May 26, 2004 - Wednesday
When I got to Harry's school this afternoon I saw him sitting on the floor playing with Rip at a playhouse of some kind and I didn't think he saw me or Jeremy. I sat down beside and a little behind him and slowly wrapped my arms around him and gave him a hug. That's a typical scene in the afternoons, but although he often keeps playing he has usually seen me first, often because one of the kids (this happened all the time at the other school, too) will call out, "Harry, your dad's here," seemingly wanting to be the first to say it, to be the one who noticed, or to be the one with the information. Sometimes I'll surprise him like this, but Harry always acts very cool and almost never reveals any great surprise. He's just so coy. In fact, he'll usually deflect any surprise by calling my attention to what he's doing as if it's something extremely important. He did that today, too, but after a couple of minutes he said something that I found both surprisingly open and a little revealing about how aware he (kids his age) is of his surroundings. It seems to me that it's easy to think that kids this age are simply oblivious to everything around them outside what they are focused on. After all, they certainly can act that way when their parents are trying to get their attention. But today Harry said with a laugh, "I didn't know that was you at first. I thought it was one of the big kids and I was kind of wondering 'what's he doing there?'"

Not only was Harry indeed aware of his surroundings and that there was another person who just sat down close behind him, but, even with that knowledge, he still kept his cool and his coyness and didn't turn around or let on that it was a concern.


Comments, Opinions?