Cartunes and Car-eoke...

As of late, RJ has been demanding some musical entertainment from me in the car. I'm not quite sure why I started singing "Row Row Row Your Boat" to him one day on our commute home, but now I seem to have brought out his musical side. Since he first figured out that if he says "Row?", it gets Mommy to sing, the demand for music has not stopped.

Also in the repoirtoire of requests is "Eeeieeeieeeieeieeeieei...." or as it is more commonly known, "Old Mac Donald". Again, WHY did I do this to myself??? Oh well, the literature on education tells me that hearing live singing and being allowed to sing themselves (no matter how annoying 5 minutes straight of just singing "eeieeieeeieeeioh" is) is good for young children's cognitive development.

Then RJ started adding songs that he sings at school into the lineup. Unfortunately, while I know the lyrics to a pretty large repetoire of children's songs (Thank you, 4 years at the Carnegie Mellon Children's School!), I was not prepared to sing "Bear Hunt" when I figured out that all his knee slapping meant that he wanted that song in particular. This led to enough tantrums (even after I attempted to sing what little I knew of it in a really half-assed manner), that I finally asked Krishawn to make me a copy of the "Bear Hunt" CD that they use at school. This CD is fantastic. Not only does it make RJ happy (Only if he asks nicely for "Hut, Peeze" though. I do not want to give in to the tantruming!), but it also has the magical power in keeping RJ's 7 month old girlfriend, Ashlan, calm in the car when we drive her home on Wednesdays. (Her mommy teaches a night class and they live in Tracy too, so I pick up Ashlan and take her home to her daddy, but lately she hasn't been napping in the car and the alternative has been screaming during about half of the 50 minute commute.)

And just recently, RJ started singing all by himself. His first song is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". And as you will hear, it's actually pretty recognizable!

Reed loves to Read...

In the car:



In his highchair:



On the toilet:



Even in bed:

The Mortgage Mess: We Made the Times

From a NY Times article today:

MOUNTAIN HOUSE, Calif. — This town, 59 feet above sea level, is the most underwater community in America.

Because of plunging home values, almost 90 percent of homeowners here owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth, according to figures released Monday. That is the highest percentage in the country. The average homeowner in Mountain House is “underwater,” as it is known, by $122,000.

...

Many in Mountain House have already taken that option. Banks took over 101 properties in the 95391 ZIP code in the third quarter, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

Hey, we were one of the those 101 -- well, we were renting one anyway. The bank took possession of the house we rented roughly 90 days after we were given 60 day notice to quit. After not paying rent for the past 5 months we make our first mortgage payment this month on our new home in Tracy.

Pumpkin Patch Kids...

A few weeks ago, we met up with our friends Sara and Madeline at a local farm for their Annual Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch. You might remember that we took RJ last year and he took a nap in the Snugli. Boy what a difference a year makes!

First, once RJ could be distracted away from the Truck that was being raffled off (the boy LOVES trucks) he picked out a pumpkin.





And then had a fabulous time chasing Madeline through the corn maze, which interestingly enough was depicting a truck carrying a pumpkin.
We also learned that toddlers don't understand the purpose of the corn maze, nor are they detered or disappointed by dead ends, loops, or finding the entrance again. Toddlers also do not understand arbitrary rules and thereby were determined to get us in trouble - RJ kept trying to break off the corn stalks and Madeline tried to run through the corn stalks instead of sticking to the path!

Everybody was Candy Foraging...

Not very original, but RJ was a Kung Fu Panda for Halloween. He didn't quite get the trick or treat thing at first and tried to make off with all of our own Kit Kats.

We only went to our immediate neighbors houses, mostly to say hi because RJ was just as thrilled giving candy away to every kid that came to our porch...

...unless they were wearing a mask. Not a big fan of the masks.

Truck Stop...

RJ's first haircut was on his birthday last June, so now, almost 5 months later, his hair was overdue for another trim. As one of RJ's favorite words is "ruck" we found the most appropriate place for him to get his mullet managed is a place called Sharkey's in Livermore (just opened in August):


RJ loved playing with the steering wheel and the motorized pedal (it's really silly they keep batteries in these things since they're clearly not going anywhere - but it made him happy to make the motor go!). Occasionally he looked up at Elmo on the TV screen (yeah, even after I mentioned that he didn't watch TV, they still had to put in a DVD), but for the most part, he was much more into wiggling and "steering" his truck.

What's up...

A couple weeks ago while riding home RJ spontaneously put together one of his favorite words, "erpane" with a new one "sky". We live near a small airport so we frequently see planes flying when out for walks around town. As if this two word phrase wasn't enough to impress us he followed a couple days later with:

RJ: up, up, up, up

Cheryl: What's up RJ?

RJ: sky

Great. He's a smart ass already.

Madagascar 2

A few weeks ago, Lance and I attended the Madagascar 2 Wrap Party and Screening. RJ got to stay home and play with Kasie that evening as it was an adults-only party at City View at the Metreon. The party was a lot of fun, but the movie was the highlight for me. The CG animation has improved even more and I have to say that the sequel is even better than the first Madagascar movie - and that one was my favorite of all the DreamWorks Animation films.



Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa opens on November 7. You should go see it.

If you have Comcast you can see some video clips and behind the scenes video clips:

No on Proposition 8...

RJ is a very friendly boy. Whenever he sees young girls, he gives them a hug. At the faculty party this year he waited by the door for all the daughters of coworkers to show up and get hugs. Unfortunately this affection got him bit once at school, but even after being love scorned once he still won't shy away from walking up to a random girl at the Gap Outlet and wrap his arms around her.

He's not even ashamed of a little man(equin) love either:

Grandpa's Visit to Calaveras

My father came to visit us over my birthday weekend. On Friday, he initiated the first ever Cal State "Bring your daddy to work" day. While I was in a meeting, he spent the morning observing RJ at school from the observation booth. I got a full play by play of RJ's day afterward! We had lunch with a colleague and then attended a department committee meeting. Unfortunately for him, Fridays aren't usually very exciting for me - I typically have a meeting or two and spend the rest of the time prepping or grading! He probably would have had more fun with Lance at work since they had a Tropic Thunder screening, a crunch party, and Antonio Banderas over for lunch (yes, I'm dead serious!).

Saturday

On Saturday, we went from Calaveras Lane to Calaveras County (interestingly enough, neither is on or near the Calaveras Fault line which runs through the East Bay!).

Our first stop was a tour of Moaning Cavern where we descended 165 feet into the caves. For adventure seekers, we'll need to make a second trip (sans RJ) where we can rappel down instead of taking the stairs, and then crawl through tunnels:



We stopped at Angel's Camp which is notable for any Mark Twain or jumping frog fans:





















We skipped over, the Glory Hole Recreation Area and headed to Columbia State Park which is a restored Gold Rush Era town. Think Plymouth Plantation or Williamsburg but with panning for gold and bowling:







Our last stop was for dinner in Sonora and dessert at an old fashioned soda shop.

Sunday

Sunday we mostly hung out around the house -- but we did sneak out in the afternoon for some wine tasting at Concannon Vineyards as well as some frolicking on their grounds: