It's a Finnegan!

Most everybody reading this will know that Alisha and I met working for the state of Indiana under the late Governor Frank O'Bannon administration. We married in the waining days of 2000 and, after sowing many wild oats together we set out to be parents about the same time that we were celebrating our seventh wedding anniversary.

The seventh being the wool and/or copper 

anniversary (http://marriage.about.com/od/7thweddinganniversary/p/7anniv.htm) I surprised Alisha with a trip to Peru so she could buy herself an alpaca sweater. Between the anniversary and the actual trip, Alisha found herself 

pregnant. So one could say the three of us took the trip together. 

2008 was largely consumed with baby preparations. Shopping, painting, ultrasounds and

 ultimately the selection of a name. We decided not to find out the gender of our 

child during the ultrasounds and check-ups so there was some added excitement that day. 

We settled on a boy name quickly, largely due to Alisha's belief that she would have no need for a boy name since she was certain she was carrying 

a girl. As the blessed day arrived, we had a myriad of girls names floating around and only Finnegan Dempsey Valentine for a boy. I'll put in another post sometime about our baby naming discussions. Suffice it to say we argued about what the rules would be for naming and that the book Freakonomics played an unexpected role in our decision.

Cut to the birth. Dateline September 3rd, 2008. We had arranged in advanced with the doctor that I would announce the gender to Alisha. After taking an extra moment to make sure I was correct (you don't want to mess that moment up) I looked down at my lovely bride and announced, "It's a Finnegan!" She expressed no disappointment.

I was pretty stoked about it. Finnegan was immediately holding up his head and making himself heard, as all Valentine men do. 

The last four months have been super busy and happy. As we we shopping in preparation for Finn's arrival, we bought our selves some blank books to journal with thoughts to share with Finn. There is stuff you just oughta write down for your kids now, while you think of it. Alisha and I both expect that these books will eventually fill with wisdom for our boy, but as 2008 bids us goodbye and our books are short on wisdom for the boy, we looked to the Internet. So, be forewarned. While I expect a lot of this will blog will be about Finn's upbringing for friends and (mostly) family to keep abreast and see picture, I hope you will indulge us as we write the occasional threads to Finn. Feel free to peek in on those. Anything too intimate, we will save for the journal. 

I suspect Alisha will also share some parenting tips, most likely beginning with her advocacy of clothe diapers, from time to time. Anyway, or as we say in Indiana, anyways, that's about the long and short of why this blog will exist. Feel free to share your thoughts.