June 14, 2005 - Tuesday
We'll be going on our first family car vacation in a few weeks and this afternoon I took the boys up to Best Buy to get a portable DVD player for the car. Harry didn't want to go at first. "Stores are boring," he said, reviving a annoying phrase that I hadn't heard since last fall.
I spelled it out for Harry: "Harry, we're going on a long trip in a few weeks and you're going to have to sit in the car for a long time, longer than going to New York. If you just want to sit there, that's fine. I was going to get this DVD player so you could watch movies in the car instead of just sit there. It's not for me it's for you and to get it we have to go to a boring store. Do you want to get it or not?"
Jeremy was all for it from the start. "I want the DVD player."
Harry begrudgingly acquiesced, but I think he was crabby because he was tired and still trying to recover from the lost sleep over the weekend. He fell asleep in the car on the way and was even crabbier when we woke up. I gave him a little leeway, but eventually said something like, "Harry, you're being nasty and I don't like it. You're being nasty and pushy to Jeremy and that's no good and you need to stop."
"OK," he said in his whiniest voice.

I think the best one can hope for from something like that is for silence and that's how Harry reacted at first. But, amazingly, before too long Harry was running and smiling and being overtly nice. That kind of recovery is pretty difficult for anyone and Harry pulled it off. He's really quite a wonderful boy.

Here's another moment that's been stuck in been in my mind. About a month ago or so when I was particularly taken by how conscientious he was being I kind of pulled him aside, we happened to be in the upstairs bathroom and Jeremy had just gone into his room, and I said "Harry, when was the last time I told you that I think you're a really good kid?"
"I don't now," he said, straight faced, but fighting off an emotion-revealing smile.
"Well, I think you're a really good kid."
He smiled a little more and said OK or something and walked toward Jeremy's room. Then, over his shoulder he said, "you just said it."
"What's that, Harry?"
"You just said it right then, that I'm a really good kid," he replied with kind of a jump in his step as he walked into the room.
"Thanks right, Harry."

I told him again this evening, too.


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