October 29, 2000 - Sunday
Harry inherited several stuffed animals from his mother's childhood and combined with the ones that he's received as gifts, like the bear from his Aunt Jane (brown bear in both pictures) and the Panda from his faux Uncle Tom, he has quite a collection now. And, he seems to enjoy them, somehow thinking they're funny as well as fun to squeeze. Since his reaction to the cat is similar, though he's never been quick enough to squeeze the cat, I often wonder whether he thinks these stuffed animals are alive in some way. When he was younger and couldn't easily see the human hand manipulating their movement, I might have thought so, but I'd bet the trick is growing old. On the other hand, he still has fun with them.

Some of his old daycare friends came to visit the new house and Harry had a chance to share his stuffed animals. There's a boy, Colin, who's two years older than Harry, with a younger sister named Eleanor who's about 6 months Harry's senior, and they both often offered a glimpse into our future with Harry. A couple of years ago, Colin seemed like a normal baby boy, but produced more noise than I was used to as a childless person. Today, Harry's volume is likely similar to that of Colin a couple of years ago, but it's a regular part of our days and seems quite normal. Two years from now, Harry will probably still seem quite normal to us, but I bet the outward level will have changed. Today, we saw Colin acting like a normal kid, even a well-behaved and conscientious one, but he was louder and moved faster than Harry. It's what we signed up for, isn't it?


Comments, opinions?