Learning.

Some days I feel like I'm not teaching Henry enough. Don't get me wrong, he gets smarter every day, but on his own terms. I realize that at 17 months there's not much formal teaching that can occur, but I believe that with some guidance he will pick up on simple lessons that are important for him to learn. The current tasks are:

1. Say "please". We've been stressing this for two days. He said it once tonight, "plees," really quite and high pitched. For the most part, however, it goes like this: Henry points at something he wants. Response: say "please. Henry, say, "please". Crying. Henry, "please". Pulling on me and pointing. "Please" & then I quit and give him what he wants. Soon. He will say please everytime.

My neighbor has a son who says please when he wants something. He was being babysat recently and didn't want to be babysat anymore. So, he spent 45 minutes standing by his coat saying please. How sad.

2. Point to his ear. He's got his nose down. He can do his eye, but usually won't. He really seems to like his ears though. Since we started practicing this one he has started grabbing both ears when I ask where they are. It's cute.

3. Clean up toys. This one is impossible. First, it begins with that annoying clean up song, "Clean up, clean up everybody everywhere, clean up, clean up everybody do your share," because he responds to it. It continues through a partial clean up straight to throwing all the cleaned up items back on the floor. Then I clean them up while he naps. Just great!

4. 1 - 2 - 3. I originally thought this would be the hardest, but perhaps not. After just one day he's started pointing his index finger when I say one. Hopefully it'll catch on. We're teaching him this through games. One, two, three and then something exciting happens. Or, we show him items, one shoe, two shoes, three shoes. Do something, one kiss, two kisses, three kisses. And, pointing fingers. He responds to all of them and hopefully will begin to understand 1 -2 - 3.

As a side note, Henry gets to start going to nursery in one month. Hopefully, it'll stick. I think the structure to nursery will be a shock for Henry - usually he makes the rules.