It seems like I don't really write about Henry enough anymore: how he is doing and what he is working on. As he grows older the issues have become not as huge and so I don't feel as driven to write about them. But of course, the issues are still there.

This year, for the first time, he is continuing in the same school with the same teacher and at least some of the same paras and therapists. So, although I'm not hearing much about some of his more troublesome behaviors (pinching, arguing/refusing to do work), I can't kid myself that they aren't still there. They just aren't news to these teachers anymore.

We had a teacher conference a couple weeks ago in which I tried to brag about how Henry had apologized to Thomas one day, unprompted. His teacher was like "yeeeaah... we actually try to get away from saying I'm sorry, because the kids will hurt one another and then just say they're sorry real fast and think everything's ok."

Oh, ok. Well, I still think it's a good thing at home. We can have different rules at home. They seem to have a lot more trouble with the pinching and scratching at school, with what they see as no provocation. Bill and I figure that there are just certain kids Henry has a beef with, and he'll grab them if he gets a chance. I don't mean to sound flippant about it, but there's really nothing we can do about it at home. It's just something they have to figure out in that environment.

One thing his teacher did ask us to work on at home, though, was addition facts. Ugh. I really dislike math. To this day I add on my fingers certain numbers that have just never registered in my tiny little blond brain. When you're pregnant and raising little kids, all you ever hear is read read read to your child. So that's what I've always done and it's been great. But now, my kid is 8 and can read just about everything by himself and, oh, it turns out there's some other stuff we're supposed to help him learn also. Dangit.

Henry's teacher asked us to work on flashcards at home. Because Henry has such a great memory, she assumed he would have no problem memorizing math problems. But I guess movie lines and movie release dates have a lot more meaning to Henry than 1+3 does, and the stuff is just not sticking.

About a week after she had asked us to do flashcards at home, Henry's teacher asked in the communication notebook how it was going. So that night I dug out the flashcards and started working with him. Ooops. Yes, teachers, I'm that mom. The one who has to be reminded a week later.

The first few times he counted on his fingers for every single flashcard. I tried a couple cards involving numbers higher than 5, and he was at a loss. Although I was a bit discouraged by this, now, a little more than a week later, he is getting much quicker and much more confident. So I think we will master this also. But we're only on addition. I am dreading multiplication!

We are still going strong with swimming lessons, horseback riding, and gymnastics. His confidence and strength are improving week by week.

The movies in heavy rotation lately are the Jungle Book and Cars. It's funny about Cars, because we bought it last November, when it first came out, but he never wanted to watch it until this summer. Henry got the soundtrack for his birthday, and loves to sing along with all the songs. He seems to really like "Our Town, illustrated by James Taylor" (In Henry's words!) So I'm hoping to turn him on to some other James Taylor tunes.

Henry also got the Cars game for his Leapster for his birthday. We got the Leapster for Christmas, in the hope that it would make some social situations easier (no one at a party thinks twice about the kid in the corner playing his video games), he'd enjoy it on car trips, and just to have him in the same room with us while playing games, rather than tucked away on the computer in the basement. He has never shown a ton of interest in the Leapster- the only game he really played much was a Dora animal-matching game.

He asked for the Dora game this weekend, and we couldn't find it (it probably went home with another cousin after vacation?), so he grudgingly half-looked at the Cars game as I tried to figure out how to play it. Of course, it quickly won him over and he played for hours this weekend, not even stopping to eat. Bill and I were laughing that we suggested playing a game as an alternative to watching movies, but then he got just as absorbed in the game, if not more so. Are we varying his interests, or narrowing them?

I could swear that I wrote this spring about the Return of the Jedi storytape. But I can't find the post. So- our library has a book on tape of Return of the Jedi that must be from 1985. Henry has borrowed it so many times, and each time another page falls out. It was out of circulation for several months with the notation "damaged" listed in the database. I searched for a copy to buy on the internet, but did not have any luck. Finally, one day when I again told Henry that it was "still damaged", he took matters into his own hands and asked the librarian!!!! She retrieved it from her back room and let him borrow it.

Fast forward a few months, and the boys and I walk into the library. All the librarians smile at us. Our first stop is the movie area, and as we're browsing in there, the librarian from the children's department taps me on the shoulder. "Aren't you the family that likes to borrow this?" she asks, holding up the Return of the Jedi book and tape. Oh, great, I think, she's going to make us pay for it because she's had to repair it so many times. I nod. "Well, I just can't keep it in circulation anymore" she explained, "it's too damaged. But I would just throw it away. Would you like to have it?"

So we brought the story tape home to keep!!!! If Henry hadn't asked the librarian, we would never have seen that treasured item again. Instead, we get to bring it home to live with us!