Almost better and up all night

I'm feeling much better:-)

I have, however, reverted to my old sleep habits since my Mom and Dad babied me a lot when I was sick. Yup, I'm getting up a few times at night again doing my best to convince my Mom and Dad to let me sleep in their bed. They're trying to hang tough, but I have to try, right;)




Happy weekend everyone!

Love,
James Ryan

Under the Weather..

James Ryan is sick. Nothing major, he has a cold, so he's stuffed up and coughing and not sleeping very well. We're all a little tired today, hopefully he'll sleep well tonight.

Look at these lashes ~


Yesterday, we went shopping and LJ got some new duds at baby GAP. Then Laura and Chris stopped by to see him, James adores his Aunt Laura!



We finally had nice weather today, figures I had to work:( We did go for a quick walk when I got home, it was nice. My spring fever is in full force now so I hope the warm weather is here to stay.

I've been a bad blogger...

I'm sorry; this week was all work and no play for the most part. I worked a lot because my boss is in Morocco and I'm acting for her. Then we went to Long Island on Saturday and I forgot my camera:( Too bad because LJ hung out with his cousins Aidan and Kate and they are adorable. More about the weekend later, here's a supercute shot I caught after bath time today.

Overprotective first-time parents

That's Jim and I.
We saw the Conways (Lisa, Aidan, little Aidan, and Katie) at Sue's yesterday. Katie is one month older than LJ, and she decided about a month ago that she will not eat baby food...at all. Talk about personality! So I saw Katie eating all different kinds of foods, including Ritz crackers, apple puffs, avocado, and a bowl of spaghetti! LJ's baby food (sweet potatoes and peas in a jar) seemed bland and boring compared to Katie's feast and I wanted LJ to try some real food. I was a little nervous about giving him a cracker and some apple puffs, but Jim's apprehension was through the roof. He was nutso about it... on the edge of his seat the entire time, ready to jump up a moments notice to administer CPR:) Lisa Conway, a mother of 4 just laughed and said, "don't worry if he chokes, just flip him over, it will come out."

I think we'll wait a few weeks on the crackers, cheerios, apple puffs, etc:)

Back in Action

In case anyone is wondering about our Farley - he is fully rehabilitated. His weight is back up and he's back to his old tricks; swatting at my Dad, tearing up the furniture, and trying to sneak out the door. Jim has been calling him 'pure evil.'

Soliciting opinions from blogland - Is it crazy to plan a trip to Greece with a toddler?

Greece is at the top of our *must do* list. We REALLY want to go. We'd like to go for about 10 days. I don't think that I'll be ready to go on a 10 day trip with out James Ryan, ever, or at least until he's in college:)
We're thinking of booking a trip for Summer 2008. We know we want to go in the summer and can't go this summer. Although it's 15 months from now, I think it would be fun to start planning now. It's nice to have a big vacation to look forward to. If we go in July or August 2008, James Ryan will be a full fledged toddler (22 or 23 months) and I don't know what that's like, so is it crazy to plan this trip?
I know that it will be more difficult than traveling as a couple, but it will be easier than traveling with two young children. I'm not sure if and when we'll have two, but it's a consideration.
Some of the trip will be sight seeing (about 2 days in Athens) and the rest will be relaxing on the Islands.
Tell me what you really think.

More St. Pat's

My Irish Boy:-)

This is mean (and out of focus)but I had to post, he was not into the hat.

So serious....

Happy Saint Patty's Day!

Hope you're all having a fun time today!
So far the weekend isn't off to the best start, the Brannigan Girls' Night Out was cancelled last night since we had an ice storm. Didn't we just have summer-like temps a few days ago? What is going on?
Jim is getting sick again and is working this morning. I think he just needs to sleep more....Seriously, I was thinking about it the other day and this is what he has going on right now, he is:
*working full time at Physical Solutions
*writing a paper on the results of his Pitcher Perfect study (hopefully this gets published and we can go to San Francisco so he can present it:-)
*just finished working on an injury prevention program with the women's soccer team at the New York Athletic Club, will cover their home games in May/June/July
*starting the injury prevention program with the NYAC men's soccer and lacrosse Teams later this month
*working toward starting his own practice at the NYAC
*treating his home care client twice/week
*taking care of little Jim on Tuesdays and Thursday while I'm working

Does this make anyone else tired or dizzy???
Not too shabby for a guy who slept for about 17 hours/day in college. Sometime between grad school and now he's developed superhuman powers.
I do have to say a huge thank you to our families, we wouldn't be able to keep it together if we didn't have their unconditional love and support. They are always there to help us with everything, especially with James Ryan. We are so lucky:-)

Here's James Ryan is his Trakis Creations shirt, check him out!


This shirt was a gift from Lee at NFL films, it's so cute! It says:

Trakis Creations
Size Small
100% Joy
Made in Heaven

Care Instructions:
Handle gently. Wash regularly, warm water. Towel dry. For best results, shower with love. Apply hugs and kisses as needed.

With proper care, this wonderful child will give you a lifetime of love and enjoyment!

We love it, thanks Lee!

A few of my favorite things

Today was a day filled with good things. I played with the camera, of course, and got some cute shots. We went to the park and enjoyed the warmer weather. James Ryan smiled at other the other kids. I think he wanted to be a big kid and fly a kite and go on the swings, he was really interested in what the big kids were up to. We went out to dinner and had good food, good wine, good coffee, and dessert. We went to a Greek restaurant called Onassis in Cherry Hill, the food was good and it's a BYOB so we brought a bottle of Smoking Loon pinot noir - our new favorite inexpensive red.

I'm now wishing I could somehow stretch the weekend another day, as always it flew by.


I call this one Piggy Toes.

Off to the flower show we go!

James Ryan had lots of fun yesterday. Here he is getting ready for his first train ride.


We took the train into Philadelphia, James Ryan loved looking out the windows. He also enjoyed all of the city sights and the colors at the flower show and the Reading Terminal Market. I practiced my photography, I was practicing depth of field, specifically photos with a very shallow DOF where one object is in focus and the background is blurred. Here's what I cam up with ...




Have a great weekend everyone!

A swinging good time!

Today we had a nice brunch with Grandma Sue, Pop Pop Frank, and Paw. After brunch, Jim, Sue, James Ryan, and I took a walk to the park. It was colder than we thought but we played on the swings for a few minutes.

As you can see, James Ryan was a huge fan of the swings!

Jim took these photos and I played around with a few color conversions. What do you think?

Thanks:)

Thanks to everyone who reads our little blog - whoever you are!


Extra special thanks to Tara, Laura, Steven, Taryn, Sam, and Kelly for commenting!!! We're so glad you like the blog, we love getting comments, keep em commin!

Here are a few of today's favorite photos. Enjoy!

Beating the Winter Blues...

I've often wondered if I have SAD (seasonal affective disorder), I swear I get the blues every year in February. Well, I feel like a turned a corner today. I had a little change in perspective on some things and I just feel much better and suddenly more alive.

I had a bit of a heart to heart with my boss and it was a good thing. As a result I'll be pursuing a few new projects at work. It always feels good to start a new project with an opportunity to be creative. I love what I do, but sometimes the work just drags and starts to feel a little stale. I'm looking forward to a few fresh start to go along with the spring weather I've been waiting for.

I also convinced my boss to cover the cost of Nikon School as part of my training plan! How great is that? It is relevant to my job in some ways, the course covers optimizing digital images for printing and sharing. After I take the course I have to provide a training to my colleagues that covers our digital camera guidance for civil inspections and investigations, as well as optimizing images for sharing and printing. I'm proud of myself for proposing the my idea to my boss.

Also, when I got home today, I had a package - my camera is back! Woot!
Sorry, no photos today but I promise to take a lot this weekend.

This week has been nuts. Jim was really sick and his cell phone was a casualty (it's too gross to explain), his phone has been out of commission for a few days. We're taking care of it but for now call our home phone or my cell.

LJ is cuter than ever. This week Jim starting telling him "You're the cutest, and the bigest, and the smartest, and the cutest, and the nicest, and you're just the best..." over and over in a really, really funny voice. We all just crack up when he says it. You have to hear it, it's too funny!

Happy weekend!