A World without the Baggage of Stereotypes

On Friday afternoon, Henry had his PT appointment with Shirley. When I arrived, Shirley, Jeff, and Henry were in the living room, throwing objects into a laundry basket. Henry was getting quite good at his throw.

In the late afternoon, I took Henry and the dogs to visit Nick and Janice's horses, but then our dumb dogs decided to chase down a coyote who was hanging out in the road. I ended up yelling after them. They ignored me, so I had to run back to the house with Henry, drop him off with Jeff, hop in the car, and go looking for Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dee. Luckily, a neighbor pointed me in the right direction when I came to the T in the road. The Tweedles were just hanging out 30 yards away. I got them in the car. Another neighbor came by with his dogs. Apparently, there was a whole pack of coyotes in the area. Most likely, the coyote that the Tweedles were following was bait to lure the dogs into an ambush. Very fortunate that didn't happen. Got the dogs back to the house, put on the leashes, and set out with them, Henry, and Jeff to check out the newly graded road. The road is definitely smoother, but they made it wider than we would have liked. We liked our narrow, quaint road.

In the evening, Henry had noodles and banana-plum baby food for dinner. Henry ate the noodles with gusto. When I gave him a second helping, however, he decided to clean his tray by flinging them around the room, much to the Tweedles' delight. Jeff gave him some chicken. He could not quite manage stabbing it with his fork, so he'd pop the chicken in his mouth with his hand, and then put the fork in his mouth to symbolize what he was supposed to do. It was very cute. I decided to give him his container of banana-plum, so that he could practice with his spoon. He would dip the spoon in it so that it was lightly covered, and then suck the contents off the spoon. He's done little spoon work on his own, so I was rather impressed with his ability to use it. At one point, he decided to add some noodles to the banana-plum. Didn't try to stop him. Figured that if it tasted awful to him, he'd spit it out. Jeff put him into his crib around 8PM and then headed off to Trader Joe's for goat's milk. Henry woke up shortly after Jeff left. He settled down quickly when I put him in his king-sized bed.

This morning (Saturday), Henry got up around 7:30AM or so. He had a long snooze. Wonder if he is going through another growth spurt. Jeff got out the backpack that Henry rides in and put it in the living room. As Henry, Jeff, and I sat in the living room while Henry was drinking his bot, Henry walked over to the backpack and said "backpack." I was again impressed. I don't recall either of us trying to teach him that word.

We went to Cafe Paraiso this morning. We believe that Henry said the word "pancake," which was what he was eating. He said it unprompted by us. He also ate potato, egg, and avocado. Plus, one of the fellows who works in the kitchen came out and gave him a peanut butter cookie, which he enjoyed. We then walked around the grassy hills around the Arizona Museum and Communication Building. At one point, he decided to try to walk up the steps that are on the outside of the Communication Building. He did a great job walking up and down hills. He certainly burned off a lot of calories. Around 11:30AM, we arrived at the grandparents' house. Henry was sleeping. We put him in their king-sized bed, hoping that he'd take a longer nap than he usually does if he is in a crib. My mom reported that he slept about two hours.

Jeff and I decided to go to the movies. As we left our car in the mall parking lot, three male idiots in a car made a bunch of racket and appeared to be trying to open the back door of our Honda. We heard them. Jeff ran back to the car. They made up a lame excuse and drove away. We got their license plate number and reported them to mall security. That made us late for the movie, so we ended up seeing "Pride & Glory." Did some work around the house and then picked up Henry at 5:30PM. He'd at a big lunch at 2PM. He helped my parents in the yard. Apparently, he likes to sweep up things with the broom.

We decided to take Henry to the mall for dinner. I checked out the RSV statistics for the state on the web before we went (see http://www.azdhs.gov/phs/oids/epi/flu/az_flu_surv.htm). Only one case was reported last week. Two cases the week before that. And two cases the week before that. In short, the season hasn't gotten too far underway. Henry had a great time playing in the children's area at the mall. He attracted the attention of a little girl (about 6 years old, I suspect). She took a liking to him and tried to catch him when he slid down the various slides.

At one point, Henry walked right up to a rather large, burly fellow with a ponytail in his late thirties who was covered in tattoos and said "Hi" and waved to him. I'll be honest. Upon looking at this fellow, my first thought was that I wouldn't want to run into him in a dark alley. It occurred to me that Henry sees people but he doesn't evaluate them with stereotypical assumptions. It is a lovely thing to see the world through the eyes of a child. He is just as likely to say "Hi" to the homeless fellow at the courtyard where we eat breakfast on the weeks as he is to say "Hi" to a pretty little girl. He smiles just as readily at senior citizens as he does to the young waiters and waitresses at restaurants. He certainly gives people a looking over, but he doesn't yet have a bunch of stereotypical baggage to use to create an understanding of who the person is before having met them.

The play area at the mall was quite crowded. Henry had a lot of fun. Afterward, we went to the Food Court. Henry is an American boy who had cheese pizza, fries, and gyro for dinner. He rejected mandarin orange. He ate a lot of food. And, he actually gave us the time we needed to eat our food as well.

Unfortunately, tonight's excursion was our last trip to the mall this season. It is with heavy hearts that we have to go back under quarantine but we know that RSV is likely to rise in the near future, and Henry can't be caught in its path. It is tempting to pretend that we need not worry about Henry's health anymore than any other parent of a 15 month old. But the reality is that Henry, although he looks fabulous on the outside, has some issues on the inside that we need to mind.

Here are some renditions of the differences between premature infant and full term baby lungs that remind us why we have to be particularly careful until he's about 2 years old:

Retrieved 11/8/08 from, http://www.preemiecare.org/LungsTrees03-4.pdf











Retrieved 11/8/08 from, http://www.synagis.com/hcp/sub/premature.aspx














Unfortunately, lungs don't grow as well outside the womb as they do inside it. It takes years to make up outside of the of the womb for the months lost in the womb.

We have decided that we won't be quite as strict as last year about having people over to the house. Assuming people are not sick, we may have them over. Everyone will have to do the proper hand washing beforehand, of course.