On Friday morning, Grandma picked up Henry and ran some errands with him. Alicia needed the day off for errands of her own. I had to go to school for a colloquium with one of my first professors in graduate school, Oscar Gandy, who is now living in Tucson. It was an intellectually stimulating talk. I didn't get home until 4PM. Jeff had already left to pick up Henry. Henry didn't sleep much at Grandma's.
On Saturday morning, we went to Ghini's for breakfast. Henry ate a lot of eggs, French toast, bread, and hash browns. Then, we visited the mall and took Henry to play in the children's play area.
I've noticed an alarming trend of parents on cell phones paying absolutely no attention to their children. It is really sad. One of our friends, Jenny, mentioned on her blog the other day that when taking her daughter to the playground, she and her husband ran into some kids who were quite desperate for attention. I guess that heightened my awareness to a little boy (about 5 or 6 years old) who was following Jeff, Henry, and me around. He desperately wanted to show Jeff and me how he could climb the various objects in the play area. His father (or caretaker) was in the play area (which is a large area) but was talking on his cell phone the entire time that we were there. I don't think he glanced at his son more than once while we were there. Someone could have easily walked off with this boy, and he wouldn't have noticed until much later. I tried to give this child some encouragement ("Oh what a good climber you are" etc.) when he said "Look at me, look at me," while simultaneously giving Henry my attention too. Henry had Jeff with him too of course. I left the play area discouraged at the world. There are a lot of parents (or caregivers) who ignore their kids and gab on their cell phones at the playground. Do the parents not realize that kids will internalize their neglect as the cell phone being more important to the parent than the child? Quality parent-child time doesn't mean spending time on your cell phone ignoring your kid. This particular case got to me because I could see how desperately that this kid needed adult reinforcement. In addition, cell phones are incredibly annoying. I dislike cell phones going off in movies or going off in my class (followed by the student shrugging "oops"). And I hate it when people shout into their cell phones in public places. If there is such a thing as appropriate cell phone etiquette, most people don't follow it.
Henry came home and had a nap with his Dada. It wasn't a long one. He then spent the afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa, while Dada played some golf and I stayed home cleaning cat stains from the carpets with our Spot Bot.
On Sunday morning, we took Henry to Joel's at the UofA. He had pancakes, eggs, and potatoes. He walked around the large courtyard and managed to fall in the mud. Jeff wasn't happy about that, but Henry didn't seem to mind. He smiled at the patrons of Joel's. He received lots of smiles in return. I strongly suspect that Henry is going to be quite the extrovert. He won't rush into strangers arms or anything like that. And he can sometimes be shy when approached by others. I believe the true mark of an extrovert vs. introvert can be found by asking the question: "Do you primarily feel rejuvenated by being around others, or do you primarily feel rejuvenated by having alone time?" Jeff and I are definitely introverts. Henry, however, seems to get refueled by being around other people.
We then sat near the turtle pond for awhile. Henry decided to walk around the grass, wearing his new Wall-E Crocs that we bought at the mall yesterday. They are very cute. We came home. Henry and I took a 2.5 hour nap. That was good for me because I didn't sleep well the night before. Then, Henry had a late lunch. Crawled around the kitchen floor while Jeff finished making my mom's birthday cake. He made everything from scratch, even the delicious butter rum frosting. We gave Henry a shower. Upon getting dressed by his Dada, he called out my name, hoping that I would stop Jeff from putting clothes on him. Whenever one of us does something that he doesn't like (e.g., changing his diaper, not letting him eat paper, or go into our offices), he calls out for the other parent. We had dinner with my parents, Erin, Brian, and Uncle Jim at Carrabas. It wasn't exactly a relaxing dinner for me and Jeff. Henry didn't want to eat and didn't want to stay in the high chair. So we rotated taking him outside, where he got mad when Jeff and I (on our respective shifts) wouldn't let him walk into the parking lot.
This week is going to be an interesting one. Henry has an OT appointment tomorrow with Cuyler at her new location. On Tuesday, Jeff is headed to Philly for the week, so I'll be on my own. I'm expecting it to be a somewhat chaotic week with me taking care of Henry, two dogs, and three cats (all of whom aren't exactly low maintenance creatures). That's all for now. Will load pictures and video later.
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