Yeah, I actually like the way that Henry is often shown. Because when he's rambling on about something, if you listen to it, it's giving him a personality. Sure it's the personality of an ordinary 11 year old boy, but it's not always cliche. The apple story is a goofy thing most boys would like--but note that Henry is the person who steps in to make sure the kid doesn't get hurt. Then his lecture about the foolishness of two tests on the same day...that's just a kid thinking something through fairly intelligently. It's not important to his parents so they're half-paying attention, but it's actually subtly showing Henry as a kid who's pretty intelligent and interesting. Not to mention pretty nice. He's just not so precocious that he pays attention to things outside his view.