Some things never change

I think he and Santa just aren't best of buddies. Never have been, probably never will. Is it just us or does he look like he's doing Kung Fu?

Habitot of Fun!

There is this wonderful children's museum in Berkeley geared towards toddlers, Habitot. There is a water area, a crawling area, grocery store, rocket ship, face painting station and art room. They encourage exploration of all the senses. It is a shame Scrumpy's parents are so old because if it were up to him, he could have spent the entire day there! Alas, his parents could only do a couple of hours. His favorite areas? The water area (they had cars you could wash) and the art room. Note Gramma: all the teachers complimented us on allowing him to really explore with the NON-TOXIC, WATER SOLUBLE paint, because not all parents are that progressive. Thank goodness we had extra clothes!
Washing the car

Playing with the water tower

Examining the Crawling Area

Getting Ready for Liftoff!

What are face paint crayons?

Sunday night football is here baby!

By far, his favorite place, the art station

We aren't really sure how he got paint on the back of his head.......

Or on his tummy when he was wearing a shirt the whole time......

I bet this is making Auntie Monks and Auntie Yaya NUTS!

Channeling Great-Grandpa Val

I don't know if I am proud or a little frightened of Scrumpy's first introduction to Mah jong. Upon first site of the table, it was like meeting a long lost friend. He very quickly learned how to shuffle tiles, and when he wasn't bulldozing, he was doing a pretty decent job of making walls. I guess you can dilute the gene pool all you want but some genes are just too strong!

ROCK THE VOTE!

This is a historical election. Make your voice heard! Take the time to vote!

Trick or Treat!

Scrumpy had several Halloween festivities this year! Livermore Downtown hosts a special evening where they close the street and all the merchants provide candy to the little ones. We had no idea how large this event was! There must have been 3,000-5,000 people walking the streets! Thank goodness we had him in a stroller otherwise, we would have surely lost him. Next year, we'll try to go early. If you plan it correctly, you can collect enough candy that you won't have to purchase additional candy to hand out!

Scrumpy (aka Blue from Blue's Clues) spent the first part of evening with his cousins, Jonathan and Alex at Nana and Papa's. After a few houses in the dark and rain, he decided he was done. Besides, Daddy took all his Reese's anyway.

He then capped off the evening at a sleepover at Gramma's house. This kid parties hard!

Pumpkin Patch and More

We started a tradition last year of taking Scrumpy to look at pumpkins. This year, we went to Moore's Pumkin Patch which not only had a selection of pumpkins, but also had trains and merry-go-rounds.Scrumpy enjoyed sitting in the wagon, probably because it reminds him of his red wagon Auntie Michelle gave him for his birthday. He was okay about the merry-go-round. He didn't care for the horses and the up-and-down motion, but he was very content to sit with Daddy on the bench. However, his favorite thing ever was the train ride! I guess there is something programmed with boys that make trains the best things ever!

We just got a letter!

Here's the mail,

It never fails,

Makes me want to wag my tail.

When it comes,

I wanna wail...

MAAAAIL!