Super Ryan Trailer

We continue to have fun with Ryan and Puddles....enjoy!

Happy Halloween

Despite the impact and pain that hurricane Sandy has caused, we were able to have a little fun with Ryan and do some trick or treating on our block. He had a blast.

From Halloween Day 2012

Ryan Kent

A few months ago, we had to take Ryan to the eye doctor to look into his "lazy eye". Like any new parent, any little thing worries you and we were no different. We made an appointment with one of the recommended doctor and had to wait a few weeks to take him.

Finally it was time to bring in Ryan and have the doctor check him out. How in the world is a doctor going to examine his eye sight? It is not like she can ask him questions. Fortunately, Ryan was an absolute trooper and gave the doctor his trademark stare, which was perfect for the examination. She covered each eye, held up toys and had Ryan look at them in each hand.

The end result was to use a patch for 3 months in order to strengthen the vision in the "lazy eye". The concept is to insure that the vision (think blood flow from eye to brain), not prescription, is healthy. When the eye turns in, it will not send signals to the brain and gradually lose vision. By applying the patch to the opposite eye, the brain is forced to use the eye and hence strengthen the eye. Unfortunately this will not actually correct the "lazy eye".

The cause of the "lazy eye" is essentially one of two things (it is actually more complex that this):

1. Muscle issues that causes the eye to turn in. Typically addressed through surgery.
2. Focal issues in one eye that does not allow the brain to focus and as a result the brain will turn the eye of aka turn the eye in.

We are still in the process of diagnosing the issue and part of this process is to introduce glasses to determine if it is a focal issue. Simply put, if it is a focal issue, the eye will remain straight with the glasses on. If not, it is a muscle issue.

When the doctor told us he would have to wear glasses, I was surprised how troubling it was for me. It was just glasses! But to know our little man was going to have to deal with the hassles of wearing glasses really weighed heavily on our mind and had us challenging the doctor's diagnosis.

Long story short, we did get a second opinion. The diagnosis was slightly different, but with similar outcome....glasses. Fortunately, Ryan has being doing very well with the patch and the glasses. He really is a happy little man and does not let a patch or glasses stop him from playing and laughing. So instead of focusing on the negative, we are focusing on the positive and having some fun with it. With Halloween coming up, what better costume than Superman (and Clark Kent) to incorporate the glasses. I have been having a ton of fun taking pictures of Ryan for Halloween and hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I have taking them.

Happy Halloween!!!

From Super Ryan

Outer Banks 2012

We just got home from a great trip to the Outer Banks with the Duffy's and Reckner's.  It was the first full vacation with all 3 cousins (Emily, Alexis and Ryan)!  All 3 of them had a blast on the beach, eating sand and playing in the pool.  The parents were also grateful to have two sets of awesome grandparents to help out with them and insure we all had a good time!

These are the times you will certainly remember for years to come.  The photos and video below help capture the good times.

Outer Banks 2012

Duffy BBQ 2012

From 2012 08 25 Duffy BBQ

The Duffy BBQ was a great success!  Thanks to everyone that made it.  The weather was perfect.  We had a small pool setup for the kids, hamburgers and hot dogs ready to go and even was introduced to "Patstick" in lieu of our usual volleyball game.  

My mother, as usual, made it a little more fun by creating a cowboy theme.  This meant that there was plenty of cowboy hats to be worn.  I can only imagine what she will think of next.

Looking forward to next year!

1 Year Later

Happy Birthday to Ryan!!!  Can't believe he is one already.  What an amazing year it has been, he is such a good boy.  Looking forward to the party in June.

Ryan First Birthday 2012

My Stress Reliever

I spent 2 hours in traffic driving home from a long day at work and was not in the best of moods. Then I got Ryan to start laughing and all that stress went right out the window and put everything right back into perspective.

My only concern about this is that Ryan tends to laugh the hardest when he thinks I am hurting myself. What you can't see off camera is me pretending to smash my head into the kitchen counter. I worry that he may grow tired of that routine and I will be forced to resort to more extreme measures to get that laugh. that I love.

Happy Easter

2012 04 April Ryan

Happy Easter to everyone. This year Kari and I hosted the Burgess and Duffy families! We made a very nice ham with all the goodies. We also had all the kids here playing with each other. On top of all that, we had a beautiful day so we could get outside and play on the grass. It was a lot of fun watching the kids play in the grass and climb on Grandpa! Thanks to everyone for bringing food and desert. I think I ate enough desert for the next two weeks.

Ryan goes Swinging

Kari took Ryan on a swing today and captured some good video of him laughing and swinging!

Ryan and Puddles make a movie!

Soon after Ryan was born, we noticed a change in Puddles' behavior. It was not one of jealously, but of affection and love. Through a common love of drool, Puddles and Ryan bonded more than we ever expected. We wanted to capture this on film and share it with the world. The documentary will be completed in the summer, but we wanted to share the trailer with you all today.

Enjoy.

Ryan is crawling

It started with some rocking on the floor, then an army crawl and now a full on crawl! Ryan is officially on the move and there is no turning back. The days of plopping him down somewhere are gone!

I picked Ryan up yesterday from Nanee Burgess and he crawled across the room to get to me. It is officially the cutest thing he has done to date.

I am now having Ryan fetch things in the house and having a blast:

Happy 2nd Birthday Emily!!

Emily 2nd Birthday

Happy Birthday Emily!!! Emily turned 2 this past weekend and we headed to Lisa and Jason's house to celebrate. Lisa made some pulled pork and we had two cakes for Emily...one for Emily and one for the rest of us.