"A Daughter: The companion, the friend, and the confidant of her mother,
and the object of a pleasure something like the love between the angels to her father."
-Richard Steele
Monday night was tattoo night. Ashlyn jumped right in and got a flower on her hand. James was a little more cautions, but after some coaching from big sister he warmed up to the idea. Right after it was done, he rubbed it off. I hope this is not an indication of how they will differ in college.
We continue to be encouraged by the way the two kids play together. Sure, they have their rough spots (especially when they are hungry) but as far as brother and sisters go we could do much, much worse. After enjoying some cantaloupe in the backyard and the messy pants were removed the two siblings came inside and danced until they were dizzy. Those are the moments that make us look forward to a house with three laughing kids. Time to stock up on food.
Spring is here so we thought it would be a good time to plant some seeds in the garden. The kids, ever helpful, joined in on the fun. Ashlyn did a good job laying the seeds out and patting down the dirt. James decided he would contribute by picking up a long PVC pipe and almost hitting everyone while he swung it around. He was a bit more helpful when they came back inside, we actually got them to do some dishes. Could this be the start of having kids doing useful things in the house?
With Spring comes Spring rains, and the first of the warm rains was a reason to get outside and play. Ashlyn re-learned the joys of jumping in puddles, James did his best to splash just as much as Ashlyn, and our vines played an impromptu game of tug-o-war. The vines won by the way.
It’s at this point in the post that I was going to mention something about a shift in the balance of power in the Flinn house, as we learned on Friday that we will be graced with our second baby girl. So James and I will be officially outnumbered. I said “I was going to mention something about a shift…” because that would imply the boys had power prior to the new baby girl. But who am I kidding? Here’s a brief clip of the new baby playing with her feet and rolling over.
Now that we know the gender, it’s time to pick a name. This is the part we never expected to be so hard. You can’t pick names that others have used, you can’t pick names suggested by others, you can’t pick names of famous pop starts, etc. That pretty much leaves Gertrude and Betty as the only two available names. Time to flip a coin.