Hair today, gone tomorrow

Robby's hair has grown from straight, shiny black wisps to an adult-sized curly coif over this past year. I remember when Robby was a newborn how Jude used to comb his hair every day to make it straight and perfect, shiny and smooth. Over time it started to curl a little, and despite Jude's straightening efforts, we could not fight the curl.

My dad (who sported an afro back in the day) has this crazy hair that grows out instead of down. Robby's hair is behaving in a similar way, which is why we took him to my Uncle Jim's barber shop. It's called Star Barber Shop and it's right behind the new Rite Aid on Route 9 and 146. Uncle Jim made Robby feel relaxed and comfortable for his first cut. Robby cracked a few early smiles, but was ultra serious during the cutting process. Uncle Jim made fast work of the coif, and the end result is fantastic as you can see from the pictures below.

Robby tell Uncle Jim "just a little off the top"

Robby digs his new 'do'. (and standing on the barber shop chair)

Putting the 'date' in playdate

Robby spent an afternoon recently with a beautiful baby girl named Syriana. Like Jude and I, her parents are of mixed race. Robby and Syriana had very similar features; big brown eyes, full lips, somewhat flattened noses, and curly afro hair.

Robby can be kind of a bruiser, so Syriana was timid at first as Robby thrashed through her toys with delight. She warmed up after a while and the two of them settled on a toy piano with room for two sets of tiny hands.

The picture on the top left was taken when both of them were still in playful bliss. Soon after, Robby started acting strange and made some weird noises that made Syriana roll her eyes in disbelief. He sure took the love out of loveseat.

Overall it was really cute to see the two kids together. Robby's finally starting to pay attention to other babies and actually have fun playing. I'm looking forward to another playdate with some other friends this weekend.

In other news, Robby is getting his coif trimmed for the first time tomorrow! I'll be sure to post some pictures.

Some good eatin'

A recent delicious takeout dinner from Augie’s Restaurant in Ballston Spa somehow ended up on Robby’s forehead. Augie’s has a way of taking food and making it so yummy, that you just want to put your face right in it. Robby did, and this is what it looked like...

He loved that eggplant dish so much he just kept eating it and evidently smearing it all over his face. Maybe he wanted to save some for later. Too bad grandma had to go and ruin the plan by wiping his face off.

Fun at the hotel pool

For our recent anniversary, Jude and I spent the night at the Courtyard Marriott in Saratoga. What a nice hotel! Everything was spotlessly clean and the decor was lovely. We checked in early so we could take Robby to the pool which was small but perfect for us. Robby was a little timid and unsure at first, but after a few minutes, he was relaxed as can be. We took the lifeguard floaty thing which was a perfect size for the little guy. After our fun swimming adventure, we dropped off Robby at my parents house so Jude and I could have a night to ourselves.

The coolest thing about our night at the hotel was that I actually won it from the World Awareness Children’s Museum in Glens Falls. They had a Sweetheart Raffle around Valentine’s Day and I entered and won this hotel stay and a host of other great prizes! This museum does some amazing work in the local community and the world. Check out their site to learn more about them.

I love that a museum of this nature exists in our community to help our children learn more about different cultures. You can even order reprints on their website of artwork from kids around the world. Robby has this print in his bedroom that I love. It’s a beautiful illustration drawn by a 10 year old in Africa depicting a street scene. I wonder what Robby’s ‘Malta Street Scene’ picture would look like. Hopefully by the time he’s ten it will look better than it does now!

Bang on the drum all day

There are very few commands I can tell Robby that he actually listens to. Two that work are "Robby, go play the piano" and "Robby, go play the drum". He will rarely play either instrument if not asked, but as soon as you mention it, he will glady comply.


His gentle baby touch for now isn't doing these instruments any harm, but I can only imagine Robby at age four going to town on the drum and banging the hell out of the piano.

Don't tell Robby, but for his first birthday next month, I decided to get him some instruments of his own. Remo drums makes a cool line of products for kids that aren't too "kiddy", but are still kid-friendly if you know what I mean. I purchased this floor tom which looks awesome and I think he's going to love it. I'll share pics of Robby and his new drum later. Knowing Robby, he won't play his own drum because he's so spoiled by mommy's djembe. I may have to trade him for his floor tom.

A face that only a mother could love

Robby makes this scrunchy stink-eye face all the time now. He squints his eyes like he’s staring at the sun, curls his lips up to show off two big front teeth and wrinkles his nose.

It’s truly a face that only a mother could love, and I don’t see any sign of it going away. The face often elicits laughter and varying frequencies of ooh’s and
ah’s from his adoring audience. The stinky face will live on.

Touchdowns and other cool tricks

For the first several months of a baby’s life, they pretty much can’t learn anything. You could show a baby a hundred times to do something like clap, and then when you say in your high-pitched squeaky baby-talk voice “Ok __(name)__, clap!!” the baby would stare at you intently as if he were processing something. He will probably look the other direction, tip his head to the side, raise his hand, crawl away, cry, poop, etc. The only thing the baby is assuredly not going to do is clap. You may even start to question your own IQ, but you should not worry. Soon enough the change will happen and your baby will learn things that you wished you never taught them.

Robby’s picking up new tricks almost daily! Some of the tricks are really cute, like smacking his lips and throwing his hands up when you say “touchdown”. We’ve almost mastered hi five’s and we’ll be slowing introducing the thumbs up. He’s also started sticking his tongue out at people, which when you’re ten months is kind of a cute thing to do. But thanks to Robby, I’ve seen more adult tongues in the past few weeks than I have my whole life. Obviously when a baby sticks his tongue out at you and you’re an adult in the grocery store, you should stick your tongue out back at him! We must encourage this awesome behavior.

Kidding aside, it’s really adorable seeing him learn new things. He gets very excited with the positive feedback his little tricks generate. He has learned to clap on his own now and will break into claps when he hears music. As a musician, this melts my heart. He may not be a baby Einstein, but he’s the smartest little man in my world.