Middle East Feast, Swimming Pool, Clapping

Last Friday Henry stayed home rather than going to his grandparents for the day. Grandpa came over in the morning and I took the day off. He had a visit from a temporary coordinator for the Department of Developmental Disabilities. His usual coordinator, Tara, is out because she has cancer in her tongue. It seems it is a very treatable form of cancer, and she is expected back in a few weeks.

In Tara's absence, Elsa will be working with him. Elsa is from Guatemala and has a degree in psychology. She has a very thick accent. She adored Henry. She thought he was very cute and especially liked his eyes and long eyelashes. She picked up on his fascination with books. We talked for about 40 minutes. She was getting a background on Henry and trying to understand what his needs are and what Tara was doing for him. Since there are no major current issues, the meeting was pretty quick.

On Saturday Henry and I went down to the U to meet Kate for a lunch break. She is teaching a condensed summer course and Saturday was their final exam. We went to a Middle Eastern restaurant named Sinbad's. Henry had a great time sampling the cuisine. He had hummus, babaganoush (sp?), dolmas, and lentil soup. He liked everything, especially the dolmas. Dolmas are grape leaves, stuffed with a rice type substance. I don't like them at all. It was all we could do to keep Henry from biting off massive chunks. I guess he didn't get my taste buds. When I was growing up I was very picky. I liked tomato soup, grilled cheese, hot dogs, and mac and cheese and that was about it. I don't think I'd ever heard of dolmas until after college.

We then spent some more time by the turtle pond. I brought a blanket, and Kate and I laid down, and Henry had fun crawling over us. It was rather hot so we didn't spend too much time there, but it was nice in the shade on the grass.

In the afternoon we dropped him by his grandparents for a while. His aunt Erin stopped by, and he had fun trying to grab her nose and eat the crucifix she was wearing.

At some point in the day, I think it was the morning, he clapped for the first time. He has made the some motions before but this time there as a definite clapping sound. He recognizes the word clap and will do it most times that you say it.

Today, Sunday, he spent the morning at home. He had a good breakfast that included pieces of banana, bagel, and hash browns. He really has made a lot of progress in eating foods with texture.

In the afternoon we headed to the grandparents house. We inflated his little floating inner tube and took him in the pool. He didn't seem to know what to make of the fact that his feet were not touching the ground. He wasn't exactly enthralled with the experience so after a little while he got out.

He was able to see his Great Aunt Gloria who is in town from DC for a few days. She brought him a very cute outfit that has a shirt that says "Someone at the CIA loves me" and has matching camo shorts. Gloria has worked at the CIA for 29 years.

He also saw Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Chris who just returned from a long road trip driving back from Pullman, Washington via a circuitous route that took them through Montana and Yellowstone.

We had to install a new car seat because his old one is too short. This one may spell the end for our Honda Element. It is rear facing and the doors to the element are clamshell and open the opposite of most other cars. This makes it very difficult to access the rear facing child seat.