On Saturday, Henry and Dada spent time together at home in the morning. Jeff had to work in the afternoon and evening. So he took Henry over to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandma and Henry picked me up at the airport around 8:45PM.
I miss Henry and Jeff like crazy when I'm away from them. Nevertheless, it was a packed, productive, and fun couple of days. Friday's Annenberg election debriefing with the Obama and McCain consulting teams was great. I ended up doing the moderating, which meant running around with a microphone. I also got a chance to spend some time (brief, but still time) with Patrick, Kathleen, and Bob Jamieson on Thursday night, Talia Stroud on Friday night, and Brenda, Paul, Austin, and Audrey Curtis on Saturday morning. Plus, I worked with Kathleen, Ken Winneg, and Bruce Hardy on Thursday and with Kathleen and Bruce on Saturday (late morning/early afternoon). Brenda and Paul drove me to the APPC after breakfast. The funniest part of the trip was Austin, age 4, insisting on taking my large suitcase from the hotel restaurant to the elevator and then to the front of the hotel. It was a goodly distance, especially for a person who is 3 feet tall. He was being polite and did manage to do most of it himself, which was impressive b/c the suitcase weighed about three times as much as he did (thank goodness for rollers). I was convinced that I was breaking some child labor laws, however, by letting him carry my stuff for me. I can't wait to take Henry to Philadelphia to meet people and show him the city sights.
When I got home on Saturday, Jeff said hello and then had to disappear into his office after a minute (literally). Computer crisis at work. Henry and I played before going to bed.
On Sunday morning, Henry wanted to look at pictures. I started taking him to two of my friends' blogs shortly before I left for Philly. I wanted different pictures to show him, and my friends post pictures of their children. Before I left, I showed him pictures of Izzy who is 3.5 weeks older than his adjusted age. He managed to call her what sounded like Id-Dee before I left. This morning, he had a request to see Id-Dee pictures. I called out to Jeff in my rather throaty voice (was coming down with laryngitis). Jeff came with the camera. Here's Henry looking at the Acorn Dreams blog...
He's getting better at pronouncing Izzy.
I also showed him pictures of Austin and Audrey. Austin is 4 and Audrey is 1 month old. We mainly looked at pictures of Austin. Henry was calling Austin "Aut." This morning, he managed to say "Au-ten," but I don't think that he has the word matching with pictures down quite yet.
He loves pictures, and he has really enjoyed looking at pictures of other children.
We went to Tohono Chul Park for breakfast today. We were the only ones seated in the courtyard, which was nice. There was a chill in the air outside, which accounts for the emptiness of the courtyard. What the other guests probably didn't know was that they had outdoor heaters over the tables, so we were warmer at the table than we are in our own home. Felt like 78 degrees or so. It was nice. Henry ate A LOT. He had half of my black beans (his favorite), scone (a decent amount of it), egg, and french toast. We offered him melon, but he rejected it. We walked around the garden of the restaurant. Henry was enamored with some orange cones that were being used to keep people from stepping in this one area. Henry started saying the word "cones," but I'm not going to officially add this one to the list quite yet. I suspect that he gets it, but is quite possible that he was just mimicking me, instead of really knowing the word. After Jeff paid the bill, he joined us in the garden. Henry showed him the cones. Jeff wondered aloud, "Are we holding him back?" as he and I are completely floored by how fast Henry picks up new words and ideas.
We then went to my parents' house. They weren't home yet. We went for a walk around the neighborhood with Indiana, their border collie. We let Henry walk on his own, which meant that it was a very slow walk as Henry had to check out the texture of the asphalt, look at the rocks, touch the palo verde trees, etc. I tried to explain how cacti hurt (ouch!) and how Mommy and Daddy don't touch the cacti (shaking my head no and trying to get him to do it too). Will his understanding of cacti last? Probably not. It is much easier to get him to do something than to "not" do something. It will be nice when the concept of a "negative" kicks in (e.g., "not" bonking one's head on the table, etc.).
Henry took at two hour nap at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He ate mashed potatoes, Yo-Baby, 1/2 a falafel, turkey, and pea crisps. Grandma said that he was very active. They returned him to our place around 7:15PM. We decided to skip dinner with them as I am still tired from the trip and had by this point completely lost my voice.
Jeff went to the store to get some goat's milk for Henry after the grandparents left. I watched Henry. The one problem was that with no voice, I couldn't say "no" when he went into my office repeatedly. When I clapped to get his attention, he thought I was being funny. I gave him a bath. His new thing today was using his hands to make my hands clap. He moved my hands back and forth. He is working on the word "clap." Unfortunately, it sounded more like "cock." Must be the age for this word or sounds close to it b/c other parents have recently mentioned hearing it from their children.
Words in Henry's vocabulary to add to the list...
* Marley. which was sounding like MA-Dee, now sounds like Mar-Dee.
* Indy...Indiana's nickname was said today.
* Roger...Grandma reported last night that she heard Henry say "Oger."
* Bird...Henry shouted this in the courtyard, and another patron turned to him and said, "Yes, that is the bird." Nice when someone outside the family understands what he's saying. A bit unexpected.
* Hoop...Henry was dunking baskets last night and said "hoop" as he put the ball in the hoop.
* Bitsy...Henry started saying Bitsy tonight, and he follows it with Boo a couple seconds later.
I think that he is also trying to say "Jackson." It came out tonight as "Act-Un." I'll wait before adding it to the list though.
That's all for now. Jeff's feeding Henry his nighttime bot.
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