Baseball Wife Blog

For anyone out there that enjoys the stories us wives can come up with from our travels with our husbands through their baseball careers you can visit The Baseball Wife Blog (http://www.baseballwifeblog.com). It was started by a wife from the Braves organization, but seems to be expanding daily. You might even recognize a couple of the other Reds wives on the page!

Here are the links to the two stories i've had on the blog:

Follow Your Heart: http://www.baseballwifeblog.com/2010/05/follow-your-heart.html

Birth and Baseball: http://www.baseballwifeblog.com/2010/05/birth-and-baseball.html

And the following is a story that Lisa Heisey wrote, and as i'm sure you can guess the crazy couple they were living with was us :)

That Pitcher, He's My Roommate: http://www.baseballwifeblog.com/2010/05/that-pitcher-hes-my-roommate.html

A Video a Day Keeps the Phone Calls Away

After all the complaints of my not posting I figured a video a day after a post would please every for a while! It is of Ryder dancing again, but it is just so funny. Every time Ally gets in the car he pumps his fists and screams like crazy until we put the song on. I'm guessing he's smart enough to know the song is downloaded onto her phone or something. He added a pretty cool new move with his head into his dancing since I posted last.

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend. It is gorgeous here in The Cape, and Ryder and I will be making the best of it. At least if were not with Derrik, we are with family in this gorgeous place! It just doesn't get much better then summer in the cape :)

Keeping Busy

Is it bad when even my brother calls asking why I haven't blogged? I can't tell you how many comments i've received about my lack of blogging, and i'm not really sure what the excuse is. I guess there is a positive and negative to my lack of blogging. The negative would be I don't find it appropriate to blog about how much I miss my husband, how I haven't seen him in three and a half weeks, and how fustrated I am with the mixed messages the Reds are throwing us on when I could possibly see my husband again. I am missing him terribly and all I want to blog about is how we are together again... which doesn't seem to be happening anytime in the near future.

On a positive note, I guess I also haven't blogged because we've been busy. We've been busy being irresponsible here in The Cape. We have taken on the attitude to seize the moment and have been neglecting house work, eating way to much ice cream, staying up way too late, taking one too many trips to the candy store, eating pizza more then once a week, putting off school projects for trips to the park, and enjoying every second we have together.

The weather here has been amazing! We have been trying to enjoy this summer weather we are blessed with with lots of time outside, walks to the bus stop, playing on the tire swing, laying in the hammock, blowing bubbles outside, and even a trip to the beach last weekend (in bathing suits this time)!

Enjoy some picture of all the fun we have been having...

The Waiting Game

Not too much going on here right now. Ryder and I are just hanging out with our family, Derrik is hanging out in Arizona, and we're just waiting on word from the Reds on where and when Derrik will be on a team. I have gotten so many phone calls, texts, and e-mail asking if we know anything and unfortunately we don't. We expect we will know something soon, and I promise to update right away when we do find out.

In the mean time I figured i'd share this cute picture of Ryder at the batting cages the other day.

Some video of Ryder at the park

Yesterday we tried out Skype (for those not familiar... it's basically a video chat on the computer) for the first time. I had used video chats in the past and found them to be very fustrating. They never seemd to be very clear, always froze, and the voice timing was always off from the video. Skype is amazing! It was so clear, and we could hear everything. The look on Ryder's face was priceless when he saw Daddy on the computer screen! They got to chat for about a half hour. Ryder tried to feed Daddy some strawberries though the screen, he showed Daddy how he plays with his new car, watched some cartoons together, and Daddy asked him where some body parts where while Ryder showed him. It was so great to be able to see Derrik... even if it was through a screen! At one point I told Ryder that Daddy was going to take a nap because he kept yawning. Ryder then made a sad face and laid his head on the computer like he was trying to lay with Daddy. I know Ryder misses him so much, and I can't wait to get them back together!

Spring Fling

This weekend was the Spring Fling in Chatham. My dad is part of the Merchant's Association in the town of Chatham and offered to do the food stand. We were all kind of dreading doing this on our Saturday and sacrificing a day of our weekend. Little did we know that we would have an amazing time! The food stand part was pretty simple, there were free arts and crafts, face painting, a pet contest, free ice cream, a live band, the weather was amazing, lots of friends and family came to hang out, and Ryder had a blast! It is so nice to be able to attend stuff like this and not be stressed. There were so many people wanting to be with Ryder that hours had passed, and I seriously felt like I missed him. We were both with each other, but he hadn't wanted me to hold him, needed me to feed him, or been cranky in so long I kinda missed it for a second. I am truly loving watching Ryder be loved on by so many of our friends and family. I'm pretty sure Ryder is loving it too :)

Ryder's face painting

Auntie Ally gluing Ryder's craft
Ryder and Ally sanding the craft down

My baby's masterpiece

(he also painted part of his shoe, his hand, and his forehead)

Dancing... he seriously loves to dance!

Boys Will Be Boys

The girls softball games four days a week has lead to some seriously creative ideas to keep Ryder busy. I hate the idea of staying at home by ourselves when we only have a couple weeks with our family. We've only skipped one game because it was seriously cold and damp out. At Friday nights game there was a huge pile of dirt I was hoping Ryder wouldn't notice. After a little while though I realized there was a group of boys with bulldozers playing in the pile, and Ryder was noticing more and more. We headed over and within no time Ryder was covered in dirt. It was so worth it though because Ryder was seriously in heaven with these boys. They were all three and under, and it was so adorable watching them play together.

Big Boy Swing

Ryder refuses to swing in the baby swings anymore, and has recently proven he can handle the big boy swing quite well

OMG

Ryder is really loving the new Usher song OMG... if he is crying in the car playing this song is a for sure way to get him to stop and to get him dancing :)

Keeping Ryder Up

We decided to go to lunch today during Ryder's nap time and by the time we were on our way home he was beyond tired! My grandma was trying to give him some cookie to keep him awake. In the video he is trying to eat the cookie and starts asking for more... I can't help but to keep laughing when I watch this video!!!

(Ignore my dad's commentary about the people on the road!)

Happy Mother's Day Mama

Oh my mama... how I love her! When I think of my mom a few words come to my mind - best friends, my rock, and always ALWAYS there for me. Honestly whether I was a little girl needing her to do my hair, helping me when a friend hurt my feelings, helping me with homework, encouraging me through sports, navigating me through those crazy teenage years, or even now when I call her now across the country because the baby is sick, Derrik is making me mad (i'd never do this right?!), or I just need a friend to talk to... she is ALWAYS there, she always has the best advice, and knows when to just lend an ear to talk to because I just simply need to get something off my chest. I love how well she balances her older kids, my younger sisters, my dad, and being a grandma all at the same time... she's pretty awesome at it! As you can tell i'm crazy about my mama and hope she has an amazing Mother's Day! As far as I'm concerned she deserves celebrating every day of the year :)

I want to wish a very Happy Mother's Day to all our Great-Grandma's, Grandma's, Mother's, our friends with little ones, and quite a few of our friends who are expecting little bundles of joy soon.... Being a mother is a job that is 24 hours a day 365 days a year with no sick or vacation days... it's one tough job, but i'm pretty sure none of them would trade it for the world!!!

An Afternoon at the Beach

Of course all week it had been gorgeous out here on the Cape. We all woke up this morning to a loud clap of thunder and dealt with the rain the rest of the day. Around 5ish though it really cleared up so we decided to head down to the beach to get Ryder out of the house and let the dogs run.

Ryder wasn't too sure of the sand

We couldn't get him to break this grip from his Grammy's leg
Checking the beach out

Deciding he might like it after all :)

Trying to jump in the water

"I like it!"

Chloe loved it too!!!

She ran right in

Ally and Buddy

Still testing the waters

Playing in the sand with Auntie Hailey

Tasting the sand

Luckily after one taste test he decided he didn't like it!

My momma and sisters :)

My little man with his Aunties

Auntie Ally showing Ryder how to pick up the wet sand and throw it

Figuring it out....

Got it!!!

Classic beach jumping pictures

Ryder had no clue he flung this discusting piece of seaweed onto himself... yuck!

Ugh Oh! A wave knocked him over...

Check out that facial expression!

Pretty sure it's the "i'm not sure if this is fun or I want to cry" face

He opted to cry... It was pretty cold!

Auntie Ally was nice enough to loan us an outfit to get home in

And yeah... we left on a whim and I didn't even grab my purse with diapers in it!

The girl's fiddler crab... pretty cool pic

Another great day in The Cape :)

Our Day

Today was a fun day for us in Cape Cod. We started the day off by going to visit Ryder's great-great-grandma, GiGi. She was very excited to see Ryder since it had been just over five months since she had seen him last. While we were there Ryder said her name for the first time. We were all so excited! We love any time we can get Ryder with his Gigi because she is so very special to us.

We had a little bit of a disaster while we were there though. Ryder wanted to play on his Gigi's bed so we suggested Gigi (who is 94 years old) sit on the bed too so we could get a picture of them. She was up by the pillows leaning over when Ryder whipped his head back to bounce off the pillows like he does at home. He ended up smashing the back of his head into her forehead. It was a disaster!!! Ryder was screaming hysterically and my great-grandma was on the bed with her hands over her face in pain. UGH what an awful moment. Ryder was completely fine, and I think was more worked up by how loud I screamed when it happend. Gigi claimed she was fine but is going to have one heck of a bruise on her forehead in the days to come.

Ryder came home and got a good nap before the long afternoon he had ahead of him. We are always wondering to do with our afternoon/evenings when we are by ourselves, but with two aunties around in school our afternoons are anything but boring! Auntie Hailey always gets home from school first. She has been taking advantage of this time to really play with Ryder.

Auntie Hailey and Ryder on the swing set

Silly Auntie Hailey

After Auntie Hailey is home for a short time, we have to go back to the bus stop to get Auntie Ally. Auntie Ally has been so excited to show her nephew off to some friends of her's!

Throwing rocks in the drain waiting for the bus

What is Ryder SO excited for?!?!
The school bus is here!

I can not tell you how refreshing it is in the afternoons to have my sisters around to play with Ryder. Not that I don't love playing with him, but it is so great to watch Ryder get the chance to interact with other people, smile at other people, and be loved on by people I love so much.

Plus... If I had to do this over and over again like they do i'd be exhausted!!!

So excited he got a basket

We spent our evening at the softball field... again... for one of Hailey's games. Like I have said, the girls have a grueling four games a week and both have a practice on top of that. Ryder and I have made it to three games this week, and Ryder progressively got better at each game. After the first inning at the first game disaster I thought it was going to be a longggg month dealing with this, but tonight I didn't have to get up once. He just played in the grass with his toys the whole time. It was so nice!

Ally had gotten home from her practice with three friends before we did, and they were anxiously awaiting Ryder's arrival. We picked up pizza for dinner and while Ryder was eating he was very sure to entertain the girls. I'm not sure if he had them cracking up more or vice versa. I love the way he lights up when he realizes he's the entertainment in the room :)

Quite the Ladies Man