Splish splash…

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Sorry about that, Ashlyn wanted to contribute to this post and she was so proud of her typing that I couldn’t make myself delete her contribution. 

Today was Ashlyn’s first time in a swimming pool, and I think the experience was a good one for her.  Most of her time in the water was spent splashing.  And more splashing, followed by some giggling, and then splashing again.

It’s definitely something that we’ll be doing more often as she gets older.  She’s going to need to love the water, because when she’s 13 she’s going scuba diving with mom and dad.

Happy Father's Day!

Bill Cosby once said, “If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right.”

Mr. Cosby was a wise man, and I take comfort that when I choose the wrong 50%, Heather is here to steer me back in the right direction.  But today, I think I must have done something well, because I was presented with a great gift:  Ashlyn's first drawing.  Yep, my daughter is the next Michelangelo.  Just check out this masterpiece, described by renowned art critic Donald Kuspit as "drawn with crayons".

It was the best gift a dad could ask for from his 8 month old daughter.  So here's to you little one, thanks for letting me be a father.  And here's to the rest rest of you dads out there.

Happy Father's Day!

Puffs and Pebbles..

We're continuing our efforts to convince Ashlyn that crawling is a nice way to get around, but so far she still feels that being carried is a more preferable method of transportation.  So while we continue to work on the whole crawling thing, we've also started spending time teaching Ashlyn more ways to do something we already knows she enjoys:  eating. 

Ever since Ashlyn started eating solids, we've seen a growing interest in food and a waning interest in milk.  She's already started to feed herself, mainly tiny little puffs made from sweet potatoes, bananas, and other ingredients that I'm sure are healthy (alpha tocopheryl acetate for example).

If you look closely at the picture above, you may notice that she has a little pony tail sticking up on the top of her head.  It seems that our daycare felt she has enough hair for these kinds of things and thought it would be cute.  Or maybe they just love the Flinstones.

Dress shopping made easy…

With Lisa’s wedding approaching, we’re starting to think about what Ashlyn will wear.  This will be her first wedding, and for my sister no less, so we want to make sure she’s dressed for the occasion.  Luckily, Heather’s parents brought back some gifts from their trip to China, and so our shopping is done!

As soon as we put it on her, we knew we found the winner.  As everybody knows, nothing says “wedding” like a red kimono.  Now that we took care of the dress, we had to think about a hat.  Should she wear a hat?  And if so, what kind?  Once again the Wolfe’s delivered, with a hat straight from the Great Wall of China.

Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe, that’s a weight of our shoulders.

I have a toof!

There's a lot going on lately in Ashlyn's little world.  She's really liking solid foods, and so far the only thing that she doesn't like is prunes.  We still have some work to do though, since half the food ends up in places other than her stomach.

She's also starting to hold her bottle up on her own.  In fact, she likes to grab the bottle out of your hands.  This isn't bad, but the bottle tends to plop out of her mouth and poke her in the eye.  She doesn't seem to mind, and drinks happily away once you guide it back to her mouth.

And finally, we have begun the journey that all parents dread:  teething. Ashlyn is growing her first tooth, and we were finally able to get a picture of it.  It's a little hard to see, but that white line under Heather's finger is her first little baby tooth.  Up to now, it hasn't bothered her too much, but she's getting a little fussy as the tooth makes it's way out.



I asked Heather how long teething lasts, and do you know what she said?  Probably not since you weren't there, so I'll tell you.  YEARS.  I looked it up, and as usual she was right.  At this time I'd like to pause for a moment of silence to remember Kaldi, an Ethiopian man who lived in the 9th century......  Thank you.  If you don't know who Kaldi is, he was a shephard who first discovered the effects of coffee beans.

To Aggieland!

This post is a little late.  It's been a long week at work and I've been getting home just in time to put Ashlyn to bed, which means I'm a little behind.  And by the way, it's a little upsetting to walk into the house just as Ashlyn is getting out of her pre-bed bath.  I don't much care for seeing her for only 15 minutes a day.  Luckily, next week should not be so bad.

Last weekend was Ashlyn's first road trip, and I think it's fitting that her first trip was to good 'ol College Station, home of the Fighting Texas Aggies and the 12th man.  Gig 'em!  She did pretty well too.. she slept most of the time, and only needed to stop and eat once on the way and once on the way back.  If you drove by Bucky's on 45 Saturday morning, you may have seen us stuffed into the back of the car feeding a baby while people went in and out buying beef jerky.

The destination in Aggieland was a yearly crawfish boil served up by a good friend of ours.  Each year he brings the family (our close group of friends from that time in college) together for some fun, drinks, and 500 pounds of tasty crawfish.  Notice that this picture contains crawfish, beer, and sippy cups.  You can tell how the dynamics of our group has changed over the past few years.

Sorry Ashlyn, crawfish doesn't fall into the "stage 1 food" category.  She ate sweet potatoes instead.

She was passed around by our friends, who were excited to see her.  We're very fortunate to have the friends we do, even this guy.  She's not too sure what to think, he was probably telling stories that shouldn't be heard by a 7 month old and all she wanted to do was chat about the joys of sweet potatoes.  JW, if you read this, you know we love ya.

Ali, thanks again for an awesome time.  Your generosity always amazes me.  And I promise that the sink was thouroughly cleaned.  Sweet potatoes are messy.

From Cincinnati, with love...

So it seems that little Ashlyn has fully recovered from her bout with her daycare cold.  It wasn't pretty, and for a little bit there she went back into wanting night feedings, so both mom and dad had a few dreary eyed weeks.  I was Cincinnati on Monday, and while I was enjoying this..

... Heather was up all night trying to break Ashlyn of her new interest in midnight feedings.  It worked apparently, as Ashlyn went through Tuesday night without a hitch.  So we are once again a happy family, and even though I was only gone for a day, it's great to be back home. And if I happen to suffer a heart attack in the coming days from all that cheese, tell Ashlyn that daddy loves her.

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother’s Day… the day we celebrate the fact that there are only 42 days until Father’s Day!

Ha ha! Just kidding of course. Today is the day that we celebrate Moms, those amazing people who brought us into this world through tears, pain, and if fortunate enough, an epidural. They fed us, changed us, taught us, and basically helped make us who we are today.

This year, I celebrate Mother’s day in a different light, because I’ve been able to watch one first hand with my own daughter. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, I’ve never felt more pride for my wife as I have when I’ve seen her with Ashlyn.

To Heather, thanks for being you. I’m deeply grateful to have you in my life.

To my own Mother, thanks for 32 years of love and support, I appreciate you so much.

And to the rest of the mom’s, especially the one in China (you know who you are), thanks for bringing all of us into this world (especially Heather) and sacrificing so much for us. We may not always show it, but we we’re thankful on other days too, not just Mother’s Day.

Not all skies have rainbows..

Last week started a new and exciting chapter in Ashlyn’s life: daycare. I think there are some good things about daycare. It teaches a level of independence since she won’t get attention 100% of the day. It helps build social skills, and kids in daycare tend to learn things faster when they see other kids doing them (crawling, for instance). It also, and some may argue that this is not a good thing, exposes them to germs now so that they won’t get sick as much when they start school.

The first day, to put it bluntly, sucked. I did NOT like leaving her there, and the image I kept having in my head was of her crying as we looked at her in her little crib. We moved out of sight and she calmed down and looked around, but I still couldn’t shake that image. Luckily, when I came by to pick her up she was happily playing away. So it wasn’t so bad, and each day gets a little easier. Unfortunately, she got sick the first week as almost every child does, and we got to experience her first ear infection. She’s on the mend from it, and we hope she’ll be back in full form by this weekend.

Despite all the change, Ashlyn has handled things pretty well. And because this blog will stay around much longer than my poor memory, I’m going to end this entry with some happy pictures that we took over the last few weeks.  These are the images I want to hold to.

A glance back, a look ahead...

I want to apologize in advance on this post.. something has been bugging me, and I was debating whether or not to write about it. In the end I decided that I'd post about it, at the encouragement of a few good friends of the family.

Sleeping through the night is a big milestone for babies, but an even bigger milestone for the parents since it finally allows them to shake that bleary eyed look that veteran parents get so much amusement out of.

For the past month, we worked on getting Ashlyn to sleep through the night by cutting back the amount of feedings, the amount of milk at each feeding, and finally by cutting out the last bottle all together. She fussed for a bit that last night when we didn't get up to feed her, but since then has been sleeping through the night with little or no fuss. And I have mixed feelings about this. Since I'm a light sleeper, and since Heather was giving so much to Ashlyn already, I took care of the night feedings. I'd get out of bed, warm up a bottle, feed her, and then put her on my shoulder where she instantly fell asleep while I patted her back.

Those moments, those few minutes where she slept on my shulder at three in the morning, were pretty special to me.  Rarely would Ashlyn sleep on anyone but Heather during the day, Mom must have the magic touch. And this is the rub, the thing that bugs me every time I think about it. I never knew when the last 3am feeding would be. Had I known, I probably would have stayed awake with her for awhile. And yes, I realize there will be many more last times: the last coo, the last time to watch her laugh when Heather hops up the stairs, the last time she'll let us pick her up, and so many more. I just wish I could know when the last time would be, so I could stay with it a bit longer. Oh well, I suppose I need to look forward to the firsts instead: the first step, the first word, the first day at school, the first date...

Okay, so I don't need to look forward to ALL the firsts.

To lighten the mood a bit, here's a few videos of recent developments.  One is Ashlyn laughing as hard as we've ever seen her laugh, the other is the first time we've been able to catch her babbles on camera.  I apologize for the background noise, the dryer was on but it's hard to capture her on camera because she stops babbling the second she sees someone.

Ashlyn's Big Laugh - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zKigrFM-l0
Ashlyn Babbles - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryRbpQ2l5U0

A quick update and birthday wish...

Ashlyn’s 6 month doctor visit was on last Friday, and we’re happy to report that Ashlyn is doing great. She’s now 26.5 inches wide, and almost 16 pounds. So she’s now the weight of a large bowling ball, just not quite so round. We also filled out a development chart, with questions like “Can she roll over from front to back or back to front?” to see how she’s doing. We filled out the front, and then filled out the back. The only thing she couldn’t do on the chart was push herself all the way up on her hands while turned on her stomach (like a push up). Her Doctor came in, looked at the front of the chart, and said “good”. The she glanced at the back and said “Oh, you filled out the nine month chart too.” Good job kiddo.

And on another note, today is Aunt Lisa’s birthday. Happy birthday Aunt Lisa!  Here’s a picture of Ashlyn from last night, where she was wishing Lisa a happy birthday while learning to use a sippy cup.

Bunnies like carrots..

Yes, bunnies like carrots, as the traditional images of Peter Rabbit and Bugs Bunny portray.  Today, I'm pleased to report that Ashlyn if following in their footsteps and has found a love for carrots.  After happily munching down on pears and bananas, her interest in avocados faded off and we weren't sure how she would take to vegetables.



As you can see, I think she's ok with them.  Next up is squash, or more likely sweet potatoes as I wouldn't wish squash on anyone, especially my own daughter.

Happy Birthday Ashlyn!

Today Ashlyn turned .5, and it’s been an interesting ride over the past six months. In that short amount of time, we’ve seen Ashlyn do a lot of things. We’ve seen her smile, laugh, coo, sit, eat, spit up, roll over, fill countless diapers, stand, and begin babbling. We’ve seen her play, cry, sleep, hold things, and stare in wonder at the world around her. She’s deprived us of sleep, filled us with joy, and changed our lives. In short, we wouldn’t change a thing. Happy 6 months Ashlyn, mommy and daddy love you.

Here's a couple of her more recent achievements, stay tuned for more as we work towards her "real" birthday in October.

Happy Easter!

Today is Easter, a day filled with hunts for eggs filled with chocolate, jelly beans, and the occasional Starbucks gift card.  Since Ashlyn is only 6 months, well one day short of six months anyway, candy will not be part of our holiday this year.  However, embarrassing pictures are definitely in:

Infants don't pose for pictures well though, so you have to be prepared for a few "oops" moments.  I don't think the poor bunny knew what he was signing up for.

Yep, the bunny is airborne.  That small incident aside (the bunny suffered no lasting injuries), we got some great pictures of her.  Have a Happy Easter everyone.

To our brothers overseas...

Now I have two brothers overseas, with Scott going who knows where to do who knows what and John in Korea doing whatever helicopter pilots do in Korea.  To both of you, and to the rest of the men and women serving all over the world, thanks.  And since this blog is about Ashlyn, we asked her what she thought about her brothers.  She made a "gaaaaahhhh" noise and then spit out a piece of avacado we fed her earlier.  I have no clue what that means, but she seemed pretty to happy to put on an Army shirt so I'm pretty sure it was positive.

Be safe guys!

And we roll into a new stage...

Another milestone has been reached by our little Ashlyn, she's now an expert at rolling over.  We've been trying to teach her to roll over for awhile, but I think we were going about it the wrong way.  We changed up our tactics a bit, and now she's rolling over like a champ.  Check out the video below, taken today (the first day she rolled over without assistance).

Ashlyn rolls over!

So what's next in the adventure that is Ashlyn's life?  Only time will tell...

Top o' the morning to you!

There are many things that we like in the Flinn household. One of them is our dear old Texas Aggies.

A second thing we enjoy, which we recently discovered, is sitting. If you recall from a few weeks back, Ashlyn was learning the froggy sit.

Over the past few days, she’s learned how to do the real thing. Congrats little one, mommy and daddy are proud.

And today, we like Ireland. Heather, being of Scottish decent, may disagree with me on this one. However, she was the one that found Ahslyn’s name. And according to thinkbabynames.com, the meaning of Ashlyn is as follows:

The girl's name Ashlyn \a-shl-yn, ash-lyn\, is a variant of Ashlynn (Irish, Gaelic), and the meaning of Ashlyn is "dream".

So Happy Saint Patrick’s day everyone, may the luck o’ the Irish be with you!

"When Irish eyes are smiling,

Tis like a morn in spring.

With a lilt of Irish laughter

You can hear the angels sing

When Irish hearts are happy

All the world is bright and gay

When Irish eyes are smiling

Sure, they steal your heart away."

  -Irish song

Feed me!

So what’s new in Ashlyn’s world? Food. She’s eating food now.. kind of. We’ve been able to get her to eat three food items: banana, avocado, and pear. At this point more of the food ends up on her bib instead of on her stomach, but she’s learning to eat and that’s a step forward. Her favorite so far is the pear. About half of the banana makes it down, about a fourth of the avocado, but most of the pear is making it in. A-pear-antly, she likes the sweeter fruits. See what I did there? That noise you just heard was Heather groaning, but I think she’s secretly hoping that Ashlyn will inherit my incredible sense of humor.

We’ll continue to try new foods as she gets older, but of course we have to be pretty selective at this point due to her age.

 
 
 
 

Also, last night was the first night that Ashlyn slept all the way through the night.  There was a slight panic moment when I first woke up, because for the past five months we've been waking up multiple times a night.  The past week or so has been spent cutting back on food at night, hoping that Ashlyn will stop wanting to wake up.  It seems to be working.  And here's a random picture of Ashlyn excitedly petting Nala.  She likes kitties.
 

We're back!

That’s right, we’re finally done with the old house, although it took us much longer than expected to get ready. Apparently trying to move into a new house, move out of an old house, and take care of a 4 month old baby is a lot do at one time. Who knew? And can you believe it, Ashlyn is already over the four month mark, getting closer to five months, and a lot has happened since the last blog post. I’ll make an attempt to get you caught up, but I’m sure I’ll miss a few things. That’s ok though, it will give me more material for future posts, which I hope to be more regular now.

While we wait for the old house to sell, Ashlyn is sleeping in the Pack n’ Play and storing her clothes on IKEA office shelves.

During our time moving and cleaning, Ashlyn learned a few new things. First, she’s starting to sit. She needs a little help at first, but she’s getting the “frog” position down pretty well. Ribbit!

Attempting to skip past sitting and go straight to standing, she’s actually fairly adept at standing on both her legs with minimal support. Take your hands away though and she’ll topple over, so she has some work to do on the balancing part.

Standing is a bit more difficult when your butt is stuck in the Bumbo though.

And finally, Uncle John and Aunt Kristen were back in town from Korea for a few days. Kristen still found time to read a book to her niece. She may not understand the book, but Ashlyn seems to be enjoying herself. Have a safe trip back to Korea!

And that’s it for now. I was hoping to have a video ready of Ashlyn taking her first bites of banana, but I broke my computer and haven’t had time to fix it. Hopefully next time, which I promise won’t be three weeks!

Is she laughing with you, or at you? Definitely at you.

I have mixed emotions about this particular post. Yesterday, for the first time, Ashlyn laughed. She’s had a few noises in the past that sounded like a laugh, but yesterday she did it deliberately and repeatedly. Hearing your daughter laugh for the first time is a great thing, and I can’t deny my joy in witnessing it. It was the cause of the laughter that has me a little concerned. It wasn’t a goofy face. It wasn’t a song or dance. It wasn’t even a bright and shiny toy. The laughter came from Ashlyn kicking me in the face.

Hoping that it was a fluke, we tried it again today with the same result. Luckily, this time we were able to get it on camera as proof.

Ashlyn starts to laugh

Like I said, I have mixed emotions on this. I was kicked repeatedly in the face by a tiny human being wearing a one piece pajama outfit with little fuzzy ears on the feet.

Did it hurt? Yes (well, not really, but my incredible acting skills made it look like it, right?).
Did I have a headache afterwards from the whiplash? Yep.
Was it worth it? Without a doubt.