Me, My Wife, and Her Boyfriend

       For the past few months, everything has been about our adoption. Whether it’s been our fundraising activities, this blog, etc., it’s all been about the addition to our family. This weekend, however, we had a new addition to our family: Ashley’s boyfriend.

      Ok, maybe I should explain this a little. First of all, I decided to surprise Ashley by taking her to the Reds-Nationals game in Cincinnati on Saturday. She likes the left fielder for the Nationals, Bryce Harper, and had mentioned before that she’d like to see a Nationals game sometime, so I surprised her with tickets to Saturday’s game. After some trouble getting there thanks to some roadwork, (come on Kentucky Dept. of Transportation! Work faster!) we finally arrived at the ballpark. Although we missed his first at bat thanks to a talkative usher, we were in our seats to see his second time at the plate. A 2-run homer later, our family added a new member. Ashley walked in as a casual fan, but by the time that ball finally landed, he was a part of our family. For the rest of the game, I heard how great Bryce Harper was. Whether it was, “My boyfriend will probably hit another homerun this time,” or “they won’t try to run on my boyfriend” when a Reds base runner stopped at third, my afternoon had become a Bryce Harper love-fest. It was pathetic.

     Despite hearing how great he was and, by association, the Nationals were, we had a lot of fun. She had fun telling me how he’s awesome and I had fun laughing at him when he struck out late in the game, all of which made me look forward to having our child. I can’t wait to take our kid to games and try to get him to take my side in these “arguments”. I’ll be trying to convince our child to be a Reds fan and (as long as Bryce Harper is playing) Ashley will be trying to convince him to be a Nationals fan. But that’s the fun stuff. Those times that you get to spend together as a family at the ballpark, or talking trash to mom on the way home; those are the kinds of things I’m looking forward to. It’s those little times that make a family a family.

    So as much as I probably should be distressed by my wife’s new, multi-millionaire boyfriend, I’m not too concerned because it makes me look forward to the fun times we’re going to have with our kid. I’m prepared for her to buy him a tiny Nationals jersey, and I’m ok with that. And I’m going to remind him that we cheer for the Reds and the Red Sox and no one else, but we’ll leave it up to our child and see what he decides. Unless of course he wants to be a Yankee fan. Then he might be moving in with grandma.