Dear Henry

Last night I took home this really cool truck we have here at work. I wanted to surprise Jack with it. I pulled up in front of the house and got Jack to come out and look. He said it was the "neatest thing ever." Mom and Joe came out and we all drove it around to the alley to park.



I planned on taking Jack to school in the XM truck. I knew he would really like that. Jack's reaction to it took me back to when I had a similar experience when I was your and Jack's age. One day my Grandpa Nat, you never knew him, showed up at our house in a Red Cross emergency vehicle with the lights flashing and the siren blaring. He drove that all the way from Brooklyn, New York to our house in Bethesda, Maryland. He was a Red Cross volunteer. I thought that truck was the neatest thing ever.

What didn't register in my brain last night was that Jack has no school today. Tonight is Rosh Hashanah. So at 9 pm last night Jack and I took a ride to drop the truck back at XM. Jack brought along the Michael Jordan Space Jam DVD. He was really excited about the DVD player that dropped down from the ceiling. When we got to my office we sat together in the backseat watching the movie. All that was missing was popcorn. After a while we went in to the building in search of pens. Jack found a nice purple XM pen for Mom and grabbed a gold color one for himself. Jack explained that he chose gold because your favorite colors were silver and gold. When I was a little boy, Pop Pop Teddy would bring home these black ballpoint pens from his work that said "U.S. Government" or something like that on them. I really loved those pens. Not sure why; but I did. I am psyched that pens from dad's office are a big deal for Jack just like they were a real treat for me. You loved pens, too. We have great light up ones. I bet I would have been on the moon if Pop Pop Teddy ever came home with a pen that lit up.

When we made our way to my part of the office Jack checked out two big photos of you that I have sitting on my desk. He said he liked them a lot. There is one of you when your were 3 or 4 years old before the transplant. You are wearing a Batman costume. The other is of you when you were 5 years old. Norman took it at the beach. You are wearing a Batman shirt. In the "before" transplant picture you are smiling and adorable. In the "after" picture you look beat up and intense. Jack looked at the pictures and said, "You know, Henry was very brave." I made sure to point out to Jack the photo of him and Mom that I have on my desk.

Jack talked a lot about you with me last night. That felt good. I wonder why he is more open. I did notice something interesting the other day. Jack and I had special "Jack and Dad" time together. I wanted to ride bikes in Rock Creek Park, but we ended up going to his favorite place, the zoo. When we got there he reached out and grabbed my hand to hold. I realized he did this because he was so happy. I am glad we didn't ride bikes. Lately, he has been really good about saying he loves me and holding hands and all that kind of stuff. I know I don't have much time left before he gets too old for that. I am soaking it all in while I can.

After we finished our XM pen scavanger hunt we went downstairs to the studios. Jack went "on air" on the Absolutely Mindy show on XMKiDs. He shared with Mindy and her listeners some of his whale expertise. Jack told Mindy how he wants to have his own show some day. We got home really late. It was 10:30 p.m. and Jack was zonked. So was I.

So Henry, you see how once again I am DriverMan, the superhero behind the wheel.