Sunday, September 14, 2008

Helicopter

Henry with all the items he now requires prior to going to sleep:
at least one helicopter toy and at least one helicopter book.


I am not sure when Henry's obsession with helicopters began, sometime after his birthday, I suppose. Whenever it began, it only increases in intensity every day - Henry is addicted, obsessed, over-excited, whatever adjective you choose - Henry loves helicopters!

We live near the flight path for the University and Primary Childrens helicopter transportation for patients. Every day now he begs to go outside where we wait for a helicopter to fly by. The fly near our home frequently, but nevertheless, it's a frustrating thing for Henry to stand outside, excitedly waiting for the sound which you can always hear before you see the helicopter. The sound which he always recognizes far before me, the sound of the helicopter flying overhead.

At the end of the movie "Cars" Mader rides in the blue Dinoco helicopter, one like Henry is holding in the above picture. The scene is probably 30 seconds long and if you wait a minute or two you get another 10 second clip of Mader riding in the helicopter. When we watch "Cars," that is what we watch, over, and over, and over.

Henry has a white board on an easel that he loves to draw on. That white board is never without at least one helicopter drawing on it, usually three or four because Henry insists on having someone help him draw helicopters.

Before bed, day and night, we read at least one book about helicopters (or with an airplane that has a rotor). Henry sleeps with at least one helicopter toy and at least one helicopter book. When he wakes up, he panics until we have recovered his helicopters from the blankets.

Finally, Henry can name several helicopter parts: main rotor (the twirly blades on top), tail rotor (the twirly blades on the tail), tail boom (the tail), the landing skids and the cockpit.

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