Merry Christmas!

Before I go any further, I want to answer the question that I'm sure is on everyone's minds. No, I did not go to Jared's. Luckily, Heather has already forgiven me for this lapse in judgment. Now that we have that out of the way, I can say Merry Christmas to everyone reading the blog. Apparently people read this thing from all over the country, so wherever you are we wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Here in ‘ol DFW, it’s going to be a white Christmas. I looked outside this morning and everything is covered in snow. You can’t even tell that I’ve been lazy and haven’t raked the leaves up in weeks. Thanks Santa!

Ashlyn was so excited about Christmas that she stayed up until 4:00am, so it looks like she’ll be sleeping through most of the Christmas festivities. We’ll be taking plenty of pictures of Ashlyn’s first Christmas, and will post those as soon as we’re able to. Hopefully we’ll get a few pictures with her eyes open.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Longhorns...

Relationships with grandparents can be tricky. They fed you, cared for you, and raised you. So it can be hard sometimes when you see them influencing your own child in a way that you didn’t anticipate. Every parent goes through this, especially when your child is lucky enough to have grandparents that want to be part of their lives. It starts with something simple, a gesture or word when you don’t think your child is even paying attention.

You take a picture of it, and laugh. But then later, when you least expect it... this happens.

So let this be a lesson to all you parents out there. Grandparents may love their grandchildren, but that doesn’t mean they won’t happily corrupt them.

Congratulations are in order..

My sister Lisa is now engaged. Her fiancé’s parents have great taste in naming children, and we like him a lot. We couldn’t be happier for both of them, and I look forward to welcoming Jeff into the family.  In response to he news, Ashlyn broke out the crayons.

Okay, so obviously that wasn't her that wrote it.  Ashlyn has much better handwriting.  On a side note,
Ashlyn hda her first restaurant experience last night and did just fine. She mostly slept on Heather while the adults enjoyed some margaritas and charro beans with the Wolfes.  Both of Grandpa Wolfe's brothers were in town, and it was great to hang out with them for the evening. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe, Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe, and Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe, thanks the dinner and company.  You'll also see more of Heather's family, Jeff and Britta (you could also call them Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe), featured in the pictures below.  It was nice seeing them again and congrats to their son Tip on their team placing 2nd place in the chess tournament.

The baby speaks.. sort of.

Ashlyn has started cooing, which is nice because we get to hear noises other than grunts and cries.  We still have a long way to go until she's actually talking of course, but this is a good start.  Instead of doing a cooing montage, we were able to film a longer segment where she was going coo crazy.  I cut out the parts in between noises to keep it short.  Unfortunately, we had to cut the session short when she started getting hiccups.  Enjoy!

Ashlyn Coos

Smile, it's Colic!

It’s confirmed. Ashlyn’s Doctor feels that it’s the dreaded colic. The past four nights have been long for mom, who’s had to adjust her sleeping schedule to Ashlyn’s 3:00am bed time. The Doctor went ahead and did all the shots and measurements while she was there. They don’t give exact percentages on growth, but they do categorize into buckets: 50% (meaning average), 75%, and 95%. The higher the percentage, the greater above average. Here’s where our little Ashlyn sits:

• Weight: 50%, she’s right on track for her age.
• Length: 95%, she’s a long baby!
• Head: 75%, she’s got a decent sized noggin’.

The best news though is that her Doctor has given Ashlyn a clean bill of health, she’s a still a happy and healthy baby girl. To mark this welcome news, here’s a video of some smiles that we caught on camera.

Ashlyn Smiling Montage

Please forgive the repeating music.  The actual song is over 3 minutes long, but the section I cut out for the video is the only part I could use.  Despite the upbeat words and whistling in the video, the rest of the song would get people in trouble at work for listening to it.

Take that, Sealy!

Just like Hallmark inventing Valentine’s Day, Heather and I have always held the belief that "sleep" was something mattress companies invented as a way to increase their profits. Although we tried and tried, we couldn't think of a way to get back at those greedy corporations, especially the one that makes their mattresses from "materials originally invented by NASA".

Luckily, we think Ashlyn has developed the perfect solution. Colic! Yes, Colic. From 11pm to 3am, she makes sure that nobody in our house gets sleep. Take that, Sleep Number! Ashlyn has an appointment with her Doctor tomorrow; we'll cross our fingers that it's something other than Colic so that we can fix it.

On a happier note, Ashlyn is smiling more. Unfortunately, she stops as soon as I turn on the camera. I'll keep trying though, and I'll post a new video as soon as I can film it. She's also starting to get more control of her hands. On several occasions we've seen her push her pacifier back in front of her mouth, and then grab it to shove it in. This is behavior that we want to encourage, the sooner she can gain motor skills the better. Those resumes won't fill out themselves.

Gobble gobble!

This year we have much to be thankful for.  Rick made it through surgery and is recovering well, John and Kristen are safe overseas (추수 감사절!), and of course we have a healthy happy baby girl.  Due to her sleeping schedule, I'm personally thankful that I was able to play half a season last night of NCAA 2008 on the PS3.  There's nothing like beating Oklahoma at 3am!

From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

A common theme...

The central focus around our house lately has been sleep. This isn't to say we haven't been interested in sleep until now, but so far we have been concentrating on feeding, changing, cleaning, soothing, etc. Now that we have an idea of how to keep her alive, we're starting to concentrate more on us. For the parents out there, you already know that something as simple as sleep is never that simple. We didn't know this going in; apparently they left that piece of information off the brochure.

We've had a lot of advice on sleep. Books, friends, co-workers, and the Internet have all chimed in with their various bits of wisdom. We picked the pieces out that made the most sense to us, and tried the following things:

1. We keep her in the living room during the day with the lights on and TV on. We put her in the nursery at night so she knows the difference between nighttime sleep and daytime naps.
2. A nighttime routine of bath, sleeper, and food has been implemented. This is usually followed by two parents saying silent prayers.
3. We bought a noise machine that plays soothing sounds and put it in her nursery so that it can help relax her at night. It can play eight different sounds, but we chose ocean waves. We chose ocean waves because we like the sound, and it also has the unique quality of being the default sound when you turn the machine on.
4. We swaddle just her legs at night. She doesn't like her arms being restricted, but she seems to be fine with us wrapping her legs.

We think this is starting to work. We had the best night so far this week.. She went to bed at 9. She woke up three times for feedings but went back to bed each time right after and with no binky. We know she can do it, now we just need to keep up the pattern so that we can get some sleep on a more regular basis.

Wish us luck.

Lesson learned...

Okay, so I learned an important rule of blogging. As a result of what I learned, I will no longer post about something good until AFTER it actually happens. Ashlyn, sensing that I had posted about her going to sleep at a normal time, woke up within minutes of the blog post and kept us up until the wee hours of the morning.

That's alright; I'm still counting it as a victory, albeit a small one. She fell asleep in her nursery, at a time when we wanted, and that was a first. She's almost doing it now, which is a second. And no, this doesn't violate my rule because I'm not saying she's asleep, or that she'll stay asleep. I'm just saying that she's in her room and she's not trying to wake up the neighbors.

So there's hope for a brighter future, it just may take awhile to get there.

I hope I'm not jinxing myself...

As I type this something miraculous is happening in the Flinn household. Ashlyn is sleeping. At 10pm. When we WANT her to sleep. This is the first time Ashlyn has decided to go to sleep before 1am. And in her crib no less.

No, this is not how we dress Ashlyn for bedtime; this is just a picture of her sleeping in a hoodie after a trip to the store with mom. If you think I’m getting anywhere near Ashlyn with a camera right now, you’re crazy. We're going to sleep.

Happy Birthday Gramdpa!

Okay, so I know this is almost a week late.  Grandpa Flinn's birthday was this past weekend, but you'd be amazed how difficult it is to teach a five week old child how to bake a cake.  We gave up, so all Grandpa gets is a Little Debbie snack cake which she can't even eat because she has no teeth.  Oh well.  Happy birthday all the same!

... what?

With an infant there are good nights and bad nights. Last night was not a good night; Ashlyn was up until 4:30 in the morning alternating between wanting food and crying so hard she looked like an angry tomato.

We tried everything we could think of to calm her. We took her for a drive, read to her, sang to her, played the guitar for her, banged our heads against the wall for her, pleaded with her, and finally she went to sleep. But you know what? As I sit here at work, bleary eyed despite having drunk enough coffee to fill a medium sized wading pool, all I want is to go home, sit on the couch next to Heather, and hold my daughter.

I’ve laughed with her. I’ve cried with her. I’ve held her on my chest while she slept and felt more content than I can ever remember feeling. But this is the first time I’ve truly felt like a father… to know what it’s like to love someone so strongly even when they push you to exhaustion.


To myself in 13 years, try to remember this feeling when she’s a teenager.

It's never too early to make friends...

Ashlyn has reached the nine pound mark, which means she has moved away from newborn diapers.  Unfortunately, bigger diapers don't necessarily mean fewer diapers; it just means that our diaper budget needs to be increased.  On a side note, if anyone has contacts in the US Senate, can you ask them to add a diaper provision to the health plan?  Yes, I realize that this will bump up the 10 year cost from 1.2 trillion to 2.1 trillion dollars, but it's a small price to pay for baby poo.

Back to the weight..  Ashlyn now weighs as much as our cat.  Kitty, happy that she's no longer the only small nine pound mammal in the house, was happy to be a pillow for a few minutes.

This is a picture of Ashlyn smiling, but it kind of looks like she's about to cry.  I don't have a fancy story to wrap around this, I just like the picture and wanted to share it.

Hungry babies make for tired mothers...

It seems like we're on the tail end of a growth spurt.  Essentially this means that we have spent the last 3-4 days with a baby who wanted to eat almost non-stop.  To use a visual metaphor:

Fortunately, we seem to be past it and hope to get back to a regular schedule.  I use the term "regular" very loosely of course.  Calling her schedule "regular" is like calling Tono Romo's passing "consistent". 

For those non-Cowboys fans out there, let me quote a recent Dallas Morning News article:  "These days, Romo is consistently inconsistent, a huge problem for a team with high expectations that hasn't won a playoff game since 1996."

What I learned in my first month as a father..

Happy one month birthday Ashlyn!

In this installment, I want to share eleven things that I've learned in my first month of being a father. You'll have to forgive me if any of the following sounds like a Hallmark card. It's hard to do this kind of thing without coming across a little on the cheesy side.

1. The mother is everything to the child, the father is just a curiosity. You can't let it bother you though, mom needs a husband more than the kid needs a father. Later, dad is going to be needed too.
2. If she smiles, you can bet she's not smiling at you. That's ok, it's still beautiful to see.
3. You can never hold her too much.
4. She may be a girl, but that doesn't mean you can let your guard down when changing diapers.
5. Your definition of a "lifetime supply" of baby wipes will quickly change.
6. It's amazing how many people will share in the joy of your child, even if you've never met them.
7. I'm not sure if you can truly appreciate your parents, especially your mother, until you you're a parent too.
8. You can look at the same picture on your office desk 50 times a day, and never get tired of it.
9. Sleep is over-rated.
10. If you thought your wife was strong before, wait until you see her as a mother.
11. It's possible for someone to enter your life and immediately change everything about it. She'll take away your time, make you cry in frustration, keep you from sleeping, and make your entire day revolve around her. She'll do it without asking, and she won't give you the slightest thanks for it. Despite this, it's possible to love her in a way that you never thought possible. Every second, of every day.

Thanks again to everyone who's supported us over the past month. It means more to Heather, Ashlyn, and myself than words can say.

Little piggy gains weight...

Today was Ashlyn's one month visit to the pediatrician to get weighed in. She's now at 8 lbs, 12 oz. This means she's gaining weight a little slower than the average baby, but it's definitely not for a lack of eating. At night she wants to eat pretty much non-stop, which Heather is incredibly happy about*.

Also, for grandma wolf and anyone else interested, I figured out how to post comments. If you want to comment on a particularly witty blog post, click on the "# comments" link at the top right of the blog post. When the next screen comes up, put in your comment. In the drop down box, choose Name/URL. This will bring up a little box, just put in your name (or whatever you want to put) in the Name field and click Continue (you don't need to put anything to the URL field). Then click Post Comment to submit it. Please remember that anything you say can, and probably will, be read by Ashlyn at some point in her life.

And finally, tomorrow marks one month since our little Ashlyn came into this world. Since it’s my daughter, I’m going to let myself be a sucker for things like this. Expect a “What I learned in my first month as a father…” post sometime tomorrow evening.

*Emotions don’t always come through that well on a blog, but this is most definitely Sarcasm. See that capital “S” I used? That’s the level of sarcasm I’m talking about here.

Six years and counting...

Grandma and Grandpa Wolf were kind enough to babysit so that Heather and I could get out and enjoy a nice dinner for our six year anniversary.  If you've never been to Kirby's Steakhouse in Southlake, it's worth a visit.  I highly recommend the Pepper steak; in fact I believe that this steak is one of the reasons that God invented cows.

Thanks so much to the grandparents, we had a great evening.  And most of all, thank you Heather for giving me the best six years of my life.

We filmed two episodes of the Bobblehead, so here's episode two.  Enjoy!

Bobblehead - Episode 2

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is not a day that's normally celebrated in the Flinn household. It's not that we don't like candy (try to keep a Reece's Peanut Butter cup away from Heather and see what happens). It has nothing to do with little kids wandering around the neighborhood in their little costumes, or the fact that tonight is like a government bailout plan for struggling dentists. Our anniversary is tomorrow, and typically this time of year is spent 60 feet under water in Cozumel. This year we decided.. well, Ashlyn decided, that we'll spend today trying to rest after a very long night. As retribution for the lack of sleep, we dressed up Ashlyn in two Halloween outfits that were kindly given to us.

We also had a spare Queen Elizabeth II outfit laying around.

Okay, you caught me.  That was photoshopped.  We only had a costume from the first Queen Elizabeth, and I'd hate for Ashlyn to look back on this blog when she's older and be embarrased because she was dressed up as a former queen and not the current one.

New parents are idiots...

As someone with weeks of experience as a parent, I believe I can be trusted as an authoritative source on this.  I say this because new parents get excited at the simplest of things.  A cough, a funny face or a noise, no matter which end it comes from... it all seems like it's the most unbelievable thing that's happened since the Aggies won the big XII chamionship in 1998.

Today we're excited about a bobble head.

Ashlyn is already starting to hold her head up.  This is very important, we're hoping she'll find gainful employment soon and it's hard to interview with your head on the desk.  Hey, don't judge us.  Diapers are expensive.

Watch her in action! Ashlyn Bobble Head

If you work for SEC, stop reading now.

According to "Blogging for Dummies", a good blog is supposed to be useful to it's readers.  So, today's post will offer a little investment advice.  I'm not sure if this is considered insider trading, so please don't pass this along to any friends you might have in the banking industry.

Invest in Procter & Gamble.  If you're not familiar with this company, they own the "Pampers" diaper brand.  Healthy babies go through a lot of diapers, and if that's true we have a VERY healthy baby on our hands.  I honestly believe that Ashlyn is responsible for the graph below.  This is a real screenshot from the New York Stock Exchange website.  Mostly.  I cleaned it up a little to make it more blog friendly.

The red dot represents the day Ashlyn was born.  See a pattern here?

And here's the stock raiser herself.

Back from our break..

Now that we've gone through a week of adjustment after going back to work, I'm going to make an attempt to start posting again.  However, if our upcoming nights are anything like they were this weekend, most of my posts will be at 3:00am.  Don't get too caught up on grammer, spelling, or the post making sense.

Ashlyn is over her birth weight now and to reward her for this accomplishment we gave her a bath.  We received a lot of feedback from the first "after bath" video, so here's another one.  As a bonus, we've included some pictures after the event, along with a random picture that showed her getting excited.  I can't recall what she was getting excited about, but it's a good bet it has something to do with an upcoming dirty diaper.

After Bath Round 2

Blog posts..

To our loyal readers (all 3 of you), we wanted to say a quick thanks for the feedback on our little blog.  I've been trying to get a blog post out there every couple of days.  However, I go back to work tomorrow and until we get re-adjusted, the blog posts will probably slow down a bit.  Hopefully I'll be able to start posting regularly again once we get into a groove with our schedules.

Also, being the geek that I am, I created a desktop background for my computer.  Well, two actually, I don't really like the text on the background but I figured I would put both out there in case anyone was interested.  Simply click on the picture to bring it to full screen, then right click and choose "Set as background".  They are at 1024x768, if you want bigger versions or widescreen versions let me know.

Ashlyn is a real person!

Congrats Ashlyn, you're now a real person to the United States of America.  More importantly, we can now officially declare you as a dependant this year during tax season and rake in on all those tax breaks!  Who knows, if we manipulate our tax returns enough we may be able to cover the expenses for all the diapers we've gone through over the past two weeks.

The effect of TV on our children..

Everyone has seen articles online and in magazines that reflect on how television is impacting our kids.  We skimmed over them in the past, but it seems that we'll need to pay closer attention from here on out.

To the mothers...

As we get closer to wrapping up our second week, I wanted to take a moment to give a big thanks to all the mothers out there.  Had us kids known what you went through when we came into this world, we may not have been so eager to misbehave.

And I'd like to give a personal "shout out" to the new mother in my own house.  She's an inspiration, and I couldn't be more proud of her.

Thank you.

For every diaper change and cleanup.
For every soothing word and calming hand.
For every tear, whether from pain, frustration, or joy.
For every midnight cough that brought you instantly awake.
Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you.
  ~Unknown

The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men - from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms.

  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Because I feel that in the heavens above

The angels, whispering one to another,

Can find among their burning tears of love,
None so devotional as that of "Mother".
  ~Edgar Allan Poe

And away we go...

ood news on the baby front, Ashlyn was weighed on Wednesday and is up to 7 lbs, 6oz.  She still has another 6 oz to go until she reaches her birth weight, but she's gaining weight and that's a good thing.  She tends to fall asleep when she eats, so we were a little concerned about her getting enough food.

In celebration of this event, we annoyed her by taking pictures.  Here are some of them.

More pictures...

Not much has changed since the last post. Ashlyn continues to sleep all the time and only fusses when she gets hungry.  We have an appointment with the pediatrician tomorrow to see if she's gaining weight. As of last week, she was down to 7 lbs, 3 oz. It's normal for infants to lose some of the baby weight after birth, so this isn't anything to be concerned about. We just need to make sure she starts gaining weight from here on out.

Here's some random pictures that we took over the past few days.  With her sleeping so much, we don't have that many opportunities to take pictures while she's awake.