Shannon Phillips

Robin’s super excited about Hallowe’en this year. He saw a pirate costume for sale somewhere and for a few days he talked about being a pirate—an idea I was fully on-board with, because I figured I could make him a pirate costume pretty easily. But then, somehow, he got a new idea into his head. He was going to be a kitty cat. And no amount of pirate talk was going to change his mind.

For the past week or so he’s kept up a constant stream of kitty costume talk. “I’m a scary black kitty for Hallowe’en!” he’ll say, out of the blue. “I have kitty costume!”

I decided not to try to make the cat outfit myself. All the patterns I could find were for pajama-style onesies, and I had more of a “cat from CATS!” kind of thing in mind. (I also had a pang of jealousy when I saw the adorable punk-rock kitty tutu patterns you can buy; there’s nothing that good for boys.) So instead I assembled the costume from bits and pieces of things found from various sellers on Amazon—the hood and mittens from one store, the tail from another, the fuzzy boot covers from a third. The last piece of the costume arrived today so I let him try it on:

He’s thrilled. The challenge will be getting him to wear anything else between now and Hallowe’en!

Sam took these photos yesterday afternoon—we went out to Treasure Island to take pictures of the city skyline at sunset, and the boys had a great time playing on the rocks. Davy had an awesome fauxhawk going on.

I took this one:

Ooh! I should have blogged this before, but I just got the pictures off my camera from when we went down to Sacramento (a couple weeks ago) and met the boys’ Pappy and Nonna—along with lots of extended family—at the Arberesh Club picnic. Here’s Davy getting a snuggle:

In the background, Robin’s getting a ride from his first-cousin-twice-removed, Mary Palermo. Then he rode a pony!

He did the pony ride four times, actually. He loved the ponies. In fact I’m sort of idly thinking about looking into horseback riding lessons for him.

The picnic was a lot of fun and I’m sure we’ll make it a tradition. I’m especially looking forward to the Arberesh cookbook that the club is putting together!

So here’s a picture of the room where I work:

I actually get the room attached to it, too, where the fishies and the guinea pig live:

The guinea pig’s name is Mei-Mei. She likes to eat parsley.

This is the art room (that’s Robin painting):

It isn’t just for art, but all kinds of sensory play. There’s a trough holding cornmeal and various things that are fun to dredge through it, and there’s usually play-dough or something else tactile set out on the tables. Here’s another picture of the same room:

This is the block room:

And the upper playground:

I was standing in the playground when I took this photo of the park below:

So, it’s really a nice physical space they’ve got, with a lot of different activities for the kids to explore.

He was excited about going back today, as you can see!

Tonight as we were unpacking our veggie box (two yellow onions, a big cabbage, two eggplants, about a pound of luscious Early Girl tomatoes, a big cucumber, a small watermelon, three ears of corn, four red and green sweet peppers, a bunch of Chinese broccoli, a few potatoes, a bag of loose arugula, and three nectarines), I turned my back for a moment, and when I looked again I saw Davy had helped himself to a fresh juicy nectarine:

He’s the cutest little fruit thief ever.

Around here, we’re mostly gearing up for Robin’s first day of school, next Tuesday. He’ll be going four days a week (Tuesdays through Friday), from 9 to 12. And since it’s a co-op school, I’ll be working as a teacher on Thursdays, while Sam works from home and keeps an eye on Davy. This has meant filling out a lot of paperwork: today we were scrambling around to get me a TB test. There have also been a lot of school meetings to get us new parents up to speed on how things work at Peter Pan. They seem to have gotten a pretty smooth system worked out (the school has been open since 1947, so they’ve had quite some time to work out the kinks), and their general philosophy of child-led learning is very much in line with my own opinions and values.

Basically each teacher is in charge of a “room” at the school—there’s a “block room” (which is really for all kinds of imaginative play, as it also has dolls and cars and dinosaurs and so forth), an art room, a library, a snack station, and then the outside areas, which are devoted to kinetic and sensory play. For most of the day the kids, ages 2 through 6, all move freely throughout the school: they mingle together, going where they like and using the materials as they please. It’s the parent-teachers’ job to facilitate the kids’ interests in a nurturing and age-appropriate way. The parents jokingly call the kids the “customers,” as each teacher stays in their room and “serves the customers” as they come and go. Towards the end of the morning all the kids are herded together to the park, and then back inside for a group story time.

I’m really looking forward to the start of school, even though I’m a bit nervous about this new part-time job I’ve taken on—in addition to the day of teaching duty every week, we’re also expected to put in maintenance hours keeping the school updated. Last week I went in and cleaned out the fridge. It will be a lot of work, but I want to be deeply involved with Robin’s school, and I’m really looking forward to having a bit more structure in my days. Despite my best intentions, it’s easy to get overwhelmed when I’m alone with both boys, and hard to keep up a good energy level. I think the start of school will be good for everyone.

Anyway, I’ll wrap this up with a bonus picture: bubble bath!

(Photo by Amy Gehlert Kidwell)

So I discovered the down side to my nifty “birthday on a train!” plan…it is possible to miss the train.

We didn’t, but it was a near thing. The train was fully boarded when we pulled up to the station, and literally three minutes from getting underway. The look of panic on my face must have been pretty striking, because the first thing the conductor said I leapt out was, “Are you Shannon? It’s okay, it’s okay, everything will be fine.”

Our lovely friends and their kids were already ensconced in the caboose: they came out to help us get all the food and everything onboard, and three minutes later we were all chugging along merrily. But can you imagine? Missing your own son’s birthday party—I don’t think that’s the kind of thing you get to live down, like, ever.

Here’s the caboose from the outside:

(Photo by Zach Copley)

and from the inside:

(Photo by Zach Copley)

Pretty awesome, right? Also awesome: my friend Wendy‘s flippy new bob, which she is not entirely sold on but I think is super cute.

Here’s a picture of the engine:

Photo, again, by Zach. You might be noticing a theme here. I was so busy running for the train that I left my camera in the car! Sam did manage to get a few of the boys:

Robin had a great time. He got a little overwhelmed when the singing started: he’s been so much better about people singing that we decided to risk it, but by the third “happy birthday to yoooouuuuu…” he had curled into a little ball and slid down under the table. We coaxed him out to blow out the candles on the cupcakes. (I made yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting, and Robin helped decorate them, by which I mean that he put sprinkles on one cupcake and then grabbed it and shoved it in his face. But there were still enough to go around for the party.)

The rest of the ride, though, Robin spent running around with the other kids—he especially adores Wyatt Copley, who’s a bit older than Robin but as a seasoned big brother is quite good at managing the littler boys—and hanging out with his Pappy. Davy crawled around and examined things with great interest, and also availed himself of the opportunity for some good cuddle time with his Nonna.

After the train ride (round-trip it was about an hour and forty minutes, which is just about perfect) we all went to a little park and hung out and chatted for a bit while the kids ran around. And then we came home. The boys, of course, passed out in the car on the way back. Last night as I was tucking Robin into bed I asked him if he had a good birthday party. “Yes,” he said, in a very self-satisfied tone of voice. Of course this morning he said hopefully, “My birthday’s coming?”

“It sure is,” said Sam. “It’s just a year away.”

Sam and Robin and Pappy rode the Niles Canyon train yesterday, and Sam got a good photo:

We’ll be going back to Niles next month. We’re renting the caboose on the train for Robin’s birthday party—it’ll be the first of his birthdays that we’re really making a big deal about. He understands what a birthday is now and he’s keenly looking forward to his. I bought a bunch of cute train-themed invitations so I need to get those in the mail!

Robin at the piano:

Davy with his blocks (a birthday gift from auntie Nina):