Shannon Phillips

So the other day I’m pushing Robin in his stroller, and we’re crossing the street, and we pass these two ladies going the other way. And as we do so one looks to the other and she says:

“Hey that’s the baby I was telling you about!”

Honestly, I try to keep in mind that probably I’m totally besotted with this baby and he only seems so extraordinary to me, because I’m his mommy. But it’s hard to cling to that when stuff like this keeps happening.

Robin’s really picking up the xylophone…

Yes folks, we’ve moved fully into the multimedia age here at Robin Phillips Industries. No longer satisfied with boring old static pictures, we are bringing you the newfangled moving kind. We make no guarantees, express or implied, that the content of these moving pictures will be edifying, enlightening, or any way remarkable. Generally you can expect a minute or so of a baby doing baby-ish things.

Here we have Robin meeting a xylophone. This is only the beginning, folks!

…Was fun! There were four other boys there of various sizes; Robin was the youngest. He loved being part of the group and interacting with the older boys. He didn’t even mind the clothes-changing aspect: it was only three pairs of shorts, and he was so happily distracted by the presence of other children that he didn’t seem to mind it when I put them on or took them off.

There were a panel of five Gymboree representatives there.  They would examine each boy in his shorts and make notes about the fit.  The older boys seemed a little embarrassed by the scrutiny but Robin lapped it up.

The closest kid to Robin’s age was a todder named Zel, who was kind of hilarious.  He zeroed in right away on Robin’s toys.  Robin watched in calm, slightly baffled interest as Zel grabbed all his toys away.  I think he was really quite happy to watch what an older boy did with these things: sometimes he would pick up a toy just to hand it back to Zel.  Zel, for his part, at the urging of his mommy, was pretty good about sharing his own toys, although then I had to watch and make sure they didn’t go into Robin’s mouth.  But the whole delicate situation fell apart when Zel tried to hand Robin his pacifier.  While praising this as a very nice gesture, I showed Zel that Robin had his own pacifier.  Well!  This proved UNacceptable to Zel who immediately tried to grab it away.  And when the mommies thwarted this maneuver he had a total meltdown and had to be temporarily carried from the room.

Afterwards one of the Gymboree people told me that Robin had been really well behaved.  “But Zel was a nightmare,” the other one remarked.

“Oh well,” I said, “showbusiness types, you know?”

I want to tell you about a couple of recent moments that I think illustrate Robin’s essentially sweet and generous nature. It’s sort of hard as they were completely gestural and I don’t have any pictures, so bear with me.

Okay, so, Robin loves playing with our remote control (it lights up when he presses the buttons!) but its battery casing is broken, so the batteries are apt to fall out. We don’t like him sucking on batteries so we generally take the batteries out before we let him play with the remote—which of course diminishes the remote’s attraction as a toy, since then it no longer lights up. Anyway, Robin is magnetically drawn to the batteries and will grab them any chance he gets.

So the other day he got the remote before I quite noticed it was within his grasp, and had instantly managed to extract the batteries, and one of them was on its way to his mouth. I grabbed it out of his hand and said, encouragingly, “Thank you!” Which is what I usually say when I take something away from him—it seems to take the sting out a little.

So then he turned and grabbed the other battery—and handed it to me, smiling. I was astounded! He wanted the batteries but he knew I also wanted them, and so he gave one to me. Such a good boy!

The other moment happened just this very instant which is why I’m writing this post. I had been feeding him apricot slices and he was absolutely filthy after—sticky hands, sticky face. So I marched him over to the sink to wash his hands. I’ve done this before and he’s been pretty passive about it. I stuck his left hand under the running tap water, washing it off. When I was done I let it go and reached for his right hand—but he had figured out how this routine goes, and already put his hand under the stream!

What a smart, sweet boy!

…was a quick and easy affair. We went to the Gymboree offices: they’re nice, with a little play area in the lobby that Robin got pretty excited about—Gymboree knows how to make babies happy I guess. We met with the client (Gloria) and she took some measurements (which Robin interpreted as a new and interesting kind of game, possibly one called “Eat the Measuring Tape”). The gig in question is not any kind of an ad campaign but just a fitting—Gymboree wants to hire four models to come in and try on a bunch of clothes from their new product line, just to see how they look. Gloria said that Robin was “really a close match” to the size of child they’re looking for, so we’ll see.

I actually won’t be at all sorry if he doesn’t get the job. He still doesn’t really like having his clothes changed, so doing it over and over might not be fun for him. On the other hand he loves other children and being the center of attention, so maybe those aspects would be enough to compensate for all the dressing and undressing. I really can’t predict; we’ll just have to see.

Anyway it was a fun morning. The best part of it from Robin’s perspective was the lobby, but he enjoyed the walk over and “playing” with Gloria as well.

UPDATE: The agency just called—Robin booked the job. The actual gig is Wednesday morning and he’ll be paid $82.50 per hour. I have no idea how long it’s supposed to go but he’s certainly not going to tolerate more than an hour of having his clothes constantly changed.

I’m going to have to talk to our credit union about opening a savings account for Robin!

This flower arrangement is currently making me inordinately happy. We got fresh lavender in our CSA delivery box so I went to the store and picked out a few other things that I thought would complement. It’s very simple but it just works really well—it brings me a little thrill of aesthetic pleasure every time I see it. Yes, I am easily amused.

I have three pieces of news to report—two personal, one professional. On the professional side: Robin has a go-see! (Those of you who watch America’s Next Top Model will recognize the lingo: a “go-see” is kind of like an audition. It’s a chance for the client to meet with the model, and often have them go through a fitting, before deciding whether to book them). It’s on Monday in SoMa, and the client is Gymboree. I’m all excited! But also worried because Robin seems to be developing a pimple on his cheek! I am going to wash it obsessively and hope it goes away before Monday.

On the personal side: Robin is now crawling properly, although only about half the time. He’ll still lapse into scootching if he has a long way to go. And he really likes to practice standing up.

Oh, and also, he had his first time-out yesterday, after he bit me. I don’t really think he meant to—he’s cutting another tooth, and he was sort of nipping at my shirt. But he got me pretty good so I yelled (involuntarily) and stuck him in his playpen for a minute. So that’s a milestone of a sort…

We had a real nice Father’s Day this last weekend—we met Pappy and Aunt Bee in Davis and spent a lovely day at the Western Railway Museum there. We got to ride two vintage trolley cars: they were so lovely, and made me nostalgic for the days when everybody would dress up nice, putting on their gloves and hats to ride the train. Robin is here modeling his Pappy’s hat! Sam has a bunch more pictures too.

Robin had his first playdate this week. This is Anastasia, and she is a charmer. She was born just a few days after Robin and she lives in our building. Her mom and I kept talking about getting the babies together, but one thing or another always came up. Anyway we finally made a date and stuck to it.

It was ‘Stasia’s first playdate as well as Robin’s, and I must say both babies were hilariously ill-mannered. Robin was very interested in ‘Stasia, an interest he expressed by trying to smack her and pull her hair. ‘Stasia was much more engaged by whatever Robin happened to be holding, and spent her time grabbing things out of his hands.

Then Robin crawled over to ‘Stasia’s mommy Ranesha and had some fun playing with her—right up until I picked up ‘Stasia and was cuddling with her. At that point Robin started protesting loudly. He can’t quite form the words, but the sentiment was clear: “HEY! That’s MY mommy! MOMMY! Quit talking to that other baby and look at ME!”

Little ruffians, both of them. You’d never know it from this angelic picture. They’re playing with our cellphones here—I’d like to think they’re trying to text each other, but the truth is they’re probably racing each other to hack into the defense grid. If our children set off the next global thermonuclear war, I’m sorry. We were just trying to socialize them a bit.