February 25, 2002 - Monday
Jeremy conveniently fell asleep shortly after his mother left for work this morning and so I was left to look after Harry, who conveniently wanted to play upstairs in his room and away from the living room where Jeremy was napping. The only problem was knowing when Jeremy would wake up. Harry had gone up the stairs on his own, which is not uncommon anymore, while I was lulling Jeremy to sleep with a bottle and a rub of the head. So, once Jeremy was out, I headed upstairs to check on Harry. He was happily moving his stuffed animals from his bed into his cabinet and then into the, for him, newly discovered closet. After five or ten minutes, I figured I ought to look in on Jeremy and encouraged Harry to come downstairs with me. He refused, preferring, he said, to "stay in Harry's room." Fair enough I said, "but I have to go downstairs," half expecting Harry to begrudgingly follow. He did not.

Jeremy was still comfortably sleeping and Harry was happily playing and I took a moment to check the morning news, fully expecting that Harry would realize that he was alone and come calling for me to come back up and play. He did not. So, I read the news and even did the crossword puzzle in the relative peace of the living room in a two-child household, disturbed only by Harry's continued "thumping and dumping." It had to be at least 20 minutes that Harry was up there by himself and that's a long time for him not looking for parental attention and interaction. On the other hand, he plays in his room daily, before and after his nap, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.


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