I picked up Reagan from the airport this morning and we headed straight  to Westchester, to hangout with Piper. When we arrived, it was still pretty early in the morning so she wasn’t awake yet. When we woke her up it was pretty obvious that she was excited to hang out, because she didn’t even have her normal groggy period where she doesn’t play. Instead Piper went straight to smiles and giggles.

Reagan picked up  these little bear dolls for Piper, in Michigan. They were definitely a hit.

More giggling at here little bears.

To top it off we played with some robot stickers, which she also adored. It was a pretty great morning.

Can I just say how nice it is to have both of my girls back together in the same room? Well, it was really nice. Reagan and I showed up to Piper’s house this morning and she was sleeping. So we just hung out and chatted for a long time, while Reagan cuddled her. Finally, Reagan couldn’t take it any more and woke Piper up. After she woke up, we swung her, played with some toys and showed her some videos. A few more looks from our visit, below:

We are about to go out with our friend Amanda, which should be a blast.

The only thing that has put a damper on today, is that when we left the house this morning, there was a bandanna hanging from the door knob. Weird. I just assumed that someone possibly thought it was ours and we had dropped it in the hall, or something. So, I put it on the end of the hand rail in our hall. This evening when we came home from visiting Piper, it was hanging on our door again. WTF, people? Is this some Russian mafia crap coming back at us? I have to say, that it is kind of freaking me out. Anyway, we have always kind of disliked our building. This may just be the extra impetus that we need to just adios the place all together and find some new digs. It is probably stupid that I’m letting it bug me so much. So, I’ll try to forget about it.

It has been kind of a crazy string of days, since I last posted anything on JNB. First of all: credit where credit is due. Reagan snapped the above photo of me bowling. It is quite possibly one of my favorite photos that has ever been taken of me.

Now, rewind to Wednesday night.  Reagan and I ordered sushi from the same place that we always do (2-3 nights per week). It took a lot longer to arrive than normal, and it was all disheveled.  The rolls were falling apart in the chopsticks, etc.. I don’t know if that even had anything to do with anything. But Thursday morning, I felt like I was dying a slow death. And I’m guessing that it was something from the sushi that was doing the killing. Reagan had a bit of an upset stomach, too. But hers appeared to be a bit more manageable.

I wasted most of the day in bed trying to recover. We were planning on leaving that night to visit my sister  and her family in VA. Because of various items that came up and committed me to being in NYC on Friday morning, we ended up not leaving until around Noon on Friday. I was loading the car right as a blizzard was reaching it’s crux over the island of Manhattan. Luckily, once we were over the GW, the accumulation was minimal.

We arrived at the home of my B-I-L’s father early Friday evening, and spent the rest of the weekend having one blast after another. I wanted to get some fun portraits of my sister’s family. Unfortunately, in my haste to get out the door, I left two of  my favorite lenses at home. Also, let’s be real, I’m not much of a portrait photographer. We still shot a ton of photos, though.

Here is a shot of my little nieces having a jumping contest:

Then of course, Reagan played salon with the girls.

My nieces took turns playing assistant and client.

Let’s not forget the shoot that we did in the library, where Reagan directed (inspired by several 80′s era wedding announcements, and other awesome stuff). All of the images looked totally natural, and not contrived, at all. An example:

We rounded off the visit with a trip to Broadview Lanes. It was the first time that both of my little nieces had ever bowled. They clearly take after their second-cousin Ted Swenson, in the sense that they were total naturals.

To finish off this never-ending post: a shot of Reagan, lining up a strike.

Yesterday was very very rainy. Reagan was in LI during most of the day, for a bridal shower. So, Sam and I hung out all day. The first thing that we did was take him to B&H and get him a camera. He is now the proud owner of a new G-12. After cruising around showing him all of my favorite street art in Manhattan, we headed back to the Heights. Reagan was home, so we talked her into coming out to Fr. Tryon with us, since Sam wanted to try out his new cam with a long exposure shot of the bridge.  Here he is setting it up:

I opted out of the furry hat wearing contest that Sam and Reagan apparently had going. It made me kind of feel like the odd man out. Here are a couple of more shots of Reagan in her festive get-up.

Happy Monday.

Let’s just start off by saying it has been a pretty good one, especially in the category of becoming acquainted with extended family. Friday, Piper met uncle Sam (not that uncle Sam), my brother. As an awesome bonus/coincidence, my cousin Chad (above, with his wife) was in town for work. His wife and parents came out for the weekend to take in the city… and made the trek up to Westchester County to meet PJ. It was very cool. We had such a large group that they gave us our own room to hang out in. Piper was, of course showing off the whole time.

Above:  a shot of Piper playing with my aunt Jo. Below: Checking out Uncle Sam’s phone.

Saturday, we arrived just as Piper was waking up. She was extremely playful again. Reagan freshened up Piper’s hair so that she could look cute for the pics.

Then Piper just kind of did her thing.

Above: climbing onto uncle Sam’s lap. Below: singing to uncle Sam, and trying not to make eye contact with his hat.

She was doing the funniest thing during the whole visit. She was so curious about Sam’s hat. Then every time she would investigate it, she would suddenly become afraid of it and hide her face. Here is a quick vid (this post goes on for infinity)

I’m not really sure why I did the title in Portuguese. I guess because it seems fancier that way. If I knew Italian, it would have been in Italian. But I don’t, so… Portuguese. Anyway, I roped my relatively shy brother into doing a couple of shoots with me, while he was in town (he still is, btw). Above he is rocking some of the recently released Marshall headphones. Below, the limited edition Arnette “Fire Drill” specs.

Anyway, we are trying to talk him into moving out here. I think that he is seriously considering it. As always, I will mention that he is single. I would also like to point out that he grows a beard as fast as I do (in case you are in to that sort of thing).

The beard is coming along nicely. The shot above is a self portrait that I did last week (wearing a hand knit beanie from Ma B). The beard has developed a bit of an ego. He told me the other day that he wanted to start a blog. I refused until he hired a PR agent who strong armed me into allowing it. Below is an action shot of my beard blogging.

PS, Reagan doesn’t think that this beard stuff is nearly as funny as I do. But I don’t crack up when Old Navy ads are on TV, like she does. So, to each his or her own. Right?

Tonight, we are going to be attending a party that I’m pretty stoked about. It is the winter party at Kiehl’s. These are a lot of fun, because I always get to hang out with my friend Zach. Also, there a few people on the guest list, that I’m really hoping will show up. I know that Reagan is excited about it, mostly because she has been waiting for an excuse to wear one of her new Botega V dresses. So, I’ll let you know how that goes. I’m shooting a couple of other things this week that I’m pretty excited about too.

Tomorrow morning, early, my brother Sam is coming to town for a week. This weekend will be his first time meeting Piper. Pretty awesome stuff. I also have a cousin and aunt who will be visiting on Friday. They will be joining us at Piper’s house, also meeting her for the first time. It is going to be like a mini-family-reunion/meet and greet.

My parents were in town over the weekend. It was pretty awesome, since it is the first time that they have been able to schedule a visit together for about two years. Piper must have heard us saying that they were going to come visit, because she was on her cutest behavior.

They arrived on Thursday night. So we were able to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday hanging out with the Pipster. It was also beautiful weather. It felt a lot more like September than it did November. We took advantage and went on nightly walks, around the neighborhood.

G-ma B always comes up with the coolest ideas for Piper, every time she comes to visit. This time was no exception. For this visit, she had laminated (below) a bunch of photos of Piper’s family members (including her cousins that she has never met), and put them all in a little zipper pouch, so that Piper can browse through them, when she gets lonely.

We even took Piper outside, so that we could get some photos with the leaves. It was a bit on the bright side for Piper’s liking, but she was a good sport.

And don’t think that Reagan and I didn’t get some snuggle time of our own.

If you still haven’t had your photo fix, there are more over here.

I dropped my sister Sarah off at the airport this morning before the sun was even up. It was sad to say goodbye. We don’t get to see her or her family nearly as often as we would like to (Alaska is pretty far from here). Reagan and I have been having a blast hanging out with her for the past few days. The way that it worked out, Sarah was able to see Piper almost every day that she was here. The shot above is of Saturday morning. We arrived at Piper’s house right as she was waking up. She still had her sleepy face on. I can’t believe that I didn’t really get many photos of last weekend. I guess that I was a bit preoccupied with the race and stuff. Below is a shot of Piper playing with Reagan, also on Saturday.

Tomorrow afternoon my parents will be arriving for the weekend. It is going to be a lot of fun. It has been a while since they have been able to see Piper. When they booked this trip, I was crossing my fingers that Piper would still be at Blythedale when they came out. It looks like my wish came true!

Completely switching gears, here are a couple of random photos from this week (click to enlarge):

Happy Wednesday!!

Wow, I don’t really even know where to begin, on this one. As I mentioned last week, I was a bit nervous going into this race, given the large span of down time from illness. So, I set a goal for myself to forget about a target pace, and just soak up all of the positivity of the experience. In a lot of cases it is difficult to measure success in achieving goals that are based on intangible and subjective qualities.  But, such was not the case on Sunday. I can whole heartedly say that the 2010 New York City Marathon was the best race that I have ever run. And my time? Let’s just say that I have done worse. Hehehe

I’m just going list out a couple of things that made it so amazing (and try not to get too wordy [because Reagan says that makes it boring]). The first thing is kind of corny- When it comes to trivial things like sporting events, etc., I like to pretend that luck plays a role. So I was a bit nervous that my bib number started with a 13. But I reconciled things, thinking that since this was my 7th marathon, that the lucky seven would beat out the 13. Well, my friends, it totally did. First, the weather was phenomenal. Sunday was the first break in a 3 day streak of rainy gloomy weather (that incidentally picked up again Monday), it was blue skies and sunshine. Next- Having a cheering section that was 2+million people deep was beyond description. It is pretty hard to have a disparaging thought or feeling, when both sides of the course are lined with people cheering so intensely that if you didn’t know better, you would think you were winning the race. Third reason- having family and friends along the course adds another dimension. It is so great to see those familiar faces when you need that extra little boost. I could go on for days. But, I will spare everyone.

Top Photo– Me between mile 23 and 24 waving to Sarah, Becca and Brittany (Photo by Sarah M.)

Above– Reagan and I about to board the bus at the Staten Island side of the SI Ferry terminal, to get to the staging area near the Verrazano Bridge. (Photo by M. Cuomo). Below– Reagan at mile 23 (Photo by Sarah M.)

Above– Some post race hugs. Below– All smiles on the train returning up town. (Photos by Sarah M.)