Henry

Meet Henry:

We had guinea pig custody this past weekend. Henry belongs to StinkyMan's school and was he ever excited to bring Henry home.

We picked Henry up on Friday after a quick trip into Target, throughout which StinkyMan said "Mommy, now? Now can we go get Henry? Now?" By the time we got to school he could barely contain himself.

Miss Teacher took Henry's cage to the car while StinkyMan carried the backpack full of all things vital to guinea pig care like food and books about guinea pigs. Peanut sat next to Henry, which was surprisingly OK with StinkyMan. I guess he knows better than to get upset over the unchangeable position of car seats..

When we got home I told Peanut and StinkyMan that we would take our Target bags in first and then come back for Henry. StinkyMan said "I will stay in the car with Henry so he won't be lonely" and he did.

Once Henry was inside StinkyMan said "Henry you are staying with us for a little while" and he and Peanut rarely left the cage alone.

At one point I found him reading Henry a story (he read him two over the course of the weekend) and every morning he'd go to the cage and say "Good morning Henry" and every night he would turn off the lights in the room and say "Good night Henry. See you in the morning!" After we talked about not startling Henry, he would approach the cage and say "Hi Henry. It's just me, StinkyMan" in a really soft, sweet voice that really echoed my baby boy's compassionate heart.

Peanut, on the other hand, was not so delicate, yet in her own way utterly fascinated by Henry. The funniest thing was that she couldn't remember two things: 1) That Henry was a guinea pig. She would not stop calling him a cow. And 2) That his name was Henry. She called him Hermie. Hermie the cow. So all weekend long we'd hear "HI HERMIE! MOMMY I SAID HI TO THE COW! I SAID HI TO HERMIE!" Poor Hermie, er, Henry, probably had a heart attack or 2.

Today we took Henry back to school. The kids were sad to see him go, but StinkyMan bravely said "I will still see him" before confessing after school "I miss Henry." And Peanut just walked around saying "Hermie's gone. Hermie went to school. Mommy, Hermie went bye-bye in your car."

As for Henry, I imagine that, as I type this, he is sleeping in his little plastic purple house, enjoying the dark and currently quiet corner of the school and wondering where that nutty family he stayed with was keeping that poor cow named Hermie.