Shannon Phillips

Today Robin’s school held a neat fund-raiser: called the “Big Wheel-a-Thon,” it was structured as a race with the kids doing laps on their Big Wheel bikes. The idea was that you’d sponsor your kid, pledge a dollar a lap or whatever, but in practice nobody was keeping track of how many laps they actually completed. It was more a “donate what you feel like” kind of event: and the race had only winners.

Here’s Robin coming around the bend:

Unlike most of the other boys, he’s perfectly happy to ride on a pink bike. I, um, may have told him that the pink ones go faster.

Here’s a close-up of our little athlete:

Davy wanted to get in on the action too, but he was confined to the lower playground:

They also had face-painting, games, food, art projects, and lots of fun stuff. And Robin’s Nanita was in town to cheer him on, so that made it extra special. Robin’s been spoiled for grandparents lately: he was thrilled to see his Pappy and Nonna last weekend, and we even drove down to Pleasanton on Mother’s Day so the boys could spend a little time with his great-grandparents. (The “awww” moment during that visit was Davy, toddling straight up to his great-grandfather with his arms raised high: Pick me up, Grandpa Wayne!) These kids, they love their extended family so. much.

Though I have to say, that boy bullies his Nanita mercilessly. After we got home from the park, it was all: “Mom, I want to play Angry Birds on your computer!”

“No, not right now,” I said. Next thing I know? My mom has pulled out her Kindle, downloaded the app, and Robin is curled in her lap happily playing Angry Birds: Space.

“I love you, Nanita,” he said contentedly.

“Will you always love me?” she said.

“Yes,” he said, emphatically.

I don’t think it’s that his heart is easily bought. I think he just knows love pretty well, being surrounded by it and all. He recognizes it quickly, returns it easily, takes it for granted but renews it inexhaustibly. Him and his brother both: they’re sweet little boys. They know a good grandparent when they see one.

Last week Robin’s school took a field trip to a park, where they staged a “bunny hunt.” It wasn’t my work day so I’m not entirely sure what-all they got up to, except that one of the other parents sent me this completely adorable picture:

Robin came home with his face painted like a rabbit, and a bag of chocolate and small stuffed toys, and a propensity to hop around the house shrieking “I’m a bunny! I’m a bunny!” So I think it was a good day.

The other night the boys fell asleep watching TV on the couch—Sam snapped a couple pics of them all cuddled up.

The boys got haircuts yesterday, and while Robin pretty much just looks like Robin with a haircut, Davy is like a whole new child. Who is this adorable little gnome running around in my house?

I snapped a few pictures this morning, although he was eating breakfast, so his face isn’t clean and also he dribbled orange juice down the front of his pajama top. Gritty realism, yo!

Hope everyone had a nice Easter Sunday—and/or a very happy Passover! We dyed eggs, hunted for eggs, ate eggs, ate Easter candy, ate some lamb and dandelion salad, ate some more Easter candy, and generally had a very nice springtime celebration.

I wish I’d gotten a picture of the boys in their cute dressy outfits, but for most of the day we had them in old, stained and/or dark clothes, so as not to ruin their good clothes with dye and chocolate. Here they are working together on coloring the eggs:

It was a gorgeous day, too. Couldn’t have asked for nicer. Welcome, spring!

We got to see Nanita and Marqueño over the weekend, so we bundled ourselves off to the zoo. I am not in this picture because I was the one taking it:

Robin was really into the elephants, the otters, and the parrots (although he was disappointed that they didn’t talk). Davy reacted most strongly to the tigers. He tried his hardest to fling himself into the tiger enclosure, shouting to them joyfully and reaching out, bucking against the people who were holding him. When we put him down, he tried to climb the fence. The rest of us thought Davy should not be thrown to the tigers, and so we cruelly strapped him into his stroller and wheeled him away. He never quite recovered from the betrayal.

Robin had a lot of fun in the kids’ section of the zoo, petting the goats and climbing on the statuary:

They have a really clever little installation near the giant tortoise habitat, which is just cast models of empty tortoise shells that the kids can climb through. Both Robin and Davy loved playing at being tortoises. Here’s Robin peering out from inside the shell:

And Sam got a good picture of one of the real tortoises, ambling along. They have a strange presence about them, gawky and yet weirdly majestic; I have no idea how old this one is, but because of the wrinkles and the slow, deliberate movements they all give the impression of great age, and immense wisdom. They’re probably dumb as stones, I dunno.

The night after our trip, I dreamed about tortoises that had the ability to float. They drifted up effortlessly into the sky, as if their shells were balloons. Only I was taking care of a baby tortoise that couldn’t quite float properly yet, so I tied a string around it before coaxing it to go up and join its herd. And then I just sat there, holding on to the string, watching my baby tortoise as it grazed with the others among the clouds. When I woke up I remembered the feeling of serenity and the striking image of the floating tortoises; it wasn’t until just now, typing up this post, that I realized the dream must’ve had to do with Robin in the shell. Of course that’s what every mother wants—to see their babies soar, but also to keep one end of that string. Embarrassingly literal, really! But it was still a nice dream.

I just got these photos from another parent at the co-op. Aren’t they great?

I had something of a shock after taking Davy for a haircut. He went in as a baby, and came out as a little boy. “Where’s my baby?” I asked him, but he only laughed and ran away.

Actually Robin’s is Godzilla. That’s kind of a dinosaur, right?

So I kind of fell down on taking pictures on Halloween (it was dark!) but Sam did get a couple good shots of the boys chilling with their Pops and Mo.

We had a great visit, and also loved seeing my sister Masie (Aunt Awesome!) and her husband Aaron. I made another pitch for everyone to move to the Bay Area. There’s a cute bungalow for sale right down the street…