(Here I am at Thanksgiving dinner with my Henry.)

Henry is quickly settling back to normal. I have been pleasantly surprised because his teacher has been sick this week, and I would think that upheaval at school would lead to some distress, but I haven't seen it at home. This morning he did say "you miss Ms. H so much!" He said it totally independently- we weren't even talking about her at all.

Today they took a field trip to the "big main library" downtown and were going to have lunch at Bob Evans. Henry has been looking forward to it for weeks-I'll be interested to hear how that went.

This morning we had a minor achievement, for me and for Henry. I was bustling around in the kitchen, trying to make him and Tommy their frozen waffles and link sausage breakfast. Tommy asked for more banana. Normally I would have run in to the table to get it for him. I don't know what possessed me, but I asked Henry if he could please get the rest of Tommy's banana for him. Henry didn't bat an eye or say one word, he just grabbed the banana and handed it to Tommy. I had to ask him to peel it- he didn't realize that Tommy doesn't know how to do that, but Henry did not protest once. Actually, he got a little upset once I started praising him for being such a great helper and big brother. Sometimes it seems like he gets a little embarrassed when you praise him.

This was a big step for Henry, but also for me. I often overlook the opportunity to challenge Henry, either because it's easier/quicker to just do it myself, or because I'm not sure if he'll react positively or negatively.