Halloween 2013

It is that time of year again! Halloween!! I must admit that I have focused all of my attention on dressing up Ryan and have not had a good costume for Kari and I in years. I will change that next year, but until then, please enjoy this lovely video of our precious little Ryan!!  

Ryan- possessed from Jim Duffy on Vimeo.

Summer 2013

It has been a very long time since I made my last post. That is because we had such a great summer with Ryan. As we head into October, I realized how much fun we had over the summer. From going camping, to playing in the pool, to riding the bike over to clove lakes to play on the slides. I will miss the summer. So instead of trying to recap the entire summer with a long blog, I put the video below together....enjoy!

2013 Summer Recap from Jim Duffy on Vimeo.

Miss Johnson and the Drunk Baby

Ryan had his eye surgery this past week and Ryan is back on his feet like nothing ever happened. As far as Ryan is concerned, he took a long nap on Tuesday and is back to watching Barney and learning new words. Kari and I can not say the same....

The morning started with my parents meeting us at our house and we would all travel over to the hospital together. My parents showed up at exactly 8:15am, but the day had already had a rocky start. My father's truck had been broken into the night before and all his possessions were removed from the car. This included his wallet, tools and student tests. Since my father was focused on Ryan, he did not have an opportunity to digest the entire situation and was decided to handle the situation once we were home with Ryan later in the afternoon. We'll come back to that car robbery later.

Back to Ryan...As with any hospital experience, waiting is a big part and this was no different. We were scheduled for a 10am surgery and waited a good hour past that before we got things started. That said, Ryan was a champ and was busy playing with his crayons and smiling for us all. He really was a trooper, keep in mind that he had not have anything to eat or drink since 7:00pm the night before. He was even patient enough to keep on the temperature strip they put on his head. I think he just thought that this was a more civil way to take his temperature....the rectal method is so primitive.

From Ryan 2013 03 March

Right when Ryan was starting to lose his patience, the anesthesiologist came in to administer some drugs, aka Magic Juice, to calm him done and start to knock him out. They don't start any IV or mask until they give the magic juice. Ryan put up a little bit of a fight when taking the magic juice, but he was done with it before he could really get upset. I don't know what was in that magic juice, but it was good stuff!! For those that know Ryan, you know that he probably makes one of the best angry faces I have ever seen a baby make (see below).

From Christmas Day 2012

As the magic juice started to kick in, Ryan's angry face slowly went away and a big shit eating grin appeared. Ryan started laughing like I have never seen him laugh before. The entire staff (nurses, doctors, etc) were getting such a kick out of him. They brought him over a balloon and he was swatting for it with a reckless swing of the arm follow by a hearty laugh. Ryan was feeling good. The nurse then took him from me and brought him into the operating room. While Ryan was feeling good, he did manage to give the nurse a look.

While Ryan was in surgery, we grabbed something to eat and my father started to call and cancel his credit cards. After having a quick sandwich, we all returned to the waiting room. Before we could even start to complain about waiting, the doctor came out and explained that everything went well and Ryan was recovering. Kari and I were then able to go into the recovery room. Ryan had a litte IV in his left hand and a few monitors on his chest and arms. I don't think any of those things bothered Ryan, he was out cold and was enjoying his sleep. We waited for about 20 minutes before we started to wake him up. Ryan wanted nothing to do with being awake, he was content with sleeping there all day and let us know it. He tried to open his eyes a little bit, but just wanted to go back to sleep. I picked him up and sat in a wheel chair and was wheeled up to another room where we could dress him and start the discharge process.

After getting him into his clothes and getting some eye drops from the doctor, Ryan was ready to go home. We were escorted down to the car and we were off to take Ryan home. Once home, we put Ryan to bed and set our focus on my father's car.

Apparently while we were at the hospital someone had contacted my father's office claiming to have found his "stuff". My father was given a number to call and that is when we were introduced to Miss Johnson. Miss Johnson had apparently found my father's stuff on some street in all places, Newark, NJ!! We made arrangements to meet Miss Johnson in the parking lot of a McDonalds and got in the car to get his stuff. Long story short, Miss Johnson was a self proclaimed garbage picker that found my fathers ID's, paperwork and a few misc items like CD's, sneaker, etc. Despite the sketchy situation, we were able to retrieve my father's stuff and return safely to find Ryan finally waking up.

Ryan ate all of his dinner and then some extra to make up for the lack of food over the past 18 hours. He then went to sleep with no issues and woke up his normal self. His eyes look great, but will be red for about a month. To reward Ryan for being such a good boy during the surgery, we decided to take him to the Easter Bunny at the mall. He loved it!!!

From Easter Bunny 2013

Best Friends

Puddles and Ryan are best friends! Ryan does all the leg work and breaks into the pantry and then they share the spoils! In exchange, Puddles lets Ryan climb all over her and play with her toys. They are both way smarter then we give them credit for!

Christmas Recap

Had a great Christmas. I put this video together to try and recap all the fun we had!

Duffy Christmas 2012 from JIm Duffy on Vimeo.

Christmas 2012 - Christmas Day

After spending a great day with Lisa and Jason, Kari and I opened our house up for to the Duffy's and Burgess' for the first time. We were a bit nervous about cooking all the food, but no one left hungry. There were plenty of gifts for everyone and Ryan got his second Christmas surprise....Barney!!!



We then moved on to desert. We had cake, apple pie, pecan pie, rice crispy treats, ice cream, etc, etc. It did not end. Of course this did slow down the party a bit, but nothing a nap could not handle. Technically it was only the grandfathers that actually snoozed, we all wanted to.
After a few cups of coffee, we were back on our feet. My mother made some props for our "Photo Booth" and we took a bunch of funny pictures along with a nice family portrait of the Burgess'



Merry Christmas!



Can not wait to next year!

Christmas 2012 - Sunday Before Christmas

Well Christmas is behind us now and what a great Christmas it was. We started with an early Christmas when Lisa and Jason came into my mothers house on Sunday. We then got a visit from Santa and the kids were not into it. We got Ryan to sit on his lap, but not without some tears.





Ryan was enjoying himself with Emily and Alexis and got his first Christmas surprise, a toy truck. We could not take that truck away from him all day!



It was a good day had by all

Santa Paws 2012

Ryan and Puddles paid a visit to Santa at our Vet's annual Santa Paws event! As expected, Puddles was calm and collected while Ryan gave us a good cry.

From Ryan And Puddles Visit Santa

Dancin Ryan

We know that Ryan loves to dance, but we never thought he would do it to an audience!  My mother had her annual cookie swap with all the ladies and Ryan gave them all a show.  He is proving to be quite the lady's man.

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