Chinny, Chin and Chin: May 2006

Showered with Flowers

In recent days, a steady parade of delivery trucks have stopped by our house to drop off some beautiful bouquets welcoming Brady to the world. He's been so excited that he decided to take his first full bath this evening and then do a photo shoot with them. After it was all over, a spokesperson for Brady read the following statement:

"I'd like to thank all my fans for the gifts and pretty flowers that everybody has sent me. I've asked my parents to take good care of the flowers so I can look at them every day. In return for this service, I've granted them the right to eat the cookies that came in one of the flower baskets. They look yummie, but my mom says I can only have milk right now. Thank you again to everyone's love and attention. I will forever remember and love you all.

The Pats rule!
Brady."

Squeaky clean and fluffy like a baby chicken after his first bath Mommy loves flowers too

Happy Memorial Day

It was an exciting first holiday weekend for Brady. On Saturday he went for a walk to the local elementary school with 'the Chans' (Dave, Rosanna and the two kids). On Sunday, he went to his first barbeque and got to meet a bunch more of his future playmates and buddies. Then, on Memorial Day he went shopping at the mall and Target, and his grandparents took him for another walk around the neighborhood. To top off the night, he tried out his swing that his Uncle Gary and Aunt Cara gave him!

Irene and Annie introducing Brady to his playmate Joey. Despite being only 6 months older, Joey has a decisive size advantage over Brady, weighing 12 pounds more (and bench prressing twice that at his last doctor's check up)

That night, Brady went home and prayed that Joey would not accidentally squash him on a playdate.

Brady topped the weekend off by maxin' and relaxin' in his pack 'n play and swing

Morning time, rise and shine!

zzzzzzz

wow you have a big head!

Time for breakfast!

Dateline NBC investigates

Bra·dy - A celtic/gaelic name meaning "broad shouldered."

However, Brady Chin neither hails from Gaelic culture, nor is especially broad shouldered. So how exactly did Brady Chin get his name?

I am Stone Phillips, and welcome to this special Dateline NBC investigation into the decision making process and factors that went into the naming of young Brady Chin. Such an elaborate process that he was nameless for the first 3 days of his life. But how could this be? Was it possible that after nine months of preparation, no name could be decided? Were there too many choices or not enough? What went on behind closed doors regarding the naming of Baby Chin?

Speculation has been rampant about the origin of Brady's name. Most believe that he is named after famed New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady. Dennis Desmarais, a fellow fantasy football competitor and dedicated Patriots fan said "I guess I can't give Chinny any flak now that I know he's selected the ultimate boys name." Chris Quaranta, an old college buddy of Jason's said "does the first name really reference what I think it does???" Brendan Chin, Jason's Godson and nephew said "I knew he'd name him after a football player." Brett Casteel, a former co-worker and avid Cleveland Browns fan, responded "F'n Pats fans shouldn't be allowed to name children." Cursing has become a way of life for Browns fans unfortunately these days. However, those days may be coming to an end now that they have Romeo Crennel and Willie McGinnest, both who achieved success and fame as a part of the New England Patriots. We all pray for them as Cleveland fans have only their weather to look forward to besides a seasonal fall chase to get to mediocraty in the NFL regular season. And we all know what Cleveland weather is like.... However, I digress. So far reaching is this theory that even Jason's boss at work, who is from Irish descent, had an initial response of "as in Tom Brady?"

But are all the assumptions correct? Is there evidence not yet uncovered? Is it possible that they all could be wrong? Not only about who Brady is named after, but who made the final decision in hospital room 677 that fateful morning the birth certificate office was called.

Please join us next week for a two part investigation into "The Naming of Brady Chin."

Is this the outfit he was literally born to wear?

Is this the guy behind the name?

Or is this fake sleeper putting one over on everyone?

The next Tiger?

Did you know there are no golf programs offered for newborns? You have to be a toddler for all of them! Tiger shot a 48 for nine holes at age 3! For those who don't know much about golf, just today I shot a 41 for nine holes, and I would be considered a pretty decent golfer. Yes, you read that right, JUST TODAY! Woo hooooo! Tell me I don't have a great wife! Good thing she's a golf nut like me, otherwise I probably wouldn't have been able to go. Anyway, since there are no formal programs for Brady's age group, we took things into our own hands and took him for his first visit to the golf range. He wasn't allowed to go near anything, but he did get pushed in the stroller up and down the walkway to see all the golfers. Eventually though he pooped and Irene had to take him into the car for a changing. She was acting as his caddy for the day.

Chillin' out on the car after the poop incident

The last day in Hotel Beth Israel

"Who you lookin' at?"

Can we just say "Beth Israel rocks!" We ended having to stay a couple extra days in the hospital- 5 in total - so that Irene could recover a bit more before heading home. Ordinarily, most people would be fighting to get out. Not us though. We were trying to stay in! Where else can you have room service delivered, cable TV, and nurses available outside your door 24x7 to check on you or your newborn? By Sunday, they said we had to go though, so we sadly packed up and moved out. Here are some pictures from our last day in the hospital.

The morning provided some foreshadowing of things to come..."I think he just pee'd on me"

Ta Daaaaah! The proud parents take one last picture before going home

Finally!

Hi everyone, just a quick blog posting while I'm at home. I have to head back to the hospital this evening again, so I don't have much time. However, I know many people are watching this site looking for news on our baby boy's arrival. The long story short is that the wait for his arrival was long and boring. We were admitted at 5am on Wednesday, 5/17, and proceeded to sit there for 10 hours. Well, I sat, Irene layed in bed. Basically, nothing happened. Of course, we both stayed very attentive and awake during this whole time, being first time parents and all. Then, we finally wore out and fell asleep. At 3:42 I was woken up to 3 doctors/nurses in the room looking at the baby heart monitor. After staring at this machine as my only source of entertainment for 10 hours, I basically had the gist of what it was and how to read it (almost how to use it!). It didn't take me long to figure out his heart beat was below the threshold by a lot and had been there for a few minutes. Our doctor told me that they would have to take Irene to the OR to hook her up to a better machine to check the heartbeat out. Ten seconds later, 10 people rush into the room and roll Irene out. Another person throws a smock on me and says "let's go, we don't want you to miss this." I followed her into the OR and couldn't even see Irene because there were so many people in there. Then they told me to sit in a chair, so I did. I thought, "miss what? I can't see anything from this seat." Two minutes later I hear crying and the nurses are running a newborn baby across the room to a station near me. Ahh, that's what they wanted me to see... Anyway, at 3:52pm ET on May 17, 2006, the newest card carrying member of Patriot Nation (and my new best friend) was born.

Brady Matthew Chin

My new best friend

I don't have to wipe the butt of my other best friends....

One of the first things the nurse in the OR said to me was "look at those fingernails!"

And Irene took the opportunity to give him his first manicure

Arachnophobia

For the past three weeks or so, every since Spring kicked into gear, we've had a spider problem. Not really surprising that we have spiders lurking and living somewhere, considering our house has been basically open to the environment for six months of the past year. Anyway, it was bad enough that it became a morning ritual for me. Wake up, wash up, get dressed, walk through all the upstairs rooms looking for spiders on the ceiling, then do the same on the first floor. If I found any, I'd get my tools (step stool, 10 foot pine board, and some tissue) and go to work. I only needed the board for when they hid in the top most corner of my staircase ceiling. How often were they up there? So much that I actually have a technique now where I can reach the board to the ceiling, extending over the staircase opening, tap them in a way that causes them to jump on to the board where I can bring them safely back to the landing and SQUASH them. Is this really a technique, you ask? Well, when I first started they would repel off the ceiling down the staircase and it would be a mad dash to chase them. I caught them in those cases too, but being the visionary that I am, I developed the Chin Board Hop technique. That's what I was planning on marketing it as - kind of like the Fosbury Flop.

Last week though we made a random trip the Christmas Tree Shop and found spider repellers from Black & Decker. $7 for a pack of four. We decided to give it a shot. Results are a bit inconclusive because of the recent deluge that we've been having, however since we installed them, NO SPIDERS any morning for four days in a row. This is unheard of in the recent month, so I have to believe these things work. The Chin Board Hop will have to wait its turn now that this exists. But if spider catching ever becomes and Olympic sport, look for the Chin Board Hop to compete for the Gold!