouted Dru. He remembered the names of Kyeli’s new rats: Suki and Hikari. Love and light. So we all tromped upstairs to the rat cage! Hanging on the cage was… the key to our car.

Dru took the key, said, “The car?”, and we all went outside to the car. He unlocked it and found on the steering wheel an action figure of the Minotaur and a big sign saying:

So he put the key in the ignition, started the car, and…

Hold on a sec. This bit requires a bit of backstory. In September, we wrote and recorded a little song for Havi. It was a song about milk. (scroll down or search for “milk”).

Ever since September, Dru will occasionally randomly start singing the milk song. It’s so cool to hear our son sing “Selmaaaaa the duck…” while he’s in the shower. (: So that’s your backstory. Now back to today!

Dru started the car, and… this song came on.

After thinking about it for a few seconds, he shouted, “The fridge!” and we all ran back inside and we followed him into the kitchen. He opened up the fridge, and what did he find behind the soy milk? An action figure of Poseidon and the final clue:

We forgot that it had been so long since the last time we’d been geocaching that he wouldn’t immediately recognize a pair of coordinates. We gave him a slight hint by showing him a map of the world with longitude and latitude marked on it.

He figured it out, so we went geocaching! Dru entered the coordinates into our GPS and we got in the car. I drove while Dru sat in the passenger seat telling me which way to turn. Eventually we got close and Dru told me where to park. We parked there, got out, and walked across the street to the nearby woods. After a few minutes of bushwhacking through the trees and brush, Dru reached the final destination of his quest: a big gift-wrapped box filled with all sorts of goodies! Inside the box was an action figure of Zeus, the new Percy Jackson and the Olympians book, the Time Turner from Harry Potter, Glory of the Roman Empire, and a check.

Here are all the action figures of the Greek gods and other beings of myth, arranged heroically:

It was a nice haul and a fun adventure — for Dru and for all of us. (: