New Arrival

I'm happy to announce that, a few weeks back, my beautiful, first-born baby daughter joined the family! I have fallen for her cute little face like you wouldn't believe. She is, without doubt, the cutest little baby in baby town. Seriously...there were quantitative tests.

She did have a particularly rough start in life, though, which is why you didn't hear much from me for a while. But thanks to the excellent, excellent care from the UCLA Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, she was discharged a few days ago as healthy, chubby-cheeked little swaddle of adorableness. My wife and I owe a great debt to that amazing hospital staff, and I'd like to praise them for the care (and love!) they showed my daughter. It's very hard for first-time parents to get discharged from the hospital without being able to take their little one home with them – but UCLA made the process as gentle as possible. And made sure she got the best care goin'. Thank you, UCLA!

Both mom and baby are home, now, and healthy, and we're putting the rough patch behind us. In fact, now that we're home, I find that my quotient for "new baby-songs created" averages about 15 songs per hour. I'm a lullaby-writing machine, lately. We're also finding that 89% of our waking hours are spent smiling down at her sleeping face...which is an activity we find more sustaining than eating actual food. Our sleep levels have been just fine... but only if you consider that my wife and I are creative workaholics that usually sleep 6 hours a night on a good day, anyway.

Here are a few cute pics just to let you see her quantitatively measurable cuteness:

For those wondering, my daughter's entrance into the world almost assures that there will be a "Flaco-and-Arthur" children's book in the not-too-distant future. I know a lot of you have been asking me to write one...and now I have every reason in the world to do it.

Her presence also means I'm going to treat myself to my first cartooning vacation in 8+ years. Between April 20-27th, I've invited some of my favorite cartoonists to take the reins on Sheldon, and create their own original content for the strip, while I take a few days off to hug my sweetie-magoo. These will be the first "guest" strips Sheldon's ever had, and I think you're going to enjoy 'em. They all look awesome.

So that's the big news! The cutest little baby in baby town has joined the ranks of the fam! And she's already an overachiever: She's putting the finishing touches on her "Winston Churchill" impersonation...and it's coming along pretty great. Every time she frowns, I can hear one of his WWII speeches. That's pretty awesome acting, right there. :)

(Sidenote: I can already imagine a few of you will be e-mailing me to ask what her name is, so allow me to give you my take on that. Both my wife and I have chosen pretty public lives, and in general we're happy to share a great deal with the world. But I want to give my children the chance to choose the path best suited to them...whether it be a public life or a private life or somewhere in the middle. So, while I have no qualms about posting a few cute, early baby pics — as she'll look markedly different in a few months, anyway – I want to give her the gift of anonymity to become her own person in life. I know you'll understand the value of that.)