Shannon Phillips

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!