Stream of Consciousness

I just went to go put something in our closet and found a cereal bowl on our bed. Then I walked into the kitchen and found a soccer ball in the oven drawer. Ryder has everything everywhere these days, but he's actually learning to like the clean-up process. He thinks it fun... not sure how long that will last! Have I mentioned yet that the third floor is awful... minus these amazing sunsets we get every night....


When we get back from being out we've just been sitting in the car for 10-15 minutes, or until Ryder breaks from his trance of watching the Cars DVD and realizes we're just sitting there. The thought of lugging up groceries (the only place we're ever really getting back from is Wal-Mart... which we do daily because we don't want to buy too much and lug it all up the stairs)is awful. Especially when Ryder says "walk" the second the car shuts off. It is such a process getting up the stairs with him. Usually one of us will walk ahead and put whatever we have inside then come back down so the next person can take their load up. It seriously takes him f-o-r-e-v-e-r! He feels the need to inspect everything the whole way up. Luckily he doesn't walk down much because the idea of going "bye-bye" is much more exciting. Speaking of which... how great is bribery? Ryder's and my realtionship has grown leaps and bounds since he has started to understand this concept. Something as simple as him not wanting to go down for a nap and me saying "but we can go bye-bye when you wake up" or "daddy will be home from work when you wake up" always does the trick. We brush our teeth before the pool because "we can go to the pool if Mommy can brush your teeth" really does the trick. His teeth are cleaner then they have ever been. He also really loves gummy snacks right now. I try to keep it to under two packs a day, but they are great when I can't come up with something better to bribe him with. Speaking of food... my boys love sharing cereal right now. I'm not a huge fan of Ryder eating sugary cereal with milk in a bowl... sugar and messes first thing in the morning at not my thing. He actually does good with the milk part of the process. Plus it's sweet when I kiss both my boys in the morning, and they both smell like cereal marshmellows.

Time for a new paragraph? Ryder is big into switches right now. He's tall enough to figure them out, and i'm so over turning lights off only for his little fingers to flip them right back on behind me. The other night we realized he turned our AC from Auto to ON and it ran all night. Today it was swealtering in here, and I realized he turned it off! Maybe he was trying to save money after he left it running the other night?! I think it's time to find a way to lock that thing up or at least get tape over the switches!!!

Chloe is doing good back at my parents house. I miss her so so much! She was my baby before Derrik and Ryder and is still my cuddle partner at night. I know she is being loved on back at my parents, but I just wish she was here with us. Our cats are doing great too. They stay on the apartment side of my parents house which my grandparents are staying in for the summer. Unfortunately though we think we might be finding a new home for them. It's not fair for my mom to have to keep up with their constant shedding and litter box changes when she has pets of her own to take care of, and it's just too much to bring them back out here to the west coast. We'd have to find a way to get them back when Derrik was healthy and it would be hard to figure out what to do with them over the holidays. If anyone knows of someone looking for two sweet cats.... let me know!

My mom just sent me this picture down below from the Chatham A's game. Derrik is still in the book with his record setting 12 saves the summer we met. Have I mentioned before that he also had a 0.00 ERA that summer? Plus he met me.... those were the good old days! HA
This is the smile on my little man's face when his Uncle Scott texted him pictures of Mater and Lightning McQueen from Disneyland! You would have thought he saw them in real life... the boy loves his cars!

How cute is Ryder in his Reds gear we got on our "trip" to Cincinnati?! Go Bruce! And seriously.... when are the Heisey and Wood t-shirts going to be for sale?

Speaking of baseball hats... Ryder was all about his Reds hat, but wasn't really diggin' the Phillies hat that I asked Nini to pick up for him. I'm just not sure he recognized the logo and always chose the Reds one over it. The other night he finally decided he likes it, but insister on wearing it sideways...such a goofball!

When I take pictures of Ryder I tend to lay on the floor to get a closer shot. Lately Ryder feels the need to lay down too which usually ruins the pictures I was trying to get in the first place....

"Smile Ryder"

"Ryder can you open your eyes and smile?"

It seems he can't do two things at once! Oh well... I guess that is what you get from an almost two-year-old. Yes... I typed that right. Ryder is almost two.. in 29 days to be exact. Where has the time gone? When I uploaded these picturs to my computer I made the "23 month" folder. Do I continue to count months afer he is two? I surely can't label them in years because all those pictures would be folder overload! Maybe we'll just have to start naming them by the month. UGH He needs to stop growing up!

Here is a cute one of the boys watching horse racing the other day on the computer... no clue why they both get such a kick out of it.

What else is new? Ryder chugs milk like it's going out of style. He always has to have some in his hand, and it makes me crazy! I'm constantly trying to get it back in the fridge so it doesn't go bad. Derrik is at "work" tonight.... it's so cute when we ask Ryder where Daddy is going and he says work... I swear with a New England accent. I love how he puts K's on the ends of his words now. It might be my favorite that he says... unless it's because he wants more milK. He's not really at work though. He is at meeting to become a football ref. He is going to try to give it a shot and then do the basketball stuff once that is over in the winter. It's a great second source of income, and I truly think he enjoys doing it... once these boring meetings are over. So with Derrik gone and my little guy in bed in about 45 minutes I get to sit down and watch last nights episode of the Bachelorette! Love my Tuesday nights with the DVR :) Who is everyone rooting for? I don't think you can lose with the two great guys left, but if I was her I'd be choosing Chris L! What a cutie! I think that's it for now... off to make Ryder something for dinner and then i'll be lounging on the couch... good night!

One more thing.... that $5 DVD I was bragging about last week because Ryder loves it... Remember that? Right about now i'd pay someone $5 to make it disappear!!! AHHHH.... I have seen it like a thousand times and it is all he ever asks for. Ryder has never been a big tv kid, but there is something about this awful DVD that he is in love with. I think we might be stepping it up and getting some real movies like Monsters, Inc. or Nemo because this DVD from the 80s has GOT TO GO!