Mommy, Push!

Vocabulary and word combination is fantastic. I was counting RJ's words and a month or so ago I hit over 40 words that RJ speaks, and since then, I have just lost count. RJ can usually let us know what he wants reasonably well with words. He still speaks a good amount of gibberish, but he's getting better and better at parroting and making his words sound the way they're supposed to. However, we're now starting to see the downside in all of this. He can now make demands of us and we can't pretend we don't understand him!

Mom/Grammie Carola's Visit

On November 13, my mom came to town to see us and experience our break-neck speed of life here. On Friday, she came to CSU Stanislaus and hung out in my office, went on a walk with RJ's class at the Child Development Center, had lunch with me and a colleague, went to a meeting of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee with me, and then helped by doing some grading and adding up the points earned on the graded quizzes. After the eventful day, we picked up RJ and headed to Livermore to meet Lance at Campo Di Bocce for dinner.

On Saturday, we figured that we should have some fun, and since Mom only got to see a small part of San Francisco on her last visit (We went to the city 2 days before RJ was born - and only waddled through North Beach and part of Golden Gate Park), we headed off to the city to enjoy the beautiful (77 degree) weather. This time, we hit Fisherman's Wharf for lunch at Boudin, explored the Marina district, and drove part of the scenic drive to wind up at the massive playground in Golden Gate Park, and finally had dinner at Bistro 9 in the Sunset District.

On Sunday we mostly stayed in, but also went grocery shopping. I cooked for the week while Grammie played with her adoring grandson, and even taught him how to scrub the floor.
We don't normally make our visitors clean our house (and we do own a mop - Mom just didn't like it), but since I was busy cooking a week's worth of food, I had little energy to stop her! We definitely appreciated her help. And for the record, we use the super-gentle eco-friendly all-natural floor cleaner, so RJ wasn't soaking his hands in anything abrasive or toxic or anything.

Then it was back to the old grind for Mom, RJ, and I on Monday as Mom got to witness how we get a weeks worth of cloth diapers to school on Monday morning on top of the diaper bag for his afternoon babysitter, his lunch, my lunch, my laptop, sippy cup, my water bottle, and of course the main little man himself! It was quite nice to have extra hands! Then Mom's day was filled with being my personal assistant - filing articles for me, cleaning my office, as well as more fun stuff like going for another walk with RJ's class and observing him when they returned. She also got to go to a meeting of the Child Development Program committee as well.

On Mom's last day, she finally got to attend my classes (I only teach Tuesday/Thursday courses), but was so exhausted by our busy life, that she fell asleep in both of them! But there might be some truth in her claims that she was "just resting her eyes", because she did actually do pretty well on the oral pop quiz I gave her on the walk back to my office.

Then on Wednesday morning it was sadly time for Mom/Grammie to go home where it was 40 degrees colder and not nearly as sunny. On Wednesday night, when we got home from school, RJ went running into the guest room asking, "Ahmee, ahmee??" with the saddest little toddler face. I think Grammie might need to consider a move to California - we all need her here!!

How high, real high, cause I'm just so fly...

RJ took Lance and I to his friend Stella's Second Birthday party. She is a little girl in his class at school and he shares a babysitter with her two afternoons a week after school. Since the party was a joint birthday party with her four year old brother (their birthdays are two years and one day apart), there was also the ever-popular bounce house in attendance as well. These things seem to be a staple at birthday parties and carnivals alike out here in California. The bigger kids were jumping like mad in there when we first arrived, so we were trying to keep RJ away from it, but shortly after arriving, a group of baby/toddler parents banded together to kick out the older ones so the younger ones could explore for a little with the parents. I don't think I've been in a bounce house since the last-day-of-classes celebration at CMU senior year! Much like Momma, RJ is now hooked on bounce houses.



Now were not sure if it was the fact that he was reunited with his girlfriends from last year (who have since moved up to preschool from the toddler class)



or if it was this new found love of the bounce house, but RJ decided that he was not going to wait for another "baby - time" in the bounce house, and went right on in with the bigger kids!



And was promptly protected, loved, and mauled by a circle of older women.



...one of whom has three dolls at home named "RJ".

News we can relate to...

For those of you subscribed to the mailing list or RSS feed you probably never notice the interesting news on the blog itself. These are news items that we come across in google reader that seem worth sharing and are generally relevant to child-rearing, our jobs, life in northern california, etc. Here are a few of the postings from the past month:

• Does involving parents really help students learn? Depends on how they're involved
  
  
• Should you let your toddler/preschooler watch TV? Part II
  
  
• Bay Area To Install Electric Vehicle Grid - check out the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car"
  
  
• Anti-Matter Created By Laser At Livermore - should we be scared this is less than 20 miles from our house
  
  
• NorCal median home price plummets 41 percent - the rest of the bay area is starting to experience what we in the central valley already saw
  
  
• CSU to impose enrollment caps in budget crisis - Cheryl's school is making cuts but unclear what impact it will have on her yet
  
  
• Life in the San Francisco exburbs - the mortgage mess and Mountain House
  
  
• Photo du Jour 269 - funny sign spotted during the proposition 8 protests
  
  
• 'Madagascar' roars with $63.5 million weekend - San Jose Mercury News - good start toward another bonus
  
  
• Bush Street Renamed - the picture and updated caption are worth seeing if you are happy with the election
  
  
• San Francisco voted #1 U.S. City to visit by Conde Nast Traveler Readers - so why aren't you here already?
  
  

You can also see these if you use google reader. Sadly, you may hear about another story that was picked up by the AP and majors about a neighborhood just 3 miles from our house. Not what we had in mind when starting this post last week.

Happy Thanks for Giving the Crayon to Daddy...

RJ had the first "solid food" meal of his life last year for Thanksgiving. He's lucky this Thanksgiving wasn't his last after getting a little too overzealous with a crayon on our floor. Aside from enjoying time at home playing with mommy and daddy he enjoyed the selection of food this year much more than the rice cereal he had last year (see last year's post: I'm Thankful for Momma's Boobies).






Thanks Mommy for making another delicious Thanksgiving meal despite having a nasty stomach bug and being sick all day.

Take a ride wit me...

This post comes from the unfinished archive -- we started it in October but are just finishing up now.

---

Since he was born, RJ has been riding rear-facing. This is the safest way for a baby to ride, and so we continued to sit rear facing as long as we could. The limits of the car seat for rear facing were 35 lbs/33inches tall. RJ is still a little guy, so I know he's not 35 lbs and won't be for a while (he was 20 lbs in June!) but he does keep growing out of his feetie pajamas, so I knew he was getting pretty tall.

We had to play a rare game of musical car seats a few weekends back due to my car needing service and Tracy Honda being really really slow. I decided to measure RJ because he has been frustrated about his less than spacious car rides lately (he's been kicking the seat back for a while). Sure enough, RJ was approximately 32.5 inches tall. It was hard to tell exactly because he was wearing shoes, wouldn't stand up straight when I had the measuring tape out and kept dancing around and ducking! Anyway, since he was so close, and my measurement was probably an underestimate due to the ducking, and he's been frustrated and cramped (thus making the long commute uncomfortable for me too), it was time to flip the seat.



Now all I need is to get him a toy steering wheel to play with in the car. He's obsessed with getting at the real steering wheel. This picture was of him after climbing in through the passenger seat and over the armrest to get to the coveted drivers seat!

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:

On being MIA

You probably all know why we've been MIA for awhile as you should've gotten our change of address email. Moving in mid-September when in Academia is always always always a bad idea, but we really didn't have much of a choice because we bought a house and due to a series of incompetent actions (or rather a lack thereof) on the part of our real estate agent in addition to the fact that buying real estate is a frustratingly SLOOOOOW process, our house was just sitting vacant taunting us while my summer off dwindled away to nothing. Anyway, we're going to try and catch up on the blog and publish some of the posts that we started and just didn't finish due to live. We're not even remotely close to being "all moved in", but I still think that you all need to be updated before I have pictures hanging on the wall and my students get their papers graded! So stay tuned...we'll be back before you know it!

RJ's Second First Day of School

The summer was fun, but the end of summer brings with it the start of another semester. So RJ goes back to school at the Child Development Center and I go back to teaching. The director of the CDC is back from maternity leave so I'm no longer in charge :- ( . RJ is much more of a handful getting out the door this year compared to last:







One of the nice things the CDC does is at pickup we get a daily report on RJ's mood, inputs, and outputs. It is a little insight into his day when we don't get a chance to watch from the observation room:



Since the infant/toddler CDC is only half-day, RJ spends afternoons sharing a babysitter with some friends. It is nice because the babysitters are all current or former teachers at the CDC from last year. On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursdays, RJ goes to Daisy's house and on Wednesday and Friday, Daisy and RJ go to their friend Stella's house. Yes, it's a complicated system, but at least RJ is no longer trying to nap in my office while I try to do work in the dark!

Guess who's pregnant again...

Guess who's pregnant. Relax, it's not Cheryl. My supervisor is going on maternity leave for the next six months so I have been asked to take over as Project Lead for the production pipeline. For those who don't remember what I do, here is a description from a recent job posting for my team:

"The Production Engineering group is responsible for designing and implementing software used in the production pipeline to create animated feature films. Production engineers understand the entire computer animation process and use that knowledge to develop the DreamWorks global animation pipeline."

The Pipeline team is the glue that connects all of the production departments together and build applications that artists use based on the core technologies built by R&D. So, R&D will work on the animation software, but we are the team that helps production build and organize things to animate (called assets), get those assets into the animation software, provide plugins and other systems to solve problems not covered in the animation software itself, and then provide the tools for capturing their work and preparing it as input for the next department to work on the scene. As the complexity of animated movies seems to have no bound, it becomes very important for our department to find not only technical efficiencies but also streamline the artist workflow. This may help explain why I say we work on every movie, but yet can't point to specific artistic contributions that make it in a film.

My new role will be mostly focused on project management and helping to improve the software development process for our team of a dozen developers.

It is kind of interesting that both Cheryl and I have ended up taking over leadership or management roles this year at work. It will be a challenge to keep the balance between work and spending time with RJ.

Happy Anniversary Momma and Daddy

On August 16, Momma and Daddy let me play with my friend Erika ALL DAY LONG. I'm not quite sure why they decided to go hiking up a hot (90 degrees!) hill without me instead of going swimming in Erika's pool with me, but they said it had something to do with me getting squirmy and heavy in my backpack. I don't see what the problem with a squirmy 21 pound toddler is - I have great fun riding up high and getting to see everything in the backpack. There are things to see EVERYWHERE - that's why I keep looking to the right and then leaning to the left and trying to turn around and well, you get the picture...I'm 14 months old...you're just going to have to deal with my curiosity.

But this post isn't about me. It's about Momma and Daddy being married for 5 years. Yeah, 5 - that's my life times 5. Momma has been itching to go hiking since her and Daddy haven't been able to go in two years because of work and being busy and well, me. So Daddy took Momma to Mount Diablo (I've been there!!! Just look!! I wasn't at the top, but I was there! I even ate lunch there!) to hike to the top of the 3,849 ft mountain. They didn't climb up all the way from the bottom, (Remember they haven't been hiking in 2 years) , they just did the Juniper to Pioneer to Summit Loop Trail, which goes up about 1000 ft in a 3.8 mile round trip. Here are some pictures from their hike.

Livermore Valley

North Peak and the Sacramento River

The Bay Area

Then they had a picnic lunch at the summit, where they had a very unwelcome visitor that chased them around the picnic area (literally, they'd run and the bee would chase them) until they finally shoveled their food in and quickly packed up. Momma said that this was not like Barry from Bee Movie or a nice bee that makes honey like Uncle Luke and Aunt Amy's bees!!! This was one mean bee and she did not want to find out that she was allergic to bees like Aunt Amy while atop a mountain. Then Momma and Daddy came home to shower off the mountain stinkies. They were hoping to see me, but I was having WAY too much fun swimming in Erika's big pool. I love swimming. It's so much fun. I just splash and splash and splash. I love my little pool too - it has a tree that squirts water at me! Oh yeah, this is about Momma and Daddy, not me. In the late afternoon, Daddy took Momma to taste some wine in Livermore. Momma really enjoyed the Thomas Coyne port. She was also all crazy happy about the organic wine at Retzlaff too. They had dinner outside at Strizzi's after a recommendation from two of the wine servers and then a yummy chocolate fondue at Simply Fondue. Then they came home, but I of course was already asleep after my fun day playing and swimming with Erika. I think we all had a good time on Momma and Daddy's Anniversary!

Happy 5th Anniversary Momma and Daddy. I love you! Love, RJ