Shannon Phillips

We’re just back from a visit with Pappy and Nonna in Carson City—Robin and Thora had so much fun in the snow. (Davy, not so much. He took one step and immediately fell down on a slippery patch, and after that insisted on being carried over the treacherous white stuff. California boy!)

And I saw a tree full of quail, which was thrilling. Quail, with their funny bobbing head-tufts and their plump little bodies, are the most adorable birds ever—especially if you spot a momma with her little ones all trailing after. Sam, native son of the West, is thoroughly blasé about them and can’t understand why I get so excited every time. “They’re just like pigeons,” he says. “All over the place.” (They are not just like pigeons, they are wonderful and I will never get over them.)

I hope all of you have a new year filled with warmth, love, and joy!

The boys are off to a Christmas party at school—last day of school before the two-week winter break! I am mailing out fruitcakes and other packages today; they might be a little late for Christmas (and are hopelessly late for Hanukkah!) I’m sorry for our disorganization this year. Our far-flung family and friends are all in our thoughts this Solstice day.

This is Car One—the very first streetcar operated by a municipal transit authority in America. It’s exactly a hundred years old. (There were streetcars in America before 1912, but they were owned and operated by private transit companies: San Francisco’s MUNI system was the first to put public streetcars in operation.)

MUNI celebrated its centennial today, and to mark the occasion they brought out Car One. We got to ride it down Market Street:

It’s beautiful inside, with lots of wood, shiny brass fittings, and rattan seats. It was gorgeously restored several years ago, and is now generally reserved for mayors to ride in during city parades. It was pretty awesome.

Also awesome: Robin got to hang out with a real life conductor, who even let him try on the hat:

This has been a banner week for Robin’s career aspirations: last weekend we went up to visit Nonna and Pappy in Carson City, and they took him to hang out with some firemen in the local firehouse. He even got to ride in the fire truck, which thoroughly blew his mind. Ever since then I’ve been hearing an awful lot about how he’s a grown up boy who can be anything he wants to be, and what he wants to be is a fireman, because firemen save people, and even more importantly they ride in the fire trucks.

Davy, on the other hand, was intimidated both by the fire truck and by the conductor in his uniform, and hid his face in Sam’s shoulder when the hat was offered. But he liked the streetcar ride just the same!

The boys this year went trick-or-treating as an evil scientist (Robin) and a platypus secret agent (Davy), characters which may bear a suspicious resemblance to those from the TV show Phineas and Ferb. Here is Robin making his mad science face:

The device he’s holding is a ghost-inator. Originally it was a more generic raygun, but Robin decided that he wanted a weapon specifically targeted to ghosts. Maybe when he’s a little bit older we’ll let him know that there’s a whole movie about that.

Davy shed his hat and platypus beak shortly after leaving the house. His costume was never going to be particularly recognizable, except maybe to Phineas and Ferb fans, but without the props he was basically just a kid in a blue shirt. People gave him candy anyway. When they asked where his costume was, we said “he’s a platypus secret agent, and he’s working undercover.”

Isn’t this a great picture? Robin’s whole school took a field trip to a pumpkin patch, and one of the other moms snapped this photo.

This morning Robin announced: “I need to talk to the pizza man.”

“What would you say to him?” I asked.

“I would say, Pizza Man! Can you bring me some pizza?”

“You know what he would say? He would say: Little boy, can you give me some money?”

“Okay!” Robin cried, and chortled with satisfaction. “Oh, but wait, I’m not a little boy yet. I’m just a big boy.”

So there’s a flaw in the plan, I guess? But it does seem like he’s grasped the essential principles!

I snapped this while the boys were watching television—an uncharacteristic moment of stillness. They always look so much older after a haircut!

The show was “My Little Pony.” Robin is a brony now. He got some birthday money from his great-grandmother and he decided to spend it on a Rarity doll. Maybe it’s a Rarity “action figure”? Anyway, that choice came as a surprise to us, because he mostly talks about Rainbow Dash—but after Rarity arrived, he started saving up his allowance for Fluttershy. So I guess those are his favorites!

The allowance is a new thing too. We’ve started giving him $5 a week, which would basically allow him to get one new pony a month (although some of them are on sale sometimes). We keep track of his money on a notecard attached to the fridge. It’s the Bank of Mom and Dad. The advent of the allowance coincided with the arrival of a weekly chore schedule—he’s now expected to let the chickens out of their coop every morning, and to help set the table for dinner.

Davy’s hit some new milestones too. He’s successfully transitioned into his own bed, in Robin’s room: it’s awfully sweet to hear the two brothers chatting to each other in the mornings. The next big challenge will be potty training. I’m going to give him six weeks or so to settle into the school routine, and then start pushing to get him out of diapers.

Lastly, here’s our little girl, at almost ten weeks:

Still a baby, but getting bigger!

Well, technically it was Robin’s second day of school—but Davy’s first. For the rest of the year Davy will be going on Thursday and Friday mornings.

Robin showed him around the school:

And sat with him at lunch:

Then they split up, and Davy went out to wash a monster truck:

But we met up again at park time, when Davy spent time on the swings:

And Robin ran around barefoot in the sand:

And then it was time to go home!

This morning I picked some blackberries from our back yard and made blackberry pancakes:

They were a hit!