White Sox Grinder Bash 2011



Daddy's Proudest Moment...



...and Mommy's Proudest Moment :)

Grinder Bash Photos

Today Ryan took his first trip to U.S. Cellular Field to take part in the White Sox's fan appreciation day for season ticket holders.  Luckily it wasn't too hot and Ryan seemed to enjoy his day out.  He definitely did not like Southpaw - he screamed pretty quickly, and we were afraid our day would be over before it began.  Fortunately, he was ready to take everything else in. 

Ryan had his bottle in the White Sox conference room and had his photo taken with the World Series Trophy and then gave a short press conference.  He strolled around the grounds, took a nap at home plate and sat nicely while mom and dad ate up the buffet and drank a beer.

We were excited to learn that Minnie Minoso and Ron Kittle were signing autographs.  A few months ago Mommy (yes, you read that right, his mother) bought him a "White Sox 101" book - and it has a photo of Minnie in it and I thought it would be perfect to have his autograph in Ryan's little book.  We waited in line for about 35 minutes and laughed when we first realized that Minnie and Ron were sitting just a few inches from each other at the same little table.  As we approached the table, Minnie got up and left.  He looks at least 100 years old, and I figured he must have been exhausted.  Nevertheless, Ron Kittle was very nice and put a nice signature in Ryan's book.  As we were leaving we spotted Minnie Minoso on a golf cart, so I stopped and asked him to sign Ryan's book.  I had it open to the page where his picture is, he looked at it, skipped over it, and signed his name above Luke Appling's picture.  I'm okay with it...safe to say we're never getting Luke Appling's autograph.

Ryan is Six Months (and a week) Old!

(links to pictures below)
Its getting harder for me to get these updates done on time now that baby Ryan is on the move! (And harder to take these monthly photos as you'll see in the Six Month Pictures.)  Mommy and Daddy bought Ryan a brand new colorful, cushy play mat for the living room, and Ryan loves to be anywhere but on it.  As I type this note he is throwing a toy down the hallway and chasing it.  Ryan started doing his army crawl the day before he turned six months...and we can't believe how fast he has progressed from slowly moving a few inches to moving anywhere and everywhere he wants...quickly.

In addition to the two bottom teeth at five months, he now has four top teeth that have broken through and we see the whites of the next two bottom teeth ready to poke through at any time.  I would guess any day now since Ryan has given up his 12 hour nights for waking up and crying a few times a night, or a few hours at a time over the last several days.

Based on his eating habits, I think Ryan's going to need those teeth and we'll be having steak for his birthday.  We got off to a rough start with rice cereal, but now Ryan loves his oatmeal and multi-grain cereal (he is a health nut!) and so far we have given him squash, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes and peas.  He loves them all and cries out "oooo oooo oooo" for any of his vegetables after his cereal.  If he loved sweet potatoes, I'm excited for his first tastes of fruit next week.  If you'd like to see a bunch of pictures of Ryan eating check out his Food Highlights.

Over the past month, we celebrated Father's Day at the lake house with Daddy, Papa and Gramps.  And Ryan got his first "ride" on Gramps' super cool motor cycle.  He had his first Fourth of July and had something patriotic to wear every day!  Ryan also had his first night away from Mom and Dad.  We went to see Dave Matthews and a few other bands in the super-hot sun and spent the night in the city to "practice" for our big vacation last month.  Ryan did perfect, and to show us just how much he was "fine with it," he started crawling while we were gone. (Glad all four grandparents were there to witness!)

And He's Off...