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.

Thanks for the dinners..

We just wanted to say thanks to the Wolfe's and to Aunt Sisa (Lisa) for bringing over dinners this week. And thanks to Grandpa Flinn for the breakfast. We haven't had to cook a lunch or dinner since we've been home, and that's been a big help. Trying to keep an infant fed is hard enough; it's nice not to have to feed ourselves!

Also, to the Grandma and Grandpa in Houston, thanks for the flowers. In a house full of baby supplies and tupperware, they are definitely brightening things up.

Ashlyn's first Aggie game..

Thanks to Oklahoma State somehow being ranked in the top 15 this year, our good 'ol Texas A&M Aggies got to play on television today against the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Ashlyn dressed up for the occasion and was excited to watch the game.

When A&M scored, Ashlyn was excited.

A nap was required during halftime.

Now, I'll pause here to mention that those who graduated from Texas A&M around the start of the new millennium are used to cheering our team to defeat.  Ashlyn, who will be a proud member of the Fighting Texas Aggie Class of 2031 (whoop!) has yet to learn this lesson.  She was not happy at A&M's loss.

Click here for the live version - "Ashlyn's first game"

Small update and some random pictures

Ashlyn's pediatrician called today.  Her name is Doctor Olivo, and she's an Aggie (gig 'em!).  She had good news, the glow-worm baby outfit must have worked at the hospital because she is now low risk for Jaundice.  As a celebration of this victory over a very common and relatively harmless condition, here are some random hospital pictures that we gathered from Grandpapa Flinn's camera.

And a picture of Ashlyn wide awake after a bath.

And finally, if you have an infant you might as well torture them by playing dress-up.

Two new videos...

We have two new videos for your viewing pleasure.

After 1st Bath - Ashlyn got her first bath today.  Actually, it's more of a wipe down at her age.  She didn't appreciate it at first, but seemed to get more ok with it as the bath went on.

Making Faces - Babies make faces.  Lots of faces.  Here are some of Ashlyn's.  She has months to go before we can make her smile for the camera.  The only thing that makes her smile right now might not be too appropriate for YouTube.  Hint: It's poo.

Heading home!

Mom, dad, and Ashlyn have left the hospital.  The wheelchair trip downstairs was nice.  Mom sat, Ashlyn slept, and dad followed behind with a video camera looking rather foolish.

The trip home was equally nice. The voice in the dash guided, dad drove, mom sat, and Ashlyn slept.  The first night home was interesting, adjusting to an infant is something that no amount of reading can prepare you for.  That's not to say that it's bad, there are worse things to wake up to than your baby daughter at midnight, and at 2:00am, and at 4:25am, and at 6:00am, and at... *yawn*

What's a "purple nurple"?

Okay, so after several comments about my use of the term "purple nurple" during the video of Ashlyn right after birth, I felt I should help educated everyone on what it meant.  Here is the definition of "purple nurple" according to urbandictionary.com

purple nurple:  1) The act of grabbing and twisting a nipple of another person, one's self, and even occasionaly other mammals

For additional schoolyard pranks, including the aforementioned purple nurple, please refer to the Wiki below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_nurple#Nipple_cripple

The glow worm baby..

So today was an interesting one for little Ashlyn.  She was at risk for Jaundice, so they wrapped her in lights and gave her a Zoro mask.  She didn't like it very much, but it seems to have worked.  Her last numbers looked good, and we're hopeful that she'll be able to go home with us this evening.

She's off the lights now and seems to be a happier baby.  If you're wondering what that band is on her arm, it's a small weight band.  We're trying to toughen her up so she can smack the boys when they ask her out on dates.  The band comes off when she's 22.






Also, check out a video of how quickly things can go wrong when you play with an infant.
From good to bad in 30 seconds..

Two videos

Two videos have been added, check out the "Moving Pictures" section on the right to view them.  I apologize for the picture quality, I'm still learning how to get the videos from the camera to YouTube so that the videos are high quality but small enough for uploading.

Pictures from the hospital

To Granny Jack and Grampa Wolf in Houston, and to the rest of the family, here are some pictures from the hospital.  Many more will follow!

Hospital pictures