Cutting the Philly cord

Cheering for Philadelphia sports teams is how I was raised.  My dad had partial season tickets to the Flyers, of which I was his hockey watching buddy for many season.  I grew up loving Ron Hextall and the "crazy 8" line.  I still remember the letter and newspaper clipping my dad sent me at sleep away camp one summer sharing with me the awesome news the Flyers acquired Eric Lindros.  My grandfather had partial season tickets to the Phillies.  I sat in great seats behind the Phillies' dugout, waiting for the Phanatic to walk in front of us for his 7th inning dance on the dugout.  No tickets to the Eagles, but the Eagles were a big deal in the Stefany house.  Eagles playoff games was the only time my family ate in front of the TV for dinner.

Jason and I shared a love of Eagles football watching in college, yet found it frustrating once we moved to Maryland because we didn't get all the games.  We spent many Sundays in Federal Hill at MaGerks cheering with other Philly transplants.  We rooted (past tense since who has time to watch that many games with kids?!) for the Flyers and Phillies in the playoffs; we just didn't get enough games to cheer all season.

It appears Maryland will be our home for a while, so how will we raise our kids?  They are Baltimore born and raised; do they become Ravens and Orioles fans?  Switching from Eagles to Ravens is too hard for us and honestly, a football game is not where I want my innocent children going on a Sunday.  Camden Yards is beautiful and games are fun and affordable.  End of conversation- our kids will be Eagles fans and Orioles fans.

Braylen has gone hog wild about the Orioles.  He wore his Orioles gear the past 4 days.  He is lucky that Mommy does laundry at the beginning of the week!  While Mommy was out at the MOPS retreat on Saturday, Daddio got Braylen an official Orioles hat.  It has not been off since then, except to sleep.

Day 1 with his Orioles hat

Tuesday

Thursday

Braylen's special reward in the evenings is to watch the Orioles with Daddio before bed.  He is so adorable asking Daddio questions about everything he sees.  (Daddio needs to learn the Orioles team inside and out for this kid!)  Braylen sweetly asks Daddio if he has gotten tickets to go an Orioles game yet.  

Father-son bonding over the hometown team, I think we made a good decision letting our little boy bleed orange and black.