Top Ten at Two

So Ryder is almost two.... 13 more days to be exact. I can not believe how much he has grown up and is truly becoming a little boy and not a baby anymore. We still have a few things we cling onto, but we know even those will soon be gone with time. I think the top ten most important things any given baby needs in the first year have got to be relatively the same. I think it is in this second precious year that a child gains so much individuality and personality. I'd like to think no two kids top ten favorite things are the same at this age. It is so funny to me what makes a child's face light up and what becomes such a level of comfort for them. So in no particular order.... Here are Ryder's top ten favorite things at the age of two:

1. CARS: You will see this repeating in different forms in the top ten, but these guys have got to be his favorite. In fact his running them across the couch at this very moment is allowing me to type this up. The two smaller cars very rarely leave my purse because they are what he plays with outside the house. The most important thing to know is that he can't ever have just one. While out shopping anywhere he will turn to me and ask for "cars". Whatever one I hand to him first he will turn around and ask for the other. He doesn't get that there is a lot of crap in mom's purse and it takes a second to dig these guys up! I'm not sure what the attachment issue is, but he just loves them.

Lightning on the left and Mater on the right.

They change character all the time if you're wondering why Lightning is blue and red.

2. SPORTS CLOTHES: Ryder is pretty into clothes in general these days, but his Reds and Phillies clothes usually make the top of his list. I don't always get to chose what he wears these days, and almost always have to prove to him there is some kind of sports logo, ball, or animal on the clothing somewhere to get him to put it on. I'm beginning to see why kids wear that tacky cartoon stuff.... I thought it was the parents picking it out all along! Anyhow... Ryder loves his Reds and Phillies shirts and loves to wear his hats to go along with it. He is going to be such a big sports fan... as if he ever had a choice?!
3. PACI'S: Oh the paci's.... how these should have been out of our life such a long long time ago. He loved it his whole first year. After that we made it a bedtime/naptime only thing (minus days we fly... anything goes on those days!). It has worked great for us because he still gets it to sleep, and we don't have to see it in his mouth all the time. In the houses we have been in we have kept his door shut so he never saw his bed to think that he wanted it. We had minor melt downs on occasion, but it wasn't a huge deal. Well in our new apartment he is in a den which has two doors that don't actually close with a latch. They catch into a little ridge at the top of the door frame, and you just push them open. Obvioulsy Ryder can do this and knows to look in his crib for them. Whether it's in there for him to get, and I have it hidden it's still a meltdown at least once a day. I am giving him until his birthday and then these things are gone! I am going to try cutting the tips off at first so he has them, but will hopefully decide on his own he doesn't want them anymore. If that doesn't work we'll go the hard route and just put them in the trash! I'm done!

The beloved paci's

4. THE MONSTER TRUCK: We got this monster truck at a thrift shop when we first moved out to Arizona about a year ago. We were searching for a second car seat at the time, and Ryder wouldn't let us leave the store without this truck. It was so dirty and nasty when we bought it. We got it anyhow, cleaned it up, and it pretty much sat around until recently. It is now his favorite toy to push around the house. He goes so fast I wonder how he doesn't knock himself out when he hits a wall with it. Just recently one of the tires actually broke off, and I thought the world was going to come to an end! I ran to the store and got some Gorilla Glue, and we've been good to go ever since.

5. MATER'S TALL TALES: I'm pretty sure i've blogged about these before, but they are just 2-5 minute segments of Mater telling tall tales about his life to Lightning McQueen. They are on the Disney.com website, and Ryder can watch them for hours. I had to tell him that Mater isn't working today so he would just go play with his toys. It doesn't help that the newest Mater's Tall Tales is a story about Maters and Lightning as monster trucks. Talk about two of his loves coming together as one!!! When we were at Toys 'R Us last week we saw some toys with them dressed up in their monster truck characters, and i'm thinking they might need to be a birthday present!

In Character:

Lightning McQueen as Freightning McMean

Tow Mater as The Tormenter

6. MILK: I am not sure why he's such a milk lover, but he goes through so much of it a day! Back at Ryder's one year appointment the doctor had asked what we were giving him to drink. At that time he was having milk, water, and juice. The doctor had told us why would we give him juice if he was satisfied with milk and water. It made sense to me so we eliminated the juice for when we were out of the go and eating out. I think it has only increased Ryder's love for milk (he loves water too, but definitely asks for milk more often). I'm so glad our little man is so happy with this instead of soda which I know some kids love so much.

7. SHOES: I think Ryder has a love for shoes because we put on our shoes when we are going "bye-bye". These shoes down below in particular are his very favorite. They are the croc style shoe shaped into an animal. I always swore my kid would never wear these tacky shoes. Unfortunately Ryder grew out of his first pair of Crocs while we were on The Cape this summer and it's so hard to find that stuff out there. My mom found these shoes out and about one day and asked if she should get them. I figured why not at least he'll have something to run around outside in. Now they are our "everday shoe". They are the ones he picks for every outfit and to be honest they don't bother me as much as they use to. He loves them :)

8. BALLS: I'm pretty sure I don't need to elaborate on this one. This is probably the one thing that is one most two-year-olds list of things they love. He loves baseballs, basketballs, soccor balls, bouncy balls, small balls, big balls, squishy balls, and hard balls. If you throw in some form of a stick, whether it be a baseball bat, golf club, hockey sitck, or even just a toy that looks like a stick.... you've completley won him over!

9. Blankies: I think just after Ryder's first birthday he really started to have a security blanket. Until that point he didn't really care if it was anything in particular. These Little Giraffe blankets were a gift to us when Ryder was born, and he absolutely loves them. One is a big blanket to go over his whole body, and the other is a small blanket he likes to keep up by his face. I'm sure that these will be the blankets that he will sleep with until he is too embarrased to let his friends see, and we'll pack away some day many years down the road.

10. DVDs: These are a new favorite that i'm sure are around to stay. Ryder always watched tv on his portable dvd player in the car, but never paid too much attention to it while at home. I could always pretty much watch what I wanted, and he would just play. Recently though he really likes for me to set up a spot in front of the tv with blankets and pillows while he watches his movies. His favorite is Cars (obviously), his All About DVD that I have blogged about in the past, and our new movie we just got this week is Finding Nemo. He already loves this one too. I think our next purchase will be my own personal Disney favorite... Monster's Inc.

Guys Night

Over the weekend Ryder came down with something (puking... but not sure it was the flu). He hadn't been himself for a couple days, and today I woke up not feeling so great. Needless to say Ryder has spent way to much time sucking on his pacifier, dragging his blanket around, watching movies, and needed out of the house!!! So my boys headed off to get dinner with some of the rehab guys for the night while I stayed home to actually sit on the couch for more then five minutes to hopefully feel better. How cute are they?!

Game Ready

for anybody not familiar with the baseball world.... a Game Ready is a machine you put ice into. You then attach the hose to the machine which has a cuff at the other end. You wrap it around your elbow or ankle and it ices whatever it is the cuff is on. Ryder loves kissing Daddy's boo-boo, pretending to put his arm sleeve and brace on, and just recently has decided he wants to start icing. I hope none of our other baseball friends kid's ever have to ask what one of these are.... they can't ever mean anything good!

Using Daddy's Game Ready

Technology

I am so thankful that God knew to have me be a young mom that had to move away from family ony thsese last couple of years when we have all this technology. I am not sure if I would have survived even just a a few years back. I can't imagine no internet, no facebook, no Skype, no picture text messaging, no e-mail, not even just a simple phone call that didn't have long distance charges! I would seriously go crazy. Even though my family is in Massachusetts, Derrik's family is in Pennsylvanis, my friends I grew up with are mostly in Florida, and our baseball family is scattered all throughout the east coast right now each and every day I feel close to them all. I can be on the phone with my mom and shoot her a picture text of exactly what Ryder is doing at that second. I couldn't imagine talking to her paying for long distance calls and mailing her a picture she might not get up until a week later. I am so thankful for all of this! Just this week alone I got to Skype with one of my best friends from Florida and see her sweet little girls, got to see my college roommates newborn son over Facebook, got to send e-mails with baseball wives I've never even met that feel like real friends because we have so much in common, and got to hang out at Tricia and Page's house who are great friends we have met here in Arizona all thanks to the internet. I try to keep myself in the present and be happy in Arizona (which we really are), but it is so nice to have that connection daily to friends and family. Some of my friends I haven't seen in about a year, and I literally feel like not a day has gone by without seeing them. It's an amazing thing, and something I truly appreciate.

It is also so amazing to have a blog to share Ryder's life on. Obviously Ryder has spent most of his two short years away from family, and so many people comment on how they feel like they still get to see him grow up. That is so special to me because I don't want Ryder growing up being a stranger to those that are so special to us.

SO yeah.... I'm an internet junkie, but if it keeps me connection to so many special people in our lives... who cares!

We're Boring

We have done nothing worth blogging about this week AT ALL! Unless someone cares about the million football referreeing meetings Derrik has been to this week, that I was super excited about the Bachelorette finale on Monday, or that Ryder and I have been cooped up in this apartment and spent our afternoons at the pool to stop from going stir crazy. On top of that I don't even really have any picture candy to hold anyone over....

Those are the only pictures I have of our little man all week and they are all fuzzy from my iPhone. We do have some exciting stuff coming up in the weeks to come though that I can't wait to share with everyone :)

"Baby"

I told you recently about the baby doll we acquired during our time in Cape Cod. Ryder shows enough interest in it to be sweet and nurturing, but not too much. Usually I convince him to bring me the baby, and then we'll wrap it up in Ryder's blanky and prop his paci up by the dolls mouth. I thought it was a great way to hopefully get Ryder to decide that "babies" need pacis and wind down the use of it at night, during nap time, and those times we just need it to relax. As usual, Ryder out smarted me. Just recently whenever I get him out of bed or the bath he says "baby". I realized he wants to be wrapped like the baby with his paci. GO FIGURE!!! Oh well... he's still not two, and he truly is only my baby for so long.... so I wrap him up and hold him like a baby, and we all know I enjoy it so so much!

His Love

Some photos of our boy doing what he loves

Friday Night Date With My Boys

Ryder and I had to get out of the apartment last night. We only have one car out here for the time being so Ryder and I are at home a lot with Derrik's rehab at the field six days a week and meetings for his football refereeing two nights a week. I found a place online that has carnival rides for $5 a wrist band. It was nothing too spectacular, but Ryder didn't know the difference. He loved it! There were about four rides he could go on, and he just ran back and forth all night between them all going on them over and over again. I love seeing the big kid come out in him during times like that. We spent just over an hour there and then headed to In-N-Out to get burgers for the first time. Derrik had been, but i'd just never made the time to go. I figured if we are going to live on the west coast for another year we mine as well start trying west coast fast food. It was actually pretty decent.

Here are some pictures of Ryder enjoying the rides....

On the way home Ryder saw me looking at the pictures on the camera and kept saying cheese.... so I snapped a few since it's not too often he's willing to look at the camera and say cheese!

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!

Jumping Solo

Ryder and I have been spending a lot of time down at our new pool at the apartment we are renting. He wakes up every morning asking for "water". I think we have him so confused this summer between the beach, the pond, and the pool that he's decided that they all have water and just calls it that. Every single time we go to the pool he impresses me more and more with what he can do. Today he started jumping in on his own. He has been jumping with the assitance of my finger since we've been here and finally gave in today.

Jumping Solo

You'll notice in the first video how I make him put his toes all the way to the edge of the pool. I've spent the last week of my life explaining to him how he needs to be at the edge and how he needs to jump out (and show him with my hand where to aim) so we can avoid him banging his head. We finally master this whole process only for a father with his two kids who were much older then Ryder to come down to swim. I notice them standing about twenty feet from the edge of the pool saying "ready... set...go!" and they run and jump into the pool making a huge splash. Ryder's eyes lit up!!!!! Of course he felt the need to immitate them over and over....

Running and Jumping

Oh well.... I tried to play the safe card, but he is awfully cute with how excited he gets to make his little run to the pool!

Who's Stinky?!

Not Ryder!!!

No stinky baby in this hot weather!

Ryder has been obsessed with "putting on" deodorant for a long time now. He does it with his Daddy while they are getting ready for work in the morning. Until recently though Ryder didn't realize there was a cap. Now he knows, and he likes to sneak it out of the bathroom when we're not looking.

And a few extra pictures I got while the little guy played with our deodorant....

Potty Training

We've been doing a lot of this lately....

There has yet to be any potty-ing going on, but he does love sitting on the toilet which I think was the first hurdle we needed to cross. As I said before i'm not going to push the issues. A few times a day Ryder comes running up to us and says "potty". We go into the bathroom get everything situated, and then he sits there. He usually asks me to read him a book about two times, and then he tells me "all done". We then get him off the potty, put his diaper back on, and that's that. I keep reminding him that when he does go to the bathroom in the potty he can have M&M's. He just smiles at me and moves on :)

A Few Good Videos

I took lots of video footage of Ryder over the last month or so with Derrik not being around. I am so greatful to be able to take video of Ryder and send it to Derrik within minutes to share what we are up to with him.

Video #1: This is Ryder swimming at the pond our last day there. He has improved drastically even since we've been out in Arizona. I'll be sure to get some new video soon!

Video #2: Ryder dancing after the band concert one night. We had hit the candy store on the way home, and he was wired!!!

Video #3: Playing in the sprinklers at my parents house

Video #4: Ryder swinging from a bar above the slide at the park. The next day he started hanging off the bar on the playset at my parents house and is quite the pro now.

Video #4: We were at Hailey's end of the school year awards program, and I was trying to occupy Ryder with a bag of goldfish. He had no clue what was going on and freaks out when he hears the first applause!

Totally Worth $4.99

This totally corny DVD was $4.99 at Target and totally worth every penny because my son has stayed like this....

for the last forty-five minutes or so. I'm not one to promote lots of t.v. time, but it's hot here! A quick trip to the park in the afternoons could lead to some serious heat exhaustion (we tried yesterday) so this could be our perfect solutions for a half hour or so each afternoon when we need a little break from the toys. I have a feeling we will be purchasing volume two on our next trip to Target :)