Trey Johnathan Braheem

He continues to show the most change of anyone in the family. Perhaps it’s the age of nine or the new surroundings, we’re not sure. One day Trey came home from school and announced that he wanted to run for Student Council. There are two 4th grade classes at the school and each has 19 students. Each class would elect one student as their representative on the council. Trey was to run against five other kids in his class and needed to write and practice a speech as to why he should be elected. The catch was that it was due the next morning! I immediately jumped out of my chair and said “Trey, dad’s pretty good at writing and giving speeches, I would be happy to help you!” We immediately dove into discussing what he would do if he were given the ability to make changes at the school. On his list were:

Raising money for poor people
Getting a new soccer net for one of the goals
A second tether ball court
Free dress day once a semester
A field trip to the water slides that we went to in August.

I explained to him that he needed to be different, that he couldn’t afford to go up there and just read a script like all the other kids were likely to due. I explained to him that the audience doesn’t know what he is supposed to say, so there is really no pressure and that he need only speak from the heart and use bullet points as his guide. I shared with him that the most important part of any presentation is the beginning and the end and that he needed to grab their attention at the beginning and leave them excited in the end. We spent a couple of hours writing and practicing the speech including the next morning and in the shower the night before! At the beginning of his speech Trey promised the boys in the class a new video game every morning of school and the girls fresh flowers each day! He then told them that in all seriousness that he would shave his head if he won! How’s that for a unique opening? :>)

Anna and I patiently waited for the kids to come home the next day to hear the news. We were prepared to pick him up if he lost and let him know that we were just proud that he tried. When I met him and Olivia at the end of the castle’s gravel driveway that afternoon he looked at me with a blank look. I said “Well what happened?” His response was simply: “I won”! Needless to say, Anna and I were extremely proud :>)

Trey has many projects that he has been working on in school including the in depth research of his selected endangered animal. He chose the Golden Lion Tamarin and now knows pretty much everything you need to know about this primate. The cool part about the project is that he had to develop a Power Point presentation and give it in front of the class following extensive research on the internet.

Each day he is responsible for reading for at least twenty minutes, an addiction has begun to develop with this assignment! He has been reading pretty much non stop for the last three weeks, setting gameboy, DVD’s and the like aside. Needless to say, Anna and I have no complaints and love his new found passion for reading. Currently he is reading a five hundred plus page book titled “The Dragon Rider." It's so funny to see him sitting at the dinner table at a nice restaurant reading a huge book! We never thought that the day would come!

Finally, Trey has suddenly grown in his appreciation of Italian fashion! Mom and Dad decided one day that we were tired of seeing him in the same old clothes from home and headed to “Zara” an exceptionally cool Spanish clothing store that has hip clothes for kids at very low prices. We loaded up on sweaters, corduroy sport coat, pants, button up dress shirts and new dress shoes. The result combined with the shaved head is a stylish little dude! Dad also took him watch shopping and we picked out a cool “ET” watch for him (see photo).

I have interviewed Trey regarding some of your pressing questions and a few others. Here are his responses:

Q1: Tell us how you feel about your kitty Iris:
Trey’s Answer: “She’s cute and also crazy. She acts like a puppy, she gets crazy when we throw a ball at her and licks like a puppy. She climbs up on the roof of the castle and chases bugs. She likes to sleep with mom and dad at night and wake them up a lot.”

Q2: What do you like about your new clothes?”
Trey’s Answer: “I like how they look and some of them feel good when I wear them.”

Q3: Why do you like to read?:
Trey’s Answer: “I only like to read good books. If I find a good book that I like, I like to read it because its fun to hear the story. If it’s a non picture book, I like to picture it in my mind.”

Q4: What do you like the most about Italy?:
Trey’s Answer: “Having Iris around and our home, how it has a tower. I like the food, especially the pizza, pasta, lasagna, squid ink. I like to travel around to really cool places like the Dolomites and Venice.”

Q5: What do you miss the most about home?:Trey’s Answer: Tasha and my friends. I really miss my grandmas and grandpas and aunts, uncles and cousins. I miss being able to just ride my bike to my friends house and meeting them in the park. I really miss baseball.”