Shannon Phillips

A couple quick shots of Robin and Sam playing at the park…

This week we had another meeting with the midwife, and she went into the ultrasound results in a bit more detail. She confirmed that Davy is looking perfect in every way, but mentioned that a couple of other things had turned up on the scans: for one, I have another dermoid (benign) cyst, just like last time, although this time it’s on the other side. As with my last pregnancy, it most likely won’t cause an issue, but it’s something to monitor.

Also, this time around the placenta is in a good position, but the umbilical cord is showing what’s called a velamentous insertion. Wikipedia makes this sound a lot more alarming than the midwife did: she said that “The way we used to know about velamentous insertions was after the delivery; we’d look at the placenta and say, huh, it’s velamentous. But now that these things can be seen on ultrasounds, the doctors like to monitor it.”

Anyway, the upshot is that I’m going to have more ultrasounds—which to be honest is kind of nice. I’m always happy to get another look at the wee one.

Here he is, in profile:

So…we had the first ultrasound today, and it looks like we’re having another little boy. The midwife will go over the results with us when we see her next, but from what the ultrasound technician said it sounds like Luke David (“Davy”) Phillips is shaping up just as he ought, measuring within a couple days of his due date on all the charts. We got some pictures—Sam will scan them tomorrow and I’ll add them to the blog.

I did want (and still want) a little girl whose hair I could put in pigtails, and who would have tea-parties with me, but little boys are wonderfully sweet and I’ll be delighted to have a pair of them. “It’s good for a boy to have a brother,” my friend Matt told me, “and then when you have a girl she’ll have two older brothers to look out for her.” Which is a nice thought.

Robin was in the room for the ultrasound, and seemed pretty interested in the first glimpses of his baby brother, even if he did keep saying “Fwee!” which is his word for fishie. I guess a fetus is something like a fish at this stage, suspended in amniotic fluid and all that. I just hope he’s not disappointed when Davy doesn’t come out a little merman.

Here is a bonus picture of Robin:

I snapped this picture of Robin at the rainy park. Note that he’s holding Boo in one hand and a train in the other; this is very common. Sometimes he tries to bring even more toys with him when we go out, which results in some fairly hilarious juggling as he clutches all of his treasures to his chest.

Unfortunately, a moment after I took this shot, Robin climbed back into his stroller—his signal for I’m done here, Mom. It was windy and wet and his teeth were chattering, even though he was wearing a couple of warm layers under his rain slicker.

So we went home. We didn’t even go to the grocery store, meaning that I am not cooking tacos tonight. Instead I made an order for Indian delivery—mmm, warm spicy filling curries and naan. Perfect for a cold and wet evening.

Oh, here are the Very Orange Oranges. They are even more orange in real life.

Today we took Robin to see the Golden Gate Express Garden Railway exhibit at the Conservatory of Flowers. He loooooved it. He stared at the train, entranced, for about twenty minutes.

Since there’s lots of photos, I’m putting the rest after a jump. Click here to see everything.

We’re back from Reno—Robin had a great time spending the weekend with his Nonna and Pappy and anti-Sara—and settling back into our daily routine. This morning Robin was playing in his box, and he just started laughing and laughing. I asked him what he was doing, and he said, “Choo choo!”

So I think he’s pretending the box is a train. I snapped a couple of quick pictures:

Later on in the day, I asked him, “Can you say ‘I love you’?” And he said “I yub you!” We’ve been working on this for a while and he’s getting better and better at it. It’s so great. I yub him so much.

Here’s a couple pictures I took of Robin at the park:

You can see that he’s got Percy the Engine grasped in one of hands, and Boo the Teddy Bear in the other. It’s much harder for him to climb up the play structures with both his hands full, but he won’t go out without his favorite toys.

Boo was an impulse buy, a souvenir picked up in a Las Vegas Airport gift shop in order to calm a cranky toddler on the next leg of his flight. Robin has other stuffed animals and dolls, but he’s latched on to this one to the exclusion of all others. We call him the Little Bear with the Big Gambling Problem, and sometimes we make up bedtime stories for Robin all about how down-and-out Boo was before a kind little boy rescued him from the lure of the one-armed bandits.

This is the box the vegetables come in. I keep it around because Robin likes to play in it. When we got home from the park he was so tuckered out that he climbed into his box and fell asleep with his coat on. Aww, the littlest hobo!

We took Robin to a hair salon today to get his first “real” haircut. He pretty much hated it, but the lady at Peppermint Cuts was super-quick and it was all over in about ten minutes. Now he has a tidy new ‘do that shows off his handsome face, instead of the bowl cut he was sporting before.

One surprising thing is how much his hair color seemed to change after the cut. All the sun-bleached ends got snipped off, with the result that Robin basically went from blond to sandy brown hair. It’ll take a little getting used to, but it looks good on him.

I got my hair cut also. Here’s a picture of us together; Robin’s bangs look uneven in this one, but they’re really not—his hair’s just rumpled.

We’re back from Fayetteville for Thanksgiving, where Robin was delighted to play with his Pops, Mo, uncles, aunt, great-aunts, great-grandmother, cousin-once-removed…it was a wonderful gathering of extended family. Robin loved everybody and everybody loved him.

Here’s a few pictures Sam snapped. A nice shot of Robin with Masie:

Robin and Masie playing “airplane” — this game was hilarious. Robin would “board the airplane” by bellying up to Masie’s feet. If her feet weren’t in position, he’d lift them into the proper airplane-boarding posture and then plonk his tummy up against them. Hours of fun.

Robin preparing for a bit of spin-around with Uncle Jesse:

And Robin delighted to be the center of everyone’s attention:

The trip was great for me too, not only because it’s always nice to see my family, but also because with so many people to amuse Robin I really got to rest and relax. I’ve been pretty fatigued lately because (drumroll) I’m two months pregnant with another baby. So we have a lot to be thankful for this year!

I think Robin’s had a growth spurt recently. I’m constantly stunned by how much more mature his face looks. I feel like I can see what the seven- or eight-year-old Robin will look like now.

And the baby in his face has disappeared. I was afraid I would miss that tiny baby when he was gone, but now that I’m here, I really don’t. It seems like Robin is more himself with every month. He’s joining us more fully in the world. It doesn’t feel like a loss. My friend Madeline once said something like, “babies are nice, but I like little kids even better,” and I think I agree.

Of course I can say this because Robin is still small enough to climb in my lap and curl up under my chin, or fling his chubby arms around my neck and sack out on my shoulder. I’m pretty sure I’ll miss that when a monosyllabic teenager has taken his place.