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

Settling

We are settled for the most part here in the Cape. I am caught up on work, Ryder is sleeping great so we're caught up on all that sleep with lost with moving and traveling, and it's almost the weekend so we get to enjoy ourselves! I just wanted to post a few cute pictures from today of Ryder. Pictures are becoming much more frequent with a Daddy across the country missing his little boy. I find myself whipping my phone out to take pictures and send them to him every couple hours or so. Thank God for the technology we have these days!!! We might even try to Skype for the first time this weekend :)

Ryder and Chloe riding Grandpa's lawn mower

Ryder cheering on Auntie Ally at her softball game
Enjoying the game

We Made It!

Well we all made it to the Cape. Let me back up as bit since I have a video and picture from before that....

Before we left town we tried to spend some quality time together as a family since we would be spending a decent amount of time apart. We went to Ryder's favorite pizza place, Peter Piper, and played some games. The video is of Ryder and Derrik playing the basketball game. I love watching Derrik try to balance playing the game with his son and still beating the high score. I think he accomplished both pretty well :)

The night that we were packing up to move out of our house and getting stuff ready for us to fly out was s-t-r-e-s-s-f-u-l! It is days like that that I begin to wonder what in the world we are doing this for. I wonder why we constantly move our family around, leave each other for extended periods of times, and get rather cranky over the whole situation that a minor league baseball life involes(I have days I love it too... moving days are always the cranky ones though). The photo below though is the exact reason we do this! One of our great friends Chris Heisey (we lived with them last spring training, in North Carolina, and consider them to be some of our closest friends in this large baseball world)made it to the Big Leagues!!! Ryder and his Da were so excited to see Chris up to bat in his major league debut! It was a HUGE reminder on the perfect day that this crazy dream we are chasing can come true. We are so happy for Chris and hope we can meet him up there one day!!!

Watching Chris up at bat

On Tuesday morning we were up bright and early (although it wasn't bright... it was 3 a.m.) to catch our flight. I am always very nervous about flying with Ryder, especially for these really long cross country flights. Our first flight was four hours. The idea of being trapped in a small place with no where to go for that long with Ryder gives me serious anxiety!!! He was amazing though. He never once even fussed. I got a little nervous though when I had the windows closed, Ryder leaned back, he has his blakey and paci, DVD player on and the flight attendant tells me its a new law that you have to wear headphones!!! I was like SERIOUSLY?! He brought me back the earphones you put into your ears. I look at him like he was nuts. They wouldn't stay in Ryder's ears even if he would let me put them there. I explained to him that people would probably much rather hear the Cars DVD then my son screaming, but in the end the DVD player ended up on silent. Luckily Ryder has seen the DVD so many times it didn't seem to phase him! Our layover went over pretty smooth, and the second flight was only two hours. When we first got on there was a couple next to us with a kid the same age as Ryder. They were quietly reading him a book while feeding him some veggies as I am throwing the DVD player in Ryder's face bribing him with M&M's! On travel days anything goes as far as im concerned!! Ryder slept for almost the whole flight, but woke up as we were landing screaming. I think his ears were bothering him. We survived the five minutes of screaming and got to see Grammy, Auntie Hailey, and Auntie Ally when we got off the plane.

Ryder watching the planes during our layover

The big boy walking with his Auntie Hailey
I know it's blurry, but I love it...
This boy loves his Aunties!

The trip home from Boston went great even though we were stuck in rush hour traffic. The girls were so excited to see him they entertained him the whole way home. Once we got home Ryder ran around for a bit, ate dinner, got a bath, and was quickly off to bed. Before bed though he saw a picture in our hallway of Derrik and was freaking out saying "Da, Da, Da". It was one of the cutest things i've seen him do. Below is a little video of him looking at the picture

Luckily Ryder went to sleep right away and slept great all night. The time change never seems to affect him because the travel days are always so exhausting! I got to leave the baby monitor with Auntie Ally and sneak off for some Chinese food with my parents. It was nice to get to catch up with them. I thought my fortune fit our life right now perfectly!!!

Today was spent getting unpacked, getting Ryder settled, and getting caught up on work since i've slacked the past few days with the move and travel. Ryder was a little stressed this morning with the chaos of my parents house. For anyone that doesn't know what my parents house looks like... it's huge! They have the main part of the house which consists of two floors, the basement which has the office in it, and our apartment which has two floors also. Between my parents, sisters, employees from work, and Ryder's great-grandparents being here for the summer it was a little overwhelming to him. He was very clingy to me and I truly think had no clue what was going on! He seems so confused that the pets were here and Daddy's car, but no Daddy. He's warmed up to everyone throughout the day and will do just fine in no time!

My mom took Ryder out of the house for a little bit this morning while I get a few things in order. Here he is enjoying some Dunkin Donuts on the beach.

Ryder and his Grandpa walking to the bus stop
Throwing rocks in the drain while we wait for his Auntie

This evening we got to go to Auntie Hailey's first softball game. Ryder lasted about a 1/2 an inning before he was standing at the plate by the umpire!!!!! Talk about embarrasing! Between Ally and Hailey's softball schedules they are at the field Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I think we might be missing a few because tonight wore me outs!!!

Ryder watching the kids play

In the batting cage with some softballs

We are so glad to be past the moving/packing/traveling part of our chaos we have going on in our lives right now. We miss our Daddy like crazy already though!!! I'm off to bed... I'm SOOO exhausted!!! Which also means i'm not re-reading this post to check for errors...Sorry!

What's the Little Man Up To...

Ryder once again has seemed to turn another page in this growing up thing he is doing right before our very eyes. He is becoming such a big boy. As you could tell from a post of mine a few weeks ago Ryder was having a hard time communicating with Derrik and I and vice versa. It feels as though we have suddenly figured out how to conquer a few of these barriers that were making our life a little stressful. It has been amazing and we are all really enjoying ourselves these days. I feel like I need to do a little documentation of what his little personaility is like right before this move because every moves we have made he's so different then the house before.

Ryder eats, sleeps, and breathes golf. He points out every golf course we pass (which is a lot living in Arizona), has his foam golf club in hand it seems at all times, loves to putt around the house with his dad, and is really swinging like a champ these days!
When Ryder wants something he loves to just scream or whine until he gets it. Now that we are learning our words we have made him start to say please before we will give it to him. It is sooo cute to hear him say "tease" in a really whiney voice so we'll give him what he wants. We are working on him saying thank you, but he just can't get anything out yet for that. Ohh the boo-boos.... When Ryder really scraped up his knee a month or so ago it clicked in his head what a boo-boo was. Since then everyone has boo-boos all the time. Every time he hurts himself we have to kiss it no matter how minor the accident was, and he makes up fake boo-boos on us to kiss. My favorite though is when he'll point out a wonderful pimple on my face, say boo-boo, and then kiss it. Thanks for pointing them out bud :)

Ryder loves to go bye-bye. As soon as he starts to see me get his water together, make snacks, or put shoes on he asks if we are going bye-bye. He always rushes to try to get Chloe in her cage so we can leave immediately. I am trying so hard to get him to understand that going bye-bye doesn't always happen right at the instant and that we have to do things first.

Just recently Ryder has started telling us when he goes poo-poo. Although poo-poo means he either passed gas, peed, or pooped, we are just glad that he is now telling us. Since we are seeing this sign we are entertaining the idea of starting to potty train when we are settled with a team. We are also entertaining the idea of just waiting until September when the baseball season is over. We will keep you updated :)

The talk of baseball has really picked up around the house with Derrik getting so close to being on a team. I have been trying to tell Ryder that his Daddy plays baseball, and we get to go watch him play. Ryder now says baseball while pretending to swing an imaginary bat. I'm pretty sure he gets this from watching Derrik always doing that around the house. During Derrik's second game today we got to sit pretty close to the fence, and Ryder got to really see that his Daddy was out there on the mound. He was soooo excited and kept pointing and saying "da". My favorite though was every time the umpire would call a strike Ryder would say his version on the word while throwing his hands in the air. I think Ryder was more excited about the strikes then his Daddy!

My favorite thing Ryder is doing right now is saying "oh man" or "oh no". He says it all the time, and I swear creates scenarios that work just so he can say those words.

Ryder also loves to talk with Chloe. He tells her "good girl" when she goes potty, to "stay" when he opens the door, and to "get" when she is jumping on him. I think Chloe and Da have a tight race as to who is Ryder's best bud.

Ryder's favorite toys right now, when he opts to put the baseballs, golf balls, and golf club down, are cars. He loves big cars he can push around the house with both hands and small cars he can ride along the walks, counters, and furniture. I love watching his mind run wild while he plays with these toys and babbles to himself.

He also now loves clothes with things he likes on them. He lights up when I show him he's wearing his Mickey pj's, his fish pj's, or a shirt with a ball on it. He will proudly announce to you throughout the day who is on his shirt. I don't think Ryder's Me-Maw knows how happy she made her grandson when she gave him hand-me-down Mater (from the Cars movie) pjs. Those are by far his favorite and get worn at least a few times a week.

Speaking of Mater, Ryder absolutely loves to watch Mater's Tall Tale's on the Disney website. Mater is the cutest caracter from the Car's movie and they have these short clips called Mater's Tall Tale's on the Disney website. He will watch them over and over again on the laptop and just crack up every single time.

Ryder's kiss has evolved to the sweetest kiss in the world. He has blown kisses for a long time now, he then gave kisses but it was more of just putting his lips to yours and that was it, he started to pucker up not to long ago and literally give a real kiss, now he even makes the noise when you pretend to kiss him from across the room. You can call him at anytime and tell him you love him and he then puckers up and makes the kiss sound. Love it!

He's also a little bit of a cuddler right now. When he just gets fustrated and cranky we will go grab his paci and blankey and curl up on the couch. He sits with me from anywhere between 5-30 minutes then just suddenly decides he's done. He leaves the paci and blankey behind with me and always just takes off playing again. It's a great way for him to calm down and i'm loving it!!!

I am sure I am missing so many things, but I had to at least document a few of our favorite things Ryder is doing these days. He is such a cutie and we couldn't be move in love :)