July 25, 2001 - Wednesday
I picked up the guitar this evening and sat down on the couch where Harry and his mother were playing. Actually, she wasn't playing as much as trying to get Harry to relax from the frustration of the pillows (an odd, but inevitable outcome to the pillow game) and I, thinking about Harry's big moment Monday, started playing "Just the Way You Look Tonight." It takes about 30 seconds to finish the first verse, which has six separate mini phrases, and the whole time I was looking at Harry wondering if he would reprise his singing debut for his mother.

Harry was sitting on the couch with his mother there kind of in front of him at the end of the sofa, and he stayed fairly still as I played, but I couldn't tell what he was thinking about: the music or the pillows. Yet, when I finally reached the end of that first verse, Harry sang out "tonight" again in two distinct notes, the first higher than the second and close enough to pitch to be thrillingly beautiful. This time, it was with even greater confidence than Monday and his mother let out a veritable shriek of excitement and approval. Harry had delivered on cue. Of course, with the exuberant response from both his mother and me, Harry went on to sing "tonight" several more times in a row as I played through the chords that ordinarily go with other words in the second verse. But, that was OK, because I was too giddy to sing the right words anyway.


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